The Second Plane of Development

She’s learned to be precise with caring for her environment, crumbing tables, pushing in chairs, carrying one item at a time. She’s experienced large and small, short and long, shapes, colors and sounds; she’s matched them from memory; and she’s named them. She’s learned to read. She knows her numbers and how addition, subtraction, multiplication and division work. Her environment is now totally controlled by her.

Then, she takes a walk.

A bee captures her attention. She knows that sound is a buzz. He stops at a flower she can describe: It has yellow petals and stiff, green, orbiculate leaves and a long stem. It stops at four more flowers, she counts. The fuzzy bee flies quickly high into the tree, out of her sight.

All of this language, all of these experiences: They are no longer sufficient for her. She is compelled to know: Why did the bee stop at these flowers? Why did he disappear? How did he do this? Her own senses are no longer enough; she needs to know things that are bigger and smaller than her ability to observe. She is propelled by the incessant attraction to other’s knowledge. She has the tools necessary to interpret other’s messages—sometimes from other times and spaces.

Her continued development necessitates stories. She needs the story of the evolution of bees. She needs the story of how the bee colony came together. She needs the Story of Flowers to tell her why the bee chose those in particular.

But bees? This is only one item on a list of thousands of things she will want to know, as an elementary child. Cosmic Education, Maria Montessori’s design for education for the elementary child, will fulfill our curious girl’s needs.

A global vision of cosmic events fascinates the child and his intellect would soon remain fixed on one particular part as a starting point for more intensive study. As all parts are related, they will all be scrutinized sooner or later. Thus, the way leads from the whole via the parts back to the whole. Thus the child is taught within the unity of the universe. This is the very thing to organize his intelligence and to give him a better insight into his own place and task in the world, at the same time presenting a chance for the development of his creative energy. (Montessori, 1950)

Second Plane Children are the children of our stereotypes, they are the Huck Finns, the Little Rascals, the Punky Brewsters. If I had advice for parents of Second Plane Children, it would be: Watch & listen. Enjoy. Repeat.

If our avatar of the first plane child was a network of nerves, our avatar of this child would be one of a brain completely lit up. Now, they need their friends much less than they need parents. They are curious and full of imagination. They are newly able to form conclusions and create formulas. These intellectual developments are grounded in the need to do HUGE work. No longer can they repeat small addition problems a hundred times. Now, they will complete an addition problem with a hundred digits. Their physical stamina increases to accommodate their need for friends and sustains them through the “great work.” They begin to develop a sense of justice and a need for shared morals to be universally enacted. Simultaneously, they are likely to begin worshiping heroes.

At school, we give them the laws of physics, cell theory, and more in the form of stories, so their imaginations can substitute for the experiences the youngest children need. We reiterate that even the tiniest particles and the largest mountains have to follow the rules the universe established, so humans, too, must follow laws. They participate in games and stories that illustrate that each particle and each plant and animal all have a part to play in the earth’s story. The children, then, begin to question where they fit in the earth’s story.

At home, the characteristics of the second plane child should guide the limits, the rules, and the activities we provide for them. It’s important to know that children this age may seem rude. While rudeness should definitely be corrected, we should also be aware that children’s new sense of morality means that they are very, very honest. Sometimes, painfully honest. It might be necessary for us to take a step back and determine if this is frankness or rudeness, before offering correction.

In terms of the home environment, there should be lots of opportunity for outdoor play—bikes, skates, jump ropes, balls, and more should be available, with the opportunity to play with friends. Inside, children should be given responsibilities upon which the family depends. (This is different from the first plane child, whose responsibilities are for their own benefit and may need to be corrected, at a time when they are not looking.) Know that the children are going to collect, collect, collect. That new rational, abstracting mind is ready to categorize the whole universe. And, boy, are they going to try! Collections of rocks, feathers, buttons, dolls, cars, and anything that comes to their mind will abound. Our job is to help them display these in a way that will allow the categorization to occur without mayhem resulting. (See this Pinterest board for a few ideas)

Montessori wrote, “It becomes doubtful whether even the universe will suffice. How did it come into being, and how will it end? A greater curiosity arises, which can never be satiated; so will last through a lifetime. The laws governing the universe can be made interesting and wonderful to the child, more interesting even than things in themselves, and he begins to ask: What am I? What is the task of man in this wonderful universe? Do we merely live here for ourselves, or is there something more for us to do? Why do we struggle and fight? What is good and evil? Where will it all end?” (To Educate the Human Potential)

This, then, is the time to introduce children to state and national parks, museums of all kinds, symphonies and concerts, plays and musicals, to a variety of sports. It’s time to introduce them to volunteerism, to opportunities to improve their communities. These experiences should be with people of all races and religions, all different types of abilities. The world is vast and various. Our children need to experience its wealth.

Our curious girl cannot be satiated. The entirety of the universe has been hers, from the story of a darkness so dark she couldn’t see her hand, even if it was right in front of her face, to the story she wrote of the tiny bee she admired so many months ago. She is an elementary child, ever hungry for the next bits and the vast expanses. We offer them to her in stories and experiences, so her curiosity is never trapped by rote memorization. She connects with characters—everyday humans and abstract air and inanimate seeds—who are each necessary to the other and who each have a role to play in the earth’s story.

What role is hers? To what is she connected? What more is there for her to do?

That, as we say at the end of many stories in Elementary, is a story for another day.

—Jen Stoll, Owner & Director