In advance of the podcast, we had formulated the direction of our conversation thus. Q: Maria Montessori proposes, in The Secret of Childhood, that the ‘creative urge of life’ is, essentially, love. She has a peculiar phrase for this particular articulation: she names it an “intelligence of love”. Later, in The Absorbent Mind, Montessori posits that, “The child is a well-spring of love. Whenever we touch the child, we touch love. It is a difficult love to define; we all feel it, but no one can describe its roots or evaluate the immense consequences which flow from it, or gather up its potency…”
For us, it must be said, there is a logic of life that exists beyond the logic of yes and no and that is the logic of love. We see, in your work, this logic continually being put to work. For instance: your adamant love for life, at all costs. How would you make our classrooms, classrooms of love blossoming? If nothing else, this work must be precise and rigorously determined, but how do you construct a rigorous love? How intelligent, or sentient must it be? Can the architectural surround touch the love of the children?
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Baan Dek
An incredible Montessori foundation for children and an inspirational resource for teachers and parents.