from Tomorrow’s Child Magazine – May, 2021 | by The Montessori Foundation
Montessorians are known for their jargon. We speak of red rods, didactic materials, auto-education and the like. However, there are three important aspects of Montessori that are seldom shared with parents.
Those are Nebulae, Horme, and Mneme.
To Dr. Montessori, and to those who answer the calling to implement the pedagogy or to live their lives with and in deep reverence of the child, the nebulae, horme, and mneme are the foundations of the person who is yet to be evident.
Dr. Montessori wrote, “It is a mental chemistry that takes place in the child, producing a chemical transformation. These impressions not only penetrate the mind of the child, they form it; they become incarnated, for the child makes his own ‘mental flesh’ in using the things that are in his environment. We have called this type of mind the ‘absorbent mind’ and it is difficult for us to conceive the magnitude of its powers.”(Education for a New World, p. 14)
The nebulae is the unlimited potential present in the child at the time of birth. It was the potential present in the cells of the egg and the sperm that joined to create a new being of possibilities. The horme makes itself known in the child’s vital urge to interact with the environment. Through the senses and movement, the child’s interaction begins the unconscious construction of the individual through the absorbent mind. The mneme is the memory storage in the unconscious mind of all of the interactions with the environment. The potential of the nebulae, the
urge of the horme, the memory of the mneme are the psychic building blocks of the child. They are the ‘mental flesh’ that Dr. Montessori describes as being difficult for the mind of the adult to understand and, yet, are indispensable as the child constructs self; mind, body, personality, language, and spirit.
The impact of understanding these concepts is crucial for Montessori parents, assistants, teachers, caregivers, and all who have the privilege to interact with young children. The child should be treated with great reverence, for the construction of the self is no less of a miracle than is described in the holiest of writings. It also demonstrates the tremendous responsibility of those who connect with the youngest children. The responsibility to prepare physical environments, to provide enriching experiences, to allow the development of independence, and to build emotional climates should be taken with the greatest of care and intentionality.
The ‘hope for the future’ that Dr. Montessori envisioned resides in the child and is realized through the admirable work of the child in the first three years of life. The inconceivable power of the child, through the nebulae, horme and mneme, is made evident in the child who reaches to grasp us, who depends upon us, who observes us, and who incarnates before our very eyes.
There is no greater privilege to witness. There is no greater responsibility to ensure. ′
Montessori, M. (2007). Education for a New World. In Education for a New World (Vol. 5). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company.
