GOING OUT

From birth to the age of six the Child has been prepared for life through her interactions with family and the immediate society in which she finds herself. In this plane, focused intently on exactly that local society, the Child has begun to construct herself as an individual. Through observations this young child becomes aware of how the family functions—its customs, ideals, language and habits. Then, with the development of movement, every step she takes forward brings the child to see more, touch more and know more. Language follows shortly thereafter, and with it her thoughts are freed to enable her to express her need to “help her help herself.” Every step the Child takes is another step toward independent adulthood.

And so at this plane the help given to the Child has been focused primarily on intellectual independence through the exploration of material and practical independence through common physical exercises. But at the Second Plane of Development, beginning at or near the age of six, the Child is pushed by dramatic physical changes to make adaptations. And so just as the Child in the First Plane had to be helped to explore her place in the family and the qualities of the world, the Child in the Second Plane must be assisted in her budding explorations of the wider world.

The child still continues to need to develop her independence, independence being essential to all human beings, but now that construction is taking place on a field of larger society. As Dr. Montessori puts it, “Before it was the construction of the hand that was important, now it is the activity of the feet which is important. It is the feet with which they must go out, and we must facilitate this possibility. They must learn however how to go out practically. We must organize the instruction for the children of this age, not with a beautiful environment as in the first period, but with the organization and possibility to go out to study in nature.”¹ Thus, specific to the needs of the Second Plane Child, a “double environment” must be prepared—inside the classroom and out.

GOING OUT

The term “Going Out” has a special interpretation in the Montessori pedagogy, perhaps specific to Montessori entirely. The idea of Going Out is to allow education much broader than the school environment could possibly provide. By welcoming the children to explore society, they are given the chance to experience Life as it is being lived, to see how it functions. Greater society embodies the aspects to which the 6-12 Child is striving to relate, and Going Out enables that Child to explore her milieu, discovering the many answers not to be found in the classroom, exo- and esoteric alike. As Dr. Montessori puts it, “The foot is noble. To walk is noble. Thanks to the feet the child who already walks can expect of the outdoors certain answers to his secret questions.”²

Freedom & Responsibility

Through interactions with the society outside, the Child will build a body of knowledge from direct experience, no longer having to rely on the guidance of adults. Thus learning here the rules and expectations she will encounter throughout her life, this opportunity will enable the Child to develop true independence. And from these direct interactions within the very society into which she will soon graduate, the foundations are furthermore being laid for operation in life. Contrariwise, lack of Going Out will hamper the full development of independence, and responsibility too will be curtailed. This means that while exposure to the various wonders of society is an obvious benefit, it is the being out itself that is of greatest import. Therefore it is not sufficient to “bring society into the class” by inviting specialists and guests to interact with the children (though that does have its particular place, “bringing Society into the classroom”.)

Cosmic Education

Yet even more will come from this interaction within society than the ability and confidence for independence. Through various dealings with people in their own environments, people performing their individual jobs that support the needs of the others around, the children will begin to understand that society relies upon cooperation. As a tangential result, the children will also come to realize that all work has value. Taking the notion even further, they will also be able to extend their gratitude to even the bugs and animals and elements of the universe, for everything has its job to perform.

But the importance of Going Out does not imply spending all their time out. In fact it is only coupled with the aspects of Cosmic Education they are receiving in the classroom that these children will recognize the historical import of this organization between all things, past and present. And in order to first decipher these understandings at all, they must necessarily be conversant in the languages in which these studies are written—math, written and spoken word, the various physical sciences, etc. So all fields are discovered to have interrelating value, the practice of Going Out being for the Second Plane Child the capstone of these intra-supportive disciplines.

With this understanding, coupled with the Second Plane characteristic of empathy and compassion, the Child who has had the chance to see the entwined reliance of everything to every other will become aware of her responsibility to the people who have need. Her impulse to help will spark a natural inclination for community service.

It is for these reasons that the children must be given the opportunity to recognize the importance of society, if only for the good of their own development and personal construction. Without Going Out, the most well prepared environments are in distinct danger of becoming not a Montessori environment but a group of children working with Montessori materials.

PREPARATION OF THE CHILD

The Child in the Second Plane is in the stage that completes childhood. This stage cannot be made up for in the future, and without full development the Child will pass into adulthood hampered. It is for this reason that Going Out is so vitally important: without Going Out, the Second Plane Child does not truly learn, becoming bored as if instinctively knowing that something is missing.

But it is critical that the Child be sufficiently prepared for this opportunity, for while the Adult is in control of the beautiful work environment that graces the education opportunities in the classroom, there is only limited possibility to likewise prepare the outside environment. And so it is in this case the Child herself who needs preparation in order that she can act safely and gain from her experiences as positively as she does from the lessons she receives in the classroom.

From the foundation of her interactions within a small, intimate society, the Child must be eased into the world outside. A construction of the individual is taking place in order that the Child will fit effortlessly into Larger Society, but this outcome must be honed and guided. This is not a process that can be necessarily intuited. Before she will be ready, the Child must be taught how to work together with her peers, therefore understanding collaborative industry and developing a penchant for harmonious, industrious, respectful cooperation with others. It is through the skills that she gains from these strong foundations that she will have the confidence to ensure success in the interpersonal endeavor of Going Out. In this case, therefore, it is an inward preparation that will serve as the practical preparation of an almost wholly uncontrollable outside environment.

When the Child has demonstrated that she is able to control herself physically and behaviorally, resolute in mind and will in a dignified manner, she will have begun to demonstrate her preparedness for any excursions she might commence outside. These traits will manifest themselves in her mannerisms, respectful and responsible for the environment and the people within it. Assuming then that she has begun to understand that society does have rules, and provided that she has fulfilled the necessary workload requirements of the classroom, the Child will be ready to plan her trips into the greater world.

Planning the Going Out

The planning of the Going Out itself is an important final step for the preparedness of the Child, and so therefore must be undertaken personally. She must be ready enough from the perspective of all the preparedness outlined above that she will be able to plan the excursion herself, or rather with the small group of two to four children for whom this Going Out would be mutually valuable. Therefore field trips are not Going Out, because Going Out must necessarily be personally beneficial and personally facilitated.

Once decided, the children for whom the experience would be of value must be given ample opportunity to think through all the processes of their excursion. What will they need? How will they get there? What are they looking to find out? How will they bring back the information they recover? How will they be expected to act in each place? Where will they sit on the train?, e.g. They will need to know how to speak to adults and authoritative persons; how to use the telephone and telephone directory; how to follow a map; how to conduct research in general (that is, gain from their experience); and myriad other considerations related specifically to their personal task.

Through all of these preparations, and of course the activity itself, the children will come to find that in the end they will choose to follow the rules because they have the freedom and will to do so, and see the reasons for it.

ROLE OF ADULT

As is true in the field of Cosmic Education—and all of Montessori education—it is the Adult that will open the door to the pathway of the Cosmos. The Adult, therefore, must give a wide variety of lessons that will entice the children’s interests. If a child is not working, the Adult has not been showing enough. But these lessons must be careful to not divulge too much information. Whereas it is the Adult’s responsibility to introduce the Child to a wide array of topics for interest, it is solely the Child’s role to learn from them. After an interest has been fostered, the Child will dive wholly into her study and at that point ripen for the benefit of Going Out.

Alongside this priming, then, the Adult must be preparing this child directly with the skills she will need for excursion. He must foster a care for the materials and environment that will translate to her interrelations with society, this being modeled by the Adult’s own actions and interactions in the classroom. He must also help the Child develop controlled movements in order that she will become aware of herself and her environment.

And so when the Child has been prepared spiritually, intellectually and physically, she will be well equipped to broaden the scope of her understanding. At that point the Adult must discuss not only the rules and expectations imposed by society, but the reasons behind them. The Child’s active imagination has been catered to in the presentations she has received, but appealing to her reasoning mind regarding the guidelines given to her will solidify all preparations she has had for incorporating them.

But in order that the Child will receive the greatest possible benefit from the opportunity she does have when ready, the Adult must remain aware of the local possibilities for Going Out. He must keep abreast of museum exhibits, art gallery showings, local amenities, natural retreats, etc. so that when the Child does develop an interest he can ensure that her focus is stoked.

The Adult himself must also be specifically aware of state standards the children must needs meet before they can be ready to leave the classroom on any extra-curricular activity. While there is a real responsibility to provide for the children this opportunity of Going Out, the practice being so vitally important to the development of the Whole Child, the Adult also has the responsibility to bring each child to the specific education levels expected by society. In terms of the school’s responsibility to government standards, the guidelines of these curricula must be met, so this becomes a standard of its own that the children must meet in their preparedness for Going Out.

Crucially, the Adult must himself therefore understand the importance of Going Out. Not only will he be called upon to structure his classroom around the practice, even in the face of State Curricula, but he will also at times be required to defend his stance to administrators and parents. The Adult must be an advocate for the needs of the budding Complete Individual, and when he honestly understands Going Out’s prominent role in this construction, only then will he be able to win the often necessary and often hard-won confidence of those who would not be so sure.

Prepared Environment

Once the Child reaches the Second Plane, the prepared classroom environment ceases to be enough. A beautifully maintained working environment remains of course centrally important, both indoor and out, but the Child in this next plane starts to require more. These children need an immediate interaction with the world around them, that world now extending beyond the familiar circles. Being away from their families already, the time they spend at school is an obviously ideal opportunity for them to make these cautious initial peregrinations. Besides, what is school time for if not essential education?

To this end, the environment must facilitate the children’s ability to take advantage of the opportunity. There should be kept a cache of pamphlets and print materials that will present ideas for the types of things that could be done or places that could be visited. Telephone books should be present for their use in contacting these places, with paper and envelopes available for the writing of letters. Street directories will enable the children to map their trip, and public transportation schedules will help them plan.

Along with all of this, the standards of expectations should be somewhere delineated. The children should clearly know what they need to meet in order to have their opportunity for the Goings Out they see happening all around them. When teaching under the blanket of a state curriculum, those governmental standards should be written up as well, posted alongside the pedagogic standards in a format that is clearly understandable to the children. By this, the students will be able to see concretely what the exact expectations of them are, able to judge for themselves whether they are meeting the minimum requirements that will keep them on track.

Presentation of Going Out

Though Going Out is so vitally important, it is not something that will naturally start happening of its own accord. The children will long for it, strive for it once they know that it is a possibility, but without being told, how can the Child know that it is even an option? Therefore the practice of Going Out is something that must be presented to the children, both the practicalities of it and the opportunities it affords.

The Adult does not make Going Out happen, but he facilitates it. In 3-6 the principle of limitation of materials and words necessitated that the Child understood concretely the archetypal concepts through fundamental experience. Now the Child is in a new plane, and though the principle of limitation will still be of monumental utility, it is now a limitation of information.

By giving core fundaments of knowledge, certain “key” understandings, the Adult is getting the children in touch with the universe, but by limiting the information he presents he is exposing the children to the idea of the universe’s inherent vastness—that there will always be more to know.

The children at this Plane have a characteristic for active imagination, and the vastness of the universe will fire that. They should be left at the end of every lesson with an overriding desire to know more, an utter enthusiasm sparked by the unanswered questions they have formulated. Once they begin their own explorations then, they will soon discover that there is more to know than even to books and materials in the classroom can possible satisfy. At this point, Going Out becomes necessary. So Going Out is inextricably linked to the presentations the Child receives.

CODA

Cosmic Education allows for the construction of an independent and responsible person. But it is not enough to teach children about Cosmic Education, they have to live it and see its implications. To do this most effectively they must, beginning in the Second Plane, be granted the opportunity to relate directly to their own encompassing society. It is this practice, these Goings Out to explore the possibilities latent in the world around them, that will see the children through to realized potential. They will learn to appreciate the fact that they can garner an interest, explore it, and find great reward in the answers that lie in wait to be discovered. And through the process of this discovery the children will realize just how closely everything is related to every other. Because of these realizations, a life-long love of learning will be fostered in these children, and coupled with that spark will be the confidence to find the answers.