Elementary I Teacher Education
(ages 6 – 9)
Education For The Second Plane Of Development
Dr. Montessori spoke of 4 Planes of Development: birth to 6; 6 to 12; 12 to 18; and 18 to 24. Education for the Second Plane is not a direct continuation of the Montessori Program offered for the First Plane; new sensitive periods and changing psychological characteristics must be considered in formulating a meaningful and successful educational program for the 6 to 12 year old.
Two sensitive periods during the Second Plane were discussed by Dr. Montessori: imagination and abstraction. Cosmic Education, the unifying study of this Plane, utilizes both imagination and abstraction. The child is presented with the intimate relationship which exists among all forms of life. This study sparks the child’s interest , engages the imagination, and helps with the understanding of the cosmic task of each element and of each force in the cosmos including our human society.
During the First Plane the child incarnates the immediate environment; during the Second Plane, the child uses his creative imagination based on reality in order to psychologically conquer the world.
At six years of age all aspects of culture are received enthusiastically; later these seeds will expand and grow. The child is presented with vast fields of knowledge which he/she is eager to explore. The Montessori Elementary teacher works in the service of the complete human being who is able to exercise in freedom a self-disciplined will and judgment, and who will be able to function effectively in these expansive times.
Classified Nomenclature for botany, zoology, geography and geometry; impressionistic charts in botany and geography; language extensions; concrete math and geometry; classification charts of the plant and animal kingdoms; and time lines of life and of humans – all are a part of the Montessori lessons used during the Second Plane to strike the imagination and to provide beautiful and clear presentations. The use of all of these materials is presented during the academic component.