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To do this, we must understand ourselves in context. "Cosmic Education is intended to help each of us search for our cosmic task as a species and as individuals. Ultimately, it introduces the possibility that humanity might have a "cosmic" task, a meaningful purpose beyond consumption and procreation. The "stuff" the students learn is almost incidental to the enrichment of the context they gain for understanding themselves and their place in the universe."Ĭosmic Education launches youngsters into society practiced in thinking about who they are, as individuals, as part of the human species, as citizens of a nation, of members of a planetary ecology, and so on. "The purpose is not to create walking encyclopedias of knowledge. We recommend this very approachable resource as a valuable addition to any parent education library.Ī: Cosmic Education is not itself "the curriculum" or a set of facts but rather a decompartmentalized way of presenting stories that open up lines of inquiry which roughly correspond to traditional elementary academic subjects. To give parents a glimpse of the important role Cosmic Education plays in the Montessori Elementary classroom, we've answered key parent questions with brief explanations and related quotations from Children of the Universe: Cosmic Education in the Montessori Elementary Classroom. In their book, Children of the Universe, Montessorians Michael and D'Neil Duffy sum up the purpose of Cosmic Education neatly: "This six-year Montessori experience gives elementary students opportunities to appreciate their roots in the universe, to sense their place in its context, and to embrace the role this defines for their lives." "Learning" the academic subject matter, however, is secondary to a loftier educational goal. In a uniquely Montessori way, the experience offers children context for, and reveals connections between, such subjects as astronomy, chemistry, geography, history, and biology, to name a few. Montessori recognized that all of science and history tell portions of the same story: the continuing creation of the universe. Infinitely or inconceivably extended vast.ĭr. Of or relating to the universe, especially as distinct from Earth.