The Silence Game

October 24, 2019 Jesse McCarthy

‘The Silence Game’ | MontessoriEducation.com

Many decades ago, the late educator Dr. Maria Montessori offered a small group of children a spontaneous lesson or “game” about silence…

One day, as I was going to a Children’s House, I met in the courtyard a woman who was carrying her four-month-old daughter in her arms. The child was wrapped up in swaddling bands as was still customary in Rome, where little infants wrapped up tight in this manner are called pupi (cocoons). The tiny, tranquil girl seemed to be the incarnation of peace. I took her in my arms, and she lay there quietly. I moved on with her still in my arms. The children of the house had run out to greet me as they were accustomed to do and flung their arms about my knees with such violence that they almost threw me to the ground. I smiled at them and showed them the ‘cocoon.’ They became interested and jumped up and down, looking at me with eyes sparkling with delight, but they did not touch me through respect for the infant in my arms. I thus entered into the room, and the children walked around me. We took our seats. I chose a high chair directly in front of them, and not one of the little stools that I was accustomed to use. In other words, I sat down with a certain amount of solemnity. The children looked at the infant with mixed feelings of tenderness and joy. We had not yet said anything. Then I told them: "I have brought you a little teacher." They looked at me with surprise and laughed. "A little teacher," I continued, "since none of you can be as quiet as she." All the children stiffened at their posts. "But none of you keeps his feet as still as she." They all carefully adjusted their feet to keep them still. I looked at them with a smile: "Yes, but they will never be as quiet as hers. You move your legs a little and she does not. No one of you can be like her." The children became serious; they almost seemed convinced of the superiority of their little teacher. One of them smiles and seems to indicate with his eyes that this is all due to the swaddling bands. "Moreover, no one can be as silent as she." There is a general silence. "It is impossible to be as silent as she, because … Hear how gentle is her breathing. Come up on tip-toe.” Some of the children rise up and advance very slowly on their toes, stretching out their heads and directing their gaze at the infant. There is a great silence. “No one can breathe as quietly as she.” The children gaze in astonishment; they had never before thought that even when they were still they were making noises, and that the silence of little children is more profound than that of those who are larger. They almost tried to stop breathing. I get up. “I am going away quietly, quietly.” And I walk away on the tips of my toes without making any noise. “No matter how quietly I go you still hear some noise that I am making. But she, she is going with me and doesn’t make a sound; yes, she is leaving and silent.” The children smile, but they are moved. ... I restore the ‘cocoon’ to her mother through a window. The little girl leaves behind her a fascination that seems to take possession of their souls. Nothing in nature is sweeter than the silent breathing of the newly born. … And even children feel the poetry of the silence of a tranquil, newborn human life.

Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child

Children still love ‘The Silence Game,’ and we adults would do well to play it ourselves every so often.

#littleteacher

Photo: Ari Landworth | flickr

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Montessori Education

The Silence Game

‘The Silence Game’ | MontessoriEducation.com

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