The Great Lessons

"It should be realised that genuine interest cannot be forced. Therefore all methods of education based on centres of interest which have been chosen by adults are wrong.

Moreover these centres of interest are superfluous, for the child is interested in everything. A global vision of cosmic events fascinates children and their interest will soon remain fixed on one particular part as a starting point for more intensive studies.

As all parts are related, they will all be scrutinized sooner or later. Thus, the way leads from the whole, via the parts, back to the whole. The children will develop a kind of philosophy which teaches them the unity of the universe.

This is the very thing to organize their intelligence and to give them a better insight into their own place and task in the world, at the same time presenting a chance for the development of their creative energy."
Montessori speaking at the University of Amsterdam, 1950

Montessori designed the Great Lessons as a means to further nurture in the children a sense of global vision.

She introduced five major stories and numerous minor ones which represented certain particular truths connected to the universe as we know it.

The first story is usually called 'The Creation of the Universe and Coming into Being of the Earth', but was originally called 'God with no Hands'. It starts with the teacher using words such as "In the beginning it was very, very dark, darker than you could ever imagine and it was very, very cold, colder than you have ever been. It seemed as if there was nothing at all there in this cold, dark space, but eventually something was there..."

Montessori designed four charts and six simple experiments to help the children to understand the story as it went on to talk of minerals and chemicals, fire, water and air, the creation of volcanoes and mountains and the ultimate cooling of the atmosphere.

The Second Lesson is called 'The Coming of Life' and tells of the story of life on earth with the help of a Time Line tracing the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic periods. The children are helped to understand that all sorts of different forms of life existed before the advent of human beings.

The Third Lesson is called 'The Coming of Human Beings' and talks of what was special about humans and how different life was like at each stage of history.

The Fourth Lesson is called 'The Story of Communication with Signs' and starts by talking about the Egyptians who used symbols in order to communicate, moving on to different types of alphabets and writing materials.

The Fifth Lesson is called 'The Story of Numbers' and introduce the children to the idea that humans need special kinds of languages in order to communicate and record their counting and measuring.

The Lessons were designed to introduce the children to universal moral concepts such as appreciation and respect, co-operation, empathy, justice and a love and understanding of humanity in all its aspects.

These lessons were seen as establishing an important framework for the children's subsequent explorations. They were therefore introduced early on in elementary teaching and were regularly referred to.

When presenting a lesson the teacher would summarize briefly the ones that had gone before. She would encourage the children to think deeply about what the story was saying and to relate it to their own experiences.

Each lesson was introduced in a way that would stimulate the children's interest and imagination.