The Silent Lesson
Klein, Felix
A T FIRST sight It might seem that the silent lesson, •**• or, as it might quite as well be called, the still lesson, would be very unpopular with young children, of all creatures the most...
...A knot of girls and boys are gathered around a table, turning over a book with large colored prints...
...It hums with puerile activities like some hive of bees...
...The children cease their occupations Immediately...
...Take a glance at a class of very young children just before the signal for silence is given...
...Silence...
...All impose stillness...
...The Froebel Institute had already used it for a long time in^ their schools...
...One of the glories of Madame Montessori is that her name has become attached to this Ingenious Innovation...
...Nevertheless she was not its inventor...
...Silence...
...Silence spreads like the ripple on water into which a stone has been flung...
...How Immense is its Influence upon the multitude...
...One little man was building a tower with red bricks when the signal was given...
...Instincts are held in check, desires lulled to sleep, peace descends upon passion, the entire being becomes static...
...This silent lesson, as it is carried out in the Montessori classes, often surprises strangers who are witness to it...
...Entering into silence means leaving appearance behind to attain reality: it means penetrating the surface to reach the depth: it means union with God, Who is present everywhere, sustains everything, and is the Alpha and Omega of our universe...
...On the blackboard she traces in big letters a word that perhaps only two or three of her pupils can read, but of which all recognize the familiar aspect...
...It is moments such as these, when the passions suspend their clamor and man hearkens to the rhythm of eternal and universal life, that God chooses to speak the word of salvation...
...But the teacher does not place her reliance on prestige...
...The profound religious abyss of silence when the hushed congregation bows its head before the uplifted Host...
...A T FIRST sight It might seem that the silent lesson, •**• or, as it might quite as well be called, the still lesson, would be very unpopular with young children, of all creatures the most naturally restless...
...Taken together, they exhibit an extraordinary instance of the power of signals and gestures over the human passions...
...The sanctuary bell tinkles, the tick of a clock becomes audible as it measures the seconds of which time is made...
...Miraculous power of silence to blend the hearts of men in a common fervor...
...Each gesture is perfect in itself...
...It is this that makes the silent lesson so grateful an experience to their virginal and impulsive little hearts...
...Others are writing, the pencil held in a convulsive fist, the tongue stretched out to Its full extent, every attitude, as the clumsy strokes are made, eloquent of naive and spasmodic effort...
...The architectural silence of a vast audience spellbound by the witchery of a violin...
...They cannot but wonder at the authority of a teacher who is able to impose her will so absolutely...
...Cathedrals and sanctuaries...
...It is sufficient for her purpose to have it understood that each child shall cease his task and close his eyes immediately the moment the order for silence is given...
...Before the face of the Creator the only attitude that becomes the creature is the silence of love and adoration: Sileat omnis caro a facie Domini...
...The children feel and understand It...
...Forgetting his individual destiny, his whole soul an oblation, the creature becomes part of creation, coherent to the, humanity of which he is an infinitesimal integer...
...But It is only fair to add that, by laying down the most practical and meticulous rules for it, she gave the experiment the character It now possesses of a ceremony dignified by imposing ritual gestures...
...The moving and voluntary silence of these little children I The Immense and sudden stillness that descends upon a tumultuous crowd when a great orator holds Its emotions within his hands...
...All noise ceases...
...It is when they take part in the sacrament of silence that men feel themselves to be interpreters, and, so to speak, the conscience of the inanimate world, heirs and debtors of heroes who sacrificed themselves that they might live, brothers of all men, and sons of the same Heavenly Father...
...A bigger boy Is grouping scraps of color in their prismatic order...
...As a matter of fact, whenever It has been intelligently tried, it amuses them to such a degree that they beg for its repetition again and again...
...Suddenly the teacher takes up a piece of chalk...
...He has told us that He does not manifest Himself in the thunder and the tempest, but in "the still small voice" heard only by those who listen with their soul...
...Not one of sixty little feet grate on the floor, not a chair creaks...
...It is this that the children, who were bidden approach Him without hindrance, feel, even though they do not understand...
...It grows and grows until space seems to be filled with it to the brim...
...Not one is superfluous...
...He stays on his knees, hia eyes shut tight, his whole body rigid with the effort to make no move...
...It becomes a living presence...
...Over and over again, in the sacred writings...
...The final one renders silence inevitable...
...It is simply by applying a ritual order categorically and imperatively, that Mme...
...Montessori has succeeded in obtaining that perfect immobility from which a fruitful silence is born...
...And the darkness in which these tiny children have plunged themselves by placing their hands over their eyes, becomes the guardian of this voluntary immobility...
...The child pupil finds a fresh pleasure in the experience each time it is repeated, almost as though the transient quiescence were felt as a rest and solace to the incessant turmoil of his growth...
...Here a little mite is concentrated on pushing buttons through their proper button-holes...
...It is enough for her to bid each child repeat today, as he or she has repeated it at each lesson, the gestures which he or she made yesterday...
...She has no temptation to add anything to the order of procedure...
...In not one of these small and nervous creatures does a desire to make the slightest movement survive...
...They close their eyes and hide their faces In folded hands...
...Life ceases, and silence takes possession of all things, animatd and inanimate...
Vol. 6 • June 1927 • No. 4
