Milton Public Library

Educating for right-action and love, extending and expanding the Montessori vision, Philip Snow Gang ; with Tamara Castleman

eng

no index present

non fiction

Educating for right-action and love

electronic resource

dictionaries

Philip Snow Gang ; with Tamara Castleman

extending and expanding the Montessori vision

Imagine sitting in nature one day pondering your life's work, thinking about your life as an educator, and having a question fully formed leap into your mind with as much power as Athena springing fully formed from the head of her father, Zeus. In taking stock of his life's work, holistic and Montessori education, Eastern thought, and the work he has created with his wife and soul mate, Marsha Morgan, the following question leaped from Philip Gang's mind word for word: What contexts and processes in education might liberate teachers and learners so that they become catalysts for the new human, one whose integral relationship with Gaia is bound by right-action and love? This lofty question is answered with stunning clarity by the author. Many time authors have an epiphany and develop a question as a way to provide the answer. In this case, though, the book's driving question came to Gang in question format. He was left to puzzle out the answer. Ultimately, the answer was both uncovered and discovered by integrating decades of the author's experience in holistic and Montessori education. Eastern thought offered keen insights. Gang also pulled from the work of his partner in love and in work, Marsha Morgan. Morgan's insights combined with Gang's offer an essential dialogue for seekers everywhere. Gang understands that everyone must answer this driving question in their own way according to their place and time. However, no matter where a reader might be in her or his personal journey, the question must be answered. In what reads like a love letter to the Universe, Gang divides his work into four components: 1) memoir, 2) practical experience, 3) mysticism, and 4) deep science. Within its pages, readers discover insights and tools in response to the driving question that birthed the book. It is not often that an author presents a question, answers that question, and then turns to readers and says, "What is your answer?" Most authors don't offer readers that level of deep engagement. Gang understands that the answer comes for the whole person. Early in the book, Gang discusses the idea of Indra's Net, which in brief says that each of us is a pearl attached to a cosmic net that reflects every pearl around us. Therefore, rather than encouraging readers to believe as he does, Gang asks them to locate their spot on Indra's Net and shine. Remarkably, Gang doesn't just tell readers how to find these answers. In his sharing, reviewing his early (not always easy) years, his understanding of education that works, learning from the love of his life and then losing her to Alzheimer's Disease, and in his continued work, Gang shows readers how he found his spot on Indra's Net. This book is not a "here's how" or a "you must." This book is an invitation to take Gang's hand through a journey that very well may stop at the point where you, in all your miraculous individuality, with all the unique gifts you have to offer the world, reflect all points of light

adult