These are times that are truly unprecedented during my lifetime.  My entire career has revolved around the beginning and ending of a school year and all the months in-between.    It is a life full of memories of the faces and personalities of so many children!  Children of all different races, religions, cultures and social-economic environments.  I have loved and been blessed by each one. 

This year has been a difficult one for the children and adults of our world.  The world has been struck with a pandemic that shut down our schools and our communities.  It is hard for everyone but most of all it has been difficult for our children.  At first it was a blessing to be home with parents and go back to a slower pace of life but as a new school year approaches we realize that children need to be with their friends, they are by nature very social beings from the time they enter the world.  So the decision to open up schools is a very “hot” topic at this time.  We want most of all for everyone to be safe and still meet the needs of the children.  Some schools have opted for virtual learning, others will be open with safety precautions in place, some parents have decided to home school.  Each family must choose what is best and works for their family. 

Whatever choice school administrators, teachers or parents make, it should be done from the prospective of LOVE for the child.  We can learn so much from children!  They LOVE life, waking up each morning and going through their day.  As adults, we must learn from the children.  We need to embrace life and its challenges with a perspective of love for each other, tolerance and sheer joy to be alive and in the moment. 

If you have not read the last chapter of Montessori’s book, The Absorbent Mind, I would challenge you to do so.  This is some of that chapter’s content:

“Whatever be our political or religious affiliations, we are all near to the child and we all love him.  It is from this love that comes the child’s power for unity.  Adults have strong, and often fierce, convictions which separate them into groups, and when they fall to discussing these they easily come to blows.

If we want to produce harmony in the world, it is clear that we ought to think more about this.  The child is the only point on which there converges from everyone a feeling of gentleness and love.  People’s souls soften and sweeten when one speaks of children; the whole of mankind shares in the deep emotions which they awaken.  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 union between men.

This love, which is the gift of every tiny child who is brought into our midst—if this were realized in it potentialities, if the fullness of its values were developed, our achievements already so vast, would become immeasurable.  Grownups and children must join their forces.  In order to become great, the grownup must become humble and learn from the child.  Love is more than the electricity which lighten our darkness, more than the etheric waves that transmit our voices across space, more than any of the energies that man has discovered and learned to use.  Of all things love is the most potent.  But this energy of love is given us so that each shall have it in himself.  Although the amount given to man is limited and diffused, it is the greatest of all the forces at his disposal.”  Maria Montessori. Absorbent Mind, Chapter 28.

My challenge to each of you, is to be more childlike in your dealings with others.  Love each other and our world, be grateful for each day.  Love and appreciate the school administrators, teachers and every parent and child during this most unusual starting of the school year.  Yes, we may all have different views as to how to our children should be educated during this pandemic but above all, we need to show love and tolerance for each other.  Remember, the children in our lives model what they see from the adults in their environment.  So, turn off the television and computer, put your phone away in a drawer and enjoy the love of your child!  Let’s learn from them, the joy that love can bring.  Together, the children and adults need to come together and actively love each other in our words, thoughts and simple acts we can do for each other.  Live a life of love, just as a small child.  The only thing that can change the world is love for one another.  Let’s change this world the children of today will be inheriting, fill it with love rather than bitterness and hatred. It starts with each one of us in our own little world.  Before your day begins, ask yourself, how can I show love today?