Cosmic Education:
What It Is and How it’s Applied at Homestead
Historical Backdrop
Montessori was in her seventies during the 1940s when World War II broke out across Europe. Her schools had been closed in countries sympathetic to Nazism and fascism, and as an Italian citizen, she had been put under a form of internment in the British colony of India where she had been lecturing with her adult son, Mario. They were allowed to live out those years in a mountainous and pastoral region known as Kodaikanal. It was through this experience of working with children of all situations, living in nature, and taking time to reflect, that the two, Mario and Maria Montessori, together developed the philosophy they refer to as Cosmic Education. Maria Montessori wrote, “…there must be yet another purpose, a duty to fulfill in harmony with the universe, something to do in the service of the united whole.” It is this notion of the united whole to which cosmic refers, and this purpose is what she would describe as the cosmic task of humans.
The reason for a cosmology, for Cosmic Education, is to give context and structure to the mind so that the process of self formation and learning can unfold in an organized and purposeful way. The stories and demonstrations plant the seeds for future learning and the search for the connection between things. The Great Lessons are always followed by time for absorption, a calm, reflective time. Once interest is sparked students can be free to learn and pursue their interests.
Approach to Cosmic Education at Homestead
At the Homestead School, we marry our abundant access to nature with our Montessori curriculum and philosophy to offer the Great lessons, which can feel both timeless and timely. We seek connections between our enrichment classes and our classroom learning. We look to contemporary resources like the Big-History Project, and issues like climate science and environmental justice, to anchor group projects that take varied shapes and formats.
Each year beginning in lower elementary, the five great lessons are told, reenacted, or refreshed in some way. Sometimes this looks like sharing picture books, like oral storytelling, like older students performing a readers’ theater rendition of the great lesson, or like sharing inspiring documentary clips. The goal in (re)telling these stories is to reinforce the larger goals of Cosmic Education: to inspire awe and to spur further learning.
Purposes of a Cosmic Education
To offer schema against which children can organize and structure new learning
To provide relevance for learning
To spark personal curiosity and independent research
To demonstrate interdependence and deep connections
To inspire awe, gratitude, and awareness of multiple perspectives
The Five Great Lessons
Each year beginning in lower elementary, the five great lessons are told, reenacted, or refreshed in some way. Sometimes this looks like sharing picture books, like oral storytelling, like older students performing a readers’ theater rendition of the great lesson, or like sharing inspiring documentary clips. The goal in (re)telling these stories is to reinforce the larger goals of Cosmic Education: to inspire awe and to spur further learning.
Please see below for a breakdown of what each great lesson contains and how we enact it at Homestead.
The First Great Lesson | The Story of the Universe
What Is The First Great Lesson?
The school year begins with the first great lesson, “The Story of the Universe.” Students are introduced to the birth of the Universe and the formation of the stars, galaxies, and planets. During the course of the school year, this story will lead to studies in Astronomy, Meteorology, Chemistry, Physics, Geology, and Geography
How We Enact The First Great Lesson At Homestead
Because this initial lesson is given each year, the third-year students of each elementary program will often take on the role of guide and give this opening lesson to the new members of the community.
The Second Great Lesson | The Coming of Life
What Is The Second Great Lesson?
The second great lesson, “The Coming of Life,” revolves around the Timeline of Life. The great diversity of life is emphasized, with special care paid to the contribution of each living thing to life on Earth. Year-long studies will include biology, botany, habitats, and ancient life.
How We Enact The Second Great Lesson At Homestead
The Homestead’s 100-acre campus, with its fields, streams, pond, wetlands, and woods, lends itself easily to this exploration and scientific observation. The grounds offer a regular part of biology class for all three levels, but particularly the first-year students who are classifying life and are naming the internal and external parts of plants and animals.
In addition, we offer:
Hikes into the deep woods and along the nature trails
Wading in the stream
Map-making practice with political and physical maps, as well as 3-D models of biomes
Application learning to take up humanitarian causes with projects for raising both money and awareness. These initiatives are an integral part of the Homestead experience as we protect and celebrate the importance of the diversity of life on Earth. Elementary students plant and harvest crops such as gourds or potatoes, and create artwork to raise money to save rainforests, support animal shelters, or send relief money to global communities impacted by natural disasters.
The treehouse on the edge of the wetland is a perfect spot for wildlife observation, especially bird watching.
The Third Great Lesson | The Coming of Human Beings
What Is The Third Great Lesson?
The third great lesson is “The Coming of Human Beings.” It focuses on the uniqueness of the human hand, beginning with the invention of stone tools and continues to introduce the many gifts to humanity that tools have brought. This leads to the study of the needs of early humans and then to the study of early civilization.
How We Enact The Third Great Lesson At Homestead
The story of cultures includes arts and music, composers, discoveries, and inventions. Our Homestead elementary students have weekly studio or fiber art lessons, music, and Spanish, which always include connections to culture and history.
The Fourth Great Lesson | The Story of Writing
What Is The Fourth Great Lesson?
The fourth great lesson is “The Story of Writing.” It begins with tales of the development of the alphabet, placing emphasis on the ability that humans have to communicate their thoughts on paper. It starts with pictographs, hieroglyphics, and early alphabets, but then goes on to include reading, writing, spelling, language arts, grammar, and word study.
How We Enact The Fourth Great Lesson At Homestead
During the study of ancient civilizations in upper elementary, we spend time learning about and interpreting early writing forms and invite children to convert their names into pictographs, for example.
The Fifth Great Lesson | The Story of Numbers
What Is The Fifth Great Lesson?
The fifth great lesson is “The Story of Numbers.” Beginning with the earliest civilizations, who only had the concepts of one, two, and more than two, this lesson progresses to the origin of numbers in our base-ten system and all of the mathematical operations with fractions, decimals, geometry, time, money, and word problems.
How We Enact The Fifth Great Lesson At Homestead
All these math concepts are enriched by Montessori’s exquisitely conceived materials. Beads of gold from the younger years increase in abstraction to color-coded beads on frames, on multiplication checkerboards, and in test tubes for division.