Experiences in Nature:

Resolute Second-Plane Directions Toward Erdkinder

Gerard Leonard and Kathleen Allen
Gerard Leonard and Kathleen Allen describe a variety of nature experiences as a part of the Montes-
sori elementary tradition, beginning with a warning about the way contemporary life constrains
children’s experience of nature. Through a lyrical rendering of the nature-based expressions of
children, Leonard and Allen look at a variety of approaches to nature study through the senses,
the enrichment of gardening, daily journals of nature observations, poetry writing, bird watching,
biographies of natural scientists, drawing, use of the microscope, and classification. Finally, they
present a list of curriculum inclusions for the elementary, with concluding remarks summarizing
the role and uniqueness of studying the “book of nature.”

No matter what we touch, an atom or and decay. But more than just experience, they want
a cell, we cannot explain it without to really feel part of nature’s great circling. Maria
knowledge of the wide universe. (Maria Montessori’s vision was that the children should
Montessori, To Educate the Human “live in Nature.” 1 She saw that children naturally
Potential 6) revel in forest and field and stream, and want to be
intimate with their kin, the Earth’s creatures. And
And for this knowledge of the wide universe she came to believe more and more strongly, espe-
to take root, the child needs, in addition to hearing cially after the experiences she and her son Mario
the inspiring great story of our cosmos and expo- had with children living in nature in India, that a
sure to all the scientific disciplines, the experience deep intimacy with the natural world was not only
of simple natural and timeless acts such as sow- very healing for the child but prepared him well for
ing seed, gathering the crops, and celebrating the the next plane of development, for his relationship
bounty with friends. to society, to the human family.

In Spring we planted seed, “Actually, nature frightens most people,” wrote

And by degrees the plants Maria Montessori in 1948, just a few years before
Grew, flowered, and transformed
The light to food, which we her death and after some forty years of observing
Brought in, and ate, and lived. children and families worldwide. She continued:
The year grown old, we gathered “They fear the air and the sun as if they were mortal
All that remained. We broke, enemies. They fear the frost at night as if it were a
Manured, prepared the ground
snake hidden in the grass. They fear the rain as if it
For overwintering,
And thus at last made clear were a fire” (The Discovery of the Child 70). This has
Our little plot of time, certainly not changed in the sixty years since these
Tropical for a while, words were written; rather, the fear has been com-
Then temperate, then cold. (Berry 203) pounded over the last several generations to where
we can easily accept Richard Louv’s portrayal in
How children love to experience “the little plot Last Child in the Woods as a most believable warning
of time,” the round of the year, the seasonal growth of where we are heading.

1
In The Discovery of the Child, a brilliant chapter titled “Nature in Education,” Maria Montessori elaborates on this idea beautifully
and with a practicality clearly based on lived experience with children.

Leonard and Allen • Experiences in Nature: Resolute Second-Plane Directions Toward Erdkinder 153
 The monarch sits quietly, perched upon a nearby
flower. He is probably the last of his kind before
the incoming frost. The wind blows cool in my
face. I know it’s coming … fall.

He opens his colorful wings and leaps gracefully

from one flower to the next. His wings glint against
the sun and he flies away. He soars elegantly in
the September wind, lands and finishes up with
a flutter of his delicate wings. He is beautiful, his
warm colors make me want to smile … a warm
hug, a toasty fire, a soft blanket and a hot piping
cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows……
mmmm! He flies away … never to be seen again
by my eye. (Julia, age eleven)

“The Crows!”
The crows, here they come, darting to the
ground.
The crows, the crows, they’re every-
where,
The crows, on the ground, walking all
around,
The crows, the crows, they’re every-
where.
Here more come, in the air,
The crows, the crows, they’re every-
where. (Zeke, age eight)

The following writing is excerpted from a longer

Art from De Natuur in de Amsterdamsche Montessori School, piece where the girl observes a tree she had previ-
A.F.J. Portielje and R. Joosten-Chotzen, Amersterdam, 1932, ously observed and written about in a different
courtesy of Leonard/Allen collection season:

I smooth out my page. I only have so much time,

but I don’t want to rush. I just want to enjoy my
beautiful friend and its surroundings. My tree
Renilde Montessori is very direct when it comes shades me with its winding trunk, stretching
to this question of our fears. She says in her book into branches with leaves, a juicy-green sparkle.
Educateurs sans Frontières: “Where our children are My tree’s roots pop out of the ground just like a
concerned, it is our bounded duty to corral our fears, mole popping out of a certain hole in a million.
Birds are chirping sweetly in my wonderland.
look at them dispassionately, sort and classify them Pine needles scatter the ground at my motion-
and use them as the guiding element they are rather less feet. I hug my warm chunky textured tree, I
than letting them stampede and overrun us” (47). feel moved, well, wouldn’t you hugging one of
The elementary years are a time of boundless energy, your best friends? I love my tree and always will
strength, and, yes, fearlessness. This we know from forever. (Emma, age nine)
observations all over the world, and this we know
from memories of our own childhoods. In our work with elementary-aged children we
never cease to be amazed by how much they abso-
Listen for a moment to just a taste of what we lutely love animals and plants. Their thirst for both
are missing if we continue to wall off ourselves knowledge of and real connection to every kind of
and our children from nature. Being in nature, animal and plant is pretty inexhaustible. One could
observing closely and patiently, invariably elicits create an entire curriculum around nature study, and
a special kind of writing, and this seems to be the children would be endlessly fully engaged. In
particularly accessible to children. Here are a few fact that’s what our cosmic plan is, deeply connect-
pieces to ponder, all deriving from being in nature ing with mind and heart to our world and its life.
and simply looking: We just have to work hard against the pervasive

154 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 1 • Winter 2013

cultural pathology that disconnects children from August. “How often is the soul of man—especially
nature. We must not simply stay indoors with our that of the child—deprived because one does not
timelines and classified nomenclature, as wonderful put him in contact with nature” (35).
and attractive as they are to the children.
Our children have to encounter nature on mul-
A child can enter the disciplines of botany and tiple levels. First of all and most importantly, the
entomology with vigor and great intelligence, but encounter is through the senses, by sight, by touch,
first he must be familiar with one particular tree via sound, and kinesthetically. This begins with
and with the ways of one tiny “six-footed” little great intensity before age six but the immersion
ant: “If we study, for example, the life of plants or in the colors, tastes, songs, and exploration of the
insects in nature, we more or less get the idea of the natural world must continue to be deepened during
life of all plants or insects in the world. There is no the elementary years. Emotional experiences are es-
one person who knows all the plants; it is enough sential. Feelings of real affection, of caring for other
to see one pine to be able to imagine how all the living beings, emotions of tenderness, gratitude, and
other pines live” (Montessori, From Childhood to wonder in the face of nature’s ways are a treasure
Adolescence 35). house not to be missed during childhood. And lastly,
and most powerfully during the elementary years,
For this epiphany of connecting the one to the the encounter is via the intellectual disciplines,
many, the child needs to be often in the garden, through biology, biogeochemistry, taxonomy. All of
feeding the domestic animals, assiduously caring these disciplines are woven through the elementary
for the wild birds in winter, exploring in the woods, years such that Earth’s history and the interconnec-
fishing with a net in a vernal pool, climbing a hill or tions of geology and biology are unveiled, and the
even a mountain, lying on the grass under the stars wonderful tapestry of living forms is presented as
watching the Perseids shooting across the sky every an intelligible system of classification.

Courtesy of Vanessa Toinet, Ecole Montessori du Morvan, Bard-le-Regulier, Burgundy, France

Leonard and Allen • Experiences in Nature: Resolute Second-Plane Directions Toward Erdkinder 155
 So first of all it is essential that our children get are a real inspiration and source of much interest
their hands in the soil, in the “good clean dirt,” as for them as they pursue this work.
grandmother used to say. Our children have to learn
gardening, the whole of gardening, from preparing There is so much to see in a well cultivated gar-
the ground for the seed, to harvest and the further den. J. Henri Fabre, the great French entomologist so
preparations for the next cycle. This is so vitally admired by Maria Montessori, did most of his classic
important because this experience is the most direct observations of spiders, caterpillars, bees, and other
way for a child to access the laws of nature, to par- insects in field and garden. Unbroken time, patience,
ticipate in nature’s mysteries, and to make both a a writing journal, a sketchpad, and a hand lens are
heart connection and a nascent scientific observer ’s the indispensable tools. Daily access is also vitally
awakening to plants, insects, animals, fungi, water, important. For in Fabre’s own words regarding his
sunlight, and so on. We have watched children keep- observations of garden spiders, “What I did not see
ing a daily nature journal of their observations of very plainly yesterday I can see the next day, under
different seeds as they sprout and grow. A deep kin- better conditions, and so on any of the following
ship with the plants being studied and cared for is days, until the phenomenon under observation is
developed, not to mention the incredible refinement revealed in all its clearness” (231).
of the powers of observation and the patient waiting
that is fostered. Children are born naturalists, and And “the child, who more than anyone else is
not surprisingly the lives, diaries, and drawings of a spontaneous observer of nature, certainly needs
the great historical and contemporary naturalists to have at his disposal material upon which he can

Courtesy of Mr. Katsuhiko Yorita, Information Center, Okinawa, Japan, submitted by Takako Fukatsu

156 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 1 • Winter 2013

work” (Montessori, The Discovery of the Child 73).
These materials are plants, flowers, herbs, and do-
mestic animals to care for.

Maria Montessori’s very first Casa in Rome

(1907) had a cultivated garden in the adjoining
courtyard and little plots for each child to grow
and care for plants. The first Casa in Milan (1908)
had little houses for animals in the courtyard. In
The Montessori Method (1912) she wrote of how the
keeping of the little gardens was not only a part of
the transformation of the children but also of the
social reform of the surrounding community of
adults. She mentions Lucy Latter, the British educator
and horticulturalist, whose book School Gardening
for Little Children had such a wide influence. Nature
in education and its wider social ramifications was
very much in the forefront of her mind.

Think of all the wonderful experiences that

come from “living” in the garden over many months Courtesy of Mi Casita Montessori, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
and years: preparing for planting, planting the
seeds or seedlings, weeding, fertilizing, compost-
ing, watering, protecting the plants, cultivating,
propagating, harvesting, learning preservation and
storage methods, putting the garden to rest for cultivated environments, especially in woodland,
winter. And think of how the disciplines of botany field, and stream. Free play outdoors is so essential
and soil science are experienced in such a deeper and the precious time to build forts, dams, miniature
way when the garden (or greenhouse in a cold villages, and so on. Every six- to twelve-year-old
climate) is an integral part of the daily prepared thirsts to do these things. Unfortunately, more and
environment of the Montessori classroom. more children in the “developed” world are not be-
ing given the time, freedom, or environments where
“The most pleasant work for children is not
they can do these things. The tendency to “improve”
sowing, but reaping, a work, we all know, that is no
or “landscape” every inch of school properties and
less exacting than the former. It may even be said
in so doing eliminate any spot of wasteland or semi-
that it is the harvest which intensifies an interest in
wild woodland is something to be monitored if we
sowing” (Montessori, The Discovery of the Child 75).
are to be advocates for the child’s right to explore
We have often seen the great joy when children, for
the natural world. Of the forest Dr. Montessori elo-
example, harvest all the lettuces in the garden and
quently wrote:
create wonderful salads for themselves and their
families. They love to celebrate their work and na- There is no description, no image in any book
ture’s bounty. that is capable of replacing the sight of real trees,
and the life to be found around them, in a real
Maria Montessori considered the garden so forest. Something emanates from those trees
important that she wrote: “plans for a garden run which speaks to the soul, something no book, no
museum is capable of giving. The wood reveals
parallel with those for the building of a Children’s that it is not only the trees that exist, but a whole,
House” (The Discovery of the Child 78). It was really inter-related collection of lives. (From Childhood
inconceivable to her that a prepared environment to Adolescence 35)
for children could exist without a garden.
Certainly, here is poetry and truth, and we might
We also have to remember that the sensorial say an admonition to us: Can we say that the child
encounter, the “living in nature” must occur in non- at age twelve has really “lived in nature” during the

Leonard and Allen • Experiences in Nature: Resolute Second-Plane Directions Toward Erdkinder 157
critical first- and second-plane years? If the answer notating the songs. These are fascinating pieces to
is yes, one can then begin to imagine how this child, play on the tone bars. 2
grounded in his natural world, is prepared to be
the “Erdkind” of the third plane of development, Elementary children need to hear the stories
eager to work out the societal adaptations needed of the natural scientists throughout history, both
for his time, place, and circumstances. the well-known and lesser known. Figures such as
Charles Darwin, Jane Goodall, Carolus Linnaeus,
In order to more fully embody nature and the Rachel Carson, George Washington Carver, Gregor
biological sciences, children also need to see and Mendel, and Anton van Leeuwenhoek are definitely
hear of examples of people throughout history who on the list. There are many others, especially those that
were inspired by nature. They need to know of the inspired Dr. Montessori, such as J. Henri Fabre and
writers, artists, and composers who drew upon Ernst Haeckel, or those of the American nature-study
the natural world for their work. It is important to and conservation movements of the late nineteenth
read to them examples from writers such as Wen- and early twentieth centuries, such as John Muir,
dell Berry, Annie Dillard, Mary Oliver, and Edwin Liberty Hyde Bailey, and Anna Botsford Comstock.
Way Teale. During this time period there was written a wealth of
literature for children and teachers. Notable examples
include Life and Her Children by Arabella Buckley
To glimpse the intensity of this relationship
(1840-1929), published in 1880. Buckley was the
to nature and to inspire creativity in composing
secretary of Sir Charles Lyell, geologist, and a friend
nature poetry, read this poem by Mary Oliver to
of Charles Darwin. Her many books for children are
your children:
deeply grounded in evolutionary theory and portray
“Of What Surrounds Me” the classification of animals as understood at the time.
Whatever it is I am saying, I always It is important to have had exposure to these heroes
need a leaf or a flower, if not an of biology and nature study, to have heard of their
entire field. As for the sky, I am so wildly
particular life-changing experiences, and to experience
in love with each day’s inventions, cool blue
or cat gray or full their original words and feel how the soul is stirred,
of the ships of clouds, I simply can’t nourished, and inspired by such writing.
say whatever it is I am saying without
at least one skyful. That leaves water, a Drawing is an essential experience that supports
creek or a well, river or ocean, it has to be children in their developing powers of observation.
there. For the heart to be there. For the pen
to be poised. For the idea to come. (32)
Children must record what they see in the natural
world by illustration (and composition). Dr. Montes-
These words are simple and deep, but clear sori identified this need for children to experience
enough for an older elementary child to grasp. themselves as observer/illustrators. After the begin-
ning work with geometry, she experimented with
Other areas of creative endeavor in which one having the children draw geometric designs, using
can explore nature themes include art, music, dance, rulers, compasses, protractors, squares, and pen and
and drama. Study the nature-based art of Jean- ink. All the geometric figures were reproduced as
François Millet, John Constable, Claude Monet, and designs and gathered into a portfolio. Thus, not only
Georgia O’Keeffe. Listen to nature-related music by did the children acquire a deep understanding of the
composers such as Antonio Vivaldi in the visually geometric forms, they developed coordination and
descriptive piece The Goldfinch; and Georg Frideric hand-eye skills that laid the foundation for further
Handel’s The Cuckoo and the Nightingale. An interest- work in drawing. “To confer the gift of drawing
ing footnote to this would be the work of Dr. Tony we must create an eye that sees, a hand that obeys,
Phillips at State University of New York at Stony a soul that feels; and on this task the whole life
Brook. Dr. Phillips, a professor of mathematics, has must cooperate. In this sense life itself is the only
been analyzing native bird songs, slowing down preparation for drawing. Once we have lived, the
the sound, playing these pieces on the piano, and inner spark of vision does the rest” (Montessori,

2
See http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~tony/birds/music/index.html. Children can listen to bird songs and begin to train their ears
in this way, as well as with the Montessori bells.

158 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 1 • Winter 2013

Courtesy of Erin DeVries, Annie Fisher Montessori Magnet School, Hartford, Connecticut

The Advanced Montessori Method—The Montessori secting and identifying the parts of a violet, “with
Elementary Material 309). great joy they began to draw them; and they were
accurate, skilled, tireless, and patient, as they are
When the children had practiced these geometric in everything else” (313-314).
exercises for a while, she then introduced opportu-
nities for observation in nature: This type of work is the same done by great re-
searchers and naturalists in the field. Jane Goodall
The observation of nature (flowers and their dif- has kept meticulous notes and sketches as she studied
ferent parts—pollen, leaves, a section of some part the chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in
observed under the microscope, plant seeds, shells, Tanzania over a period of forty-five years. 3
etc.) serves to nourish the child’s aesthetic imagi-
nation. The children also have access to artistic
designs, collections of photographs reproducing
Children are innately drawn to illustrate what
the great masterpieces, and Haeckel’s famous work they see in nature. They employ pen and ink and
Nature’s Artistic Forms, all of which equipment is watercolors with ease, if the environment is prepared
so interesting and delightful to a child. (303) for this. These exercises have to be offered as a regular
work in the class, just like grammar and multiplica-
The work with natural objects was a perfect next tion, not as a specialty that occurs periodically.
step for the drawing experience, and the children
began to enjoy simple botanical dissections and There must be time, especially quiet, reflec-
working with microscopes: After carefully dis- tive time, in nature, in the garden, or studying the

3
See an image of Dr. Goodall and a sample page from her notebooks at this site: http://bio1151.nicerweb.com/Locked/media/
ch01/inductive.html.

Leonard and Allen • Experiences in Nature: Resolute Second-Plane Directions Toward Erdkinder 159
 He calls these “rendezvous points,” where we meet
a “concestor,” our most recent common ancestor. He
tells the tale in the spirit of Chaucer ’s Canterbury
Tales. Many of these stories are perfect little fables
to inspire thought and further research among
elementary students. For example, “The Hippo’s
Tale,” which is also “The Whale’s Tale,” tells how
we now know that both hippopotami and cetaceans,
closely related, are descendants of land mammals.
In classification, the super-order Cetartiodactyla
includes cetaceans (whales, dolphins, etc.) and the
artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates: hippos, deer,
etc.). Every tale in this book can become a point of
Courtesy of Brad Bachulis
interest for the Timeline of Life.

In order to be ready for the third-plane life sci-

ences, Montessori elementary students need the
following real experiences and knowledge base:
aquarium. This sacred time in the natural world to
draw what is seen, as well as to write about it, leads • Experiences in the field with real na-
to the “eye that sees … a soul that feels.” ture

Our approach to the discipline of biology is • Ability to identify the common native
based on the child’s psychology, on his growing plants and animals of their region
interests throughout the first and second planes of
development. There is a building up of substantive • Familiarity with domesticated plants
knowledge of the discipline in a systematic way. and animals
Knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the
• Ecology and relationships among the
major phyla is gradually acquired together with a
organic and inorganic
comprehensive taxonomic scheme. The scientific
nomenclature is introduced over a nine-year period. • Taxonomy and its current nomenclature
The understanding of biology is, in the Montessori (e.g. Cnidaria in place of the old term
elementary classroom, always related to the timeline Coelenterata)
of life and the emerging story of the evolution of
life on Earth. The maintenance and history of the • All current organizing principles, such
Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere as Domains and Kingdoms, not a simple
through the work of Earth’s living creatures is a plant/animal dichotomy
unique aspect of our elementary science. In addi-
tion, the elementary child is offered a fundamental • The anatomy, physiology, and main
understanding of the nature and role of the key characteristics of the Domains and
elements of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, Kingdoms
and a vision of the great global cycling of water,
carbon, and nitrogen. • Deep understanding of the Timeline
of Life, including the life forms of the
As Montessori educators, we must stay current Pre-Cambrian
in our knowledge of the sciences. We must read,
discuss with colleagues, and support our classroom • A clear introduction to the Bacteria
environments as lively, stimulating laboratories. For and Protists in the later years of the
example, Richard Dawkins’ The Ancestor’s Tale takes elementary—we must move from the
a different look at the evolution of life. Dawkins seen to the unseen (microscope work
moves from the present back into the past, noting is essential here, as is a real laboratory
each important event of evolution along the way. experience)

160 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 1 • Winter 2013

 • The study of cells—Prokaryotes and life. Next, he is initiated into foresight—he knows
Eukaryotes, animal and plant, basic that the life of the plants and animals he cares
knowledge of organelles and cellular for depend on his diligence. Third, patience and
processes “confident expectation” awaken, a form of faith or
philosophy of life. Fourth, a feeling for nature’s
• A simple understanding of biochemistry marvels develops, and finally, she notes: “The child
follows the natural way of development of the hu-
Biology must be intimately connected with his- man race” (The Montessori Method 156).
tory and geography. We are fortunate as Montessori
educators that we are shown a systematic plan for We can understand her words well if we put
biology as part of our training. Look through any them in the context of the nature-study movement
commonly used high school biology text, such as of the time. The nature-study movement began in
Campbell and Reese’s Biology: AP Edition. Here you the United States in the late nineteenth century and
will note the main unit headings: continued into the early twentieth century. Its pur-
pose was to introduce children to the natural world
• The Chemistry of Life
in a way that was practical, spiritual, aesthetic, and
• The Cell scientific. The movement was closely linked to the
budding conservation movement. Its roots lay in
• Genetics the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Louis
Agassiz. Cornell University became the center of
• Mechanics of Evolution nature-study with professors Liberty Hyde Bailey
(1858-1954) and Anna Botsford Comstock (1854-1930)
• The Evolutionary History of Biological
as prominent leaders.
Diversity

• Plant Form and Function The following words of Professor Bailey echo Dr.
Montessori’s faith in nature as central in education:
• Animal Form and Function “The light, the dark, the moon, the cloud, the rain, the
wind, the falling leaf, the fly, the bouquet, the bird, the
• Ecology
cockroach—they are all ours. If one is to be happy, he
These are the worlds to open to the elementary must be in sympathy with common things. He must
student, not a detailed study, but an introduction to live in harmony with his environment” (31).
these concepts, planting the seed. All of these topics
should be introduced during the elementary years Anna Botsford Comstock, the author of the Cornell
and most are already represented in our classroom Nature Study Leaflets, was a scientist-illustrator of
materials. One large area of biology study that may renown. Her famous book Handbook of Nature Study
not be as developed is the study of the cell. Just as (1911) is still in print today and is a great resource
we present the golden bead unit as the basic build- for teachers. 4 Both Professor Bailey’s and Professor
ing block of mathematics and the letters as the basic Comstock’s desire was to cultivate in the child a
unit of language, so we must present the cell as life’s love of the outdoor environment, a love of beauty
fundamental unit of structure and function. in nature, and an ability to observe simple, com-
mon natural things. Such experiences would, they
Now let us return to experiences in nature, for believed, truly develop the child. Their approach
these are the bedrock upon which the aesthetic was to follow the child’s interests, not the subject
and intellectual work is founded. Dr. Montessori matter. Dr. Montessori combined this approach with
writes of five gradations of ascent in the study of a parallel intellectual study and presented them as
nature. It starts out with the child’s being initiated complementary and as both necessary for a deep
into the world of just observing the phenomena of understanding of our natural world.

4
Anna Botsford Comstock was the first college professor to actually take her students outside to study nature. Her scientific illus-
trations, particularly wood-engravings of insects, were exhibited nationally. In 1894 she established the nature study curriculum
in New York public schools. She was also elected to the National Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Hall of Fame in 1988. Both her
life story and her beautiful drawings are worth sharing with children.

Leonard and Allen • Experiences in Nature: Resolute Second-Plane Directions Toward Erdkinder 161
 What we elementary Montessori teachers have
to remember is that the real experiences in nature
come first, and not only that, but they must con-
tinue to be the centerpiece of what we call Cosmic
Education as we gradually grow the intellectual
disciplines and introduce the scientific materials
for exploration and development.

Lena Wikramaratne relates that in India, where

the “cosmic plan” for the elementary years was
fleshed out, that the guide indicated by Dr. Montes-
sori was The Book of Nature:

Thus, with the guidance of Mario Montessori,

there were rambles every day in the woods and Courtesy of Rusty Keeler, www.earthplay.net
meadows, up and down the rocks and slopes
of waterfalls, crossing the brooks and fishing
in the ponds, rowing to and fro in the lake,
collecting beetles, butterflies and frogs eggs,
baby lizards, etc. Each time was a lesson in
geography, geology, biology … every ramble A cknowledgements
became an “intellectual walk.” (30)
Our thanks to Julia Beach, Zeke Hodkin, and
This constant grounding in nature is also for the Emma Alfeld of The Cobb School for permission to
teachers, not only for the children. In her Kodaikanal use their nature writing.
interview with David Kahn, Miss Wikramaratne
said that the trainees “must go out into the natural R eferences
world or else they won’t be able to show anything
Bailey, Liberty Hyde. The Nature-Study Idea: Being
to the child” (50).
an Interpretation of the New School-Movement to
And Dr. Montessori would have us prepare thus: Put the Child in Sympathy With Nature. New York:
Doubleday, 1903.
I would therefore initiate teachers into the obser-
vation of the most simple forms of living things, Berry, Wendell. A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems
with all those aids which science gives; I would 1979-1997. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 1999.
make them microscopists; I would give them a
knowledge of the cultivation of plants and train Campbell, Neil A., & Jane B. Reese. Biology: AP
them to observe their physiology; I would direct Edition. San Francisco: Pearson, 2008.
their observation to insects, and would make them
study the general laws of biology. And I would Comstock, Anna Botsford. Handbook of Nature Study.
not have them concerned with theory alone, but 1911. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1986.
would encourage them to work independently
in laboratories and in the bosom of free Nature. Dawkins, Richard. The Ancestor’s Tale. Boston:
(The Advanced Montessori Method – Spontaneous Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Activity in Education 138)
Fabre, J. Henri. The Life of the Spider. New York:
So let us corral our own fears and feel com- Dodd, Mead, 1915.
fortable in the bosom of nature. Let us become
Kahn, David. “The Kodaikanal Experience—Part I.”
naturalists with our own journals and sketchpads
Interview with Lena Wikramaratne. The NAMTA
and enjoy sauntering forth in nature, and explor-
Quarterly 5.1 (1979, Fall): 56-59.
ing with our own hand lenses and microscopes.
Let us grow herbs, plant fruit trees, and keep Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods. Chapel Hill:
chickens or bees so that we may offer the children Algonquin Books, 2005.
their birthright, the chance to deeply know and
love their natural environment during the years Montessori, Maria. To Educate the Human Potential.
before adolescence. 1948. Oxford: Clio, 1993.

162 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 1 • Winter 2013

Montessori, Maria. The Discovery of the Child. 1948. Montessori, Maria. The Advanced Montessori
Trans. M. Joseph Costelloe. Notre Dame, IN: Method—Spontaneous Activity in Education. New
Fides, 1967. York: Stokes, 1917.

Montessori, Maria. From Childhood to Adolescence. Montessori, Renilde. Educateurs san Frontières. Paris:
1948. New York: Schocken, 1973. Desclee de Brouwer, 2000.

Montessori, Maria. The Advanced Montessori Oliver, Mary. New and Selected Poems: Volume Two.
Method—The Montessori Elementary Material. New Boston: Beacon Press, 2005.
York: Stokes, 1917.
Wikramaratne, Lena. “The Child in the World of
Montessori, Maria. The Montessori Method. New Nature.” The NAMTA Quarterly 2.2 (1976, Win-
York: Stokes, 1912. ter): 26-31.

Gerard Leonard is AMI trained in Dublin at the primary and elementary levels. He has taught for over
thirty years in primary, elementary, and adolescent classrooms. He is the program coordinator at The Cobb
School Montessori in Simsbury, Connecticut and is in the AMI Elementary Training-of-Trainers Program.
He is a member of the NAMTA board and serves on the advisory board of the Montessori Training Center
of New England.
Kathleen Allen is AMI trained and has been teaching for more than forty years. Additionally, she conducts
research and design in the field of classroom materials, including scientific illustrations, and is a key imple-
menter of The Keepers of Alexandria. She currently teaches an upper elementary class at Hudson Country
Montessori School (Danbury, CT) and is working towards a doctorate in history.
Reprinted from The NAMTA Journal 33,3 (2008, Summer): 81-97. This talk was presented at The Fourth
Adolescent Colloquium, Chicago, IL, April 24-27, 2008.

Leonard and Allen • Experiences in Nature: Resolute Second-Plane Directions Toward Erdkinder 163