The Absorbent Mind. Maria Montessori Montessori

      There are the liver cells which are pentagonal in form; there are the cells of the muscles which are very long, and the triangular ones are those that make the bones. While these bone-cells are very soft, they take carbonate of calcium from the blood and form bones. There are others which are very interesting because they are a sort of little cup and these little cups exude a sort of sticky substance. They also have a sort of fringe of fibers called cilia which vibrate so as to catch any dust that may enter the throat with their gluey mucus and move it up to the mouth. And then there are the heroes, who sacrifice their life for the welfare of others. These are the cells of the skin. The skin which sacrifices itself for the protection of the other organs, covers the whole body. The outer layer of the skin dies; its cells sacrifice themselves and underneath there is another layer which is getting ready to sacrifice its life for the safety of all. Those with the long filaments are the cells of the nervous system. Then there are the red cells of the blood which go on continuously taking oxygen to the other cells. They take back and throw away the poisonous gases that have formed. The marvelous thing is that though the red corpuscles of the blood are in enormous numbers, yet their number is determined.

      Before the work starts, these are some of the types of cells. Each of these cells prepares itself for the work it has to do. When they have formed themselves for this special work, they can no longer transform themselves. A nervous cell can never be transformed into a liver cell. And so when they have transformed themselves as if imbued with a great ideal and dedicated themselves to the work that fulfils it, their task is fixed, because they have specialized themselves for it. Is it not the same in our human society? There are, we might say, special groups of men who form the organs of humanity. In the beginning each individual performs many tasks. In the primitive society, when people are few, one has to know a little of everything. One is a mason, a doctor, a carpenter and everything. But when society is evolved, then there is specialization of work. Each man chooses a type of work and his psyche becomes so involved in this work that he can do only that work and nothing else. For example, a doctor cannot be a shoemaker. The training for a profession is not only learning a technique, the individual undergoes a psychic transformation for the task that he is to perform so that one prepares himself not only technically, but, what is more important, one acquires a special psychic personality, which is suited for that special work. One finds one’s ideal realized in it. One’s life is that.

      The same seems to happen in the case of the body. When each cell has specialized to form the different organs, something else comes that achieves a union among them all. It is composed of two complex organs which do not function for themselves but function in order to achieve the unity among all others. They are the circulatory and nervous systems. The first system is a sort of a river in which there are substances and these are carried to all. But it is not only a distributor, it is also a collector. The organs produce certain things which are needed by other organs that are far away from them. See what perfection has been achieved by this river! Each organ takes from it what it needs for its life and throws into the river whatever it has produced so that other organs can take of it according to their need.

      Do we not find the same in our society to day? Has it not developed a circulatory system. All the substances that are produced are thrown into circulation and each one takes from it what is useful for his life and what is produced is thrown into the stream of commerce so that it becomes available to others. The merchants, the traveling salesmen who go about everywhere, are they not like red corpuscles? If we look at human society, we can better understand the functioning of the embryo because in society also the functioning is such that things produced in Germany are consumed in S. America, things which are produced in England are consumed in India and so forth. We can deduce from this that society has reached an embryonic stage in which the circulatory system begins to function, but with many defects still. The defects of circulation reveal that our society has not finished its development.

      The one thing we do not find in human society is something corresponding to the specialized cell of the nervous system. We might almost conclude that this organ of direction has not yet been evolved by society as the the chaotic state of our world very clearly indicates. In the absence of this specialization, there is nothing that gives sensibility to all and can harmoniously direct the whole of society. What happens in democracy, for instance, which is the most evolved sort of social organization that civilization has produced? It permits all to choose their own leader by elections. If we transport this to the field of embryology, one could say: “I think the liver cell is most suited to govern”; and another: “I think that those cells which are inside the bones are more suited, because they have a strong structure.” And another might say: “I want some one heroic who will defend us. The skin cell must be at the work of direction,” If such a situation arose in the field of embryology, it would appear absurd, inconceivable, because if there must be specialized cells at all it is surely the cell which directs the functions of the whole. The work of direction is the most difficult task and requires greater specialization than any other. So it is not a question of election. It is a question of being fit and prepared for the work. He who has to direct others, must have transformed himself. Thus there can be no leader unless he has first transformed himself. But this principle that goes from specialization to function is fascinating. It becomes even much more fascinating when we discover that this is the plan adopted by nature for all branches of life, that it is the plan that nature follows when it creates. If we show an interest in embryology, it is not only because of this plan, and because of the fact that one can acquire control over development, but because it runs parallel step by step to what we have discovered in the psychic field.

      Chapter VI

      One Plan, One Method

      Neither the discoveries nor the theories that arise from modern discoveries explain fully the mystery of life and of its development. But certainly they do show and illustrate facts. These furnish us with sufficient data to enable us to see how growth takes place. Every new detail discovered shows an added realization, but does not explain it. These phenomena can be fully observed and they give an explanation of events of ordinary life. One of the things which is observed for instance is that the plan of construction is only one and all types of animal life follow it. Now when I say that it is a plan, I do not mean that we actually see a plan drawn up like a draftsman’s. But what we see occurring in front of our eyes, shows us that all the details follow a certain invisible plan. The plan can be seen materially in the embryo, it can be followed in the psychology of children and it can also be recognized in society. If one observes the embryos of different animals, one easily sees that the plan of development followed is the same. This is no new discovery. Fig. 6. shows the embryos of three different animals at two different stages. The earlier stage is on the left and the more advanced on the right. The animals are: Man on top, rabbit below it, and lizard below that. And this is one of the revelations I mentioned. As the picture shows, in order to realize themselves, the vertebrates have to pass through the same stages of development and the same forms. For instance you can see a striking resemblance between man and lizard at this stage of embryonic development. Yet when the embryo has finished developing, the difference is immense. So there is a period when all beings are alike.