On November 20, 2025, the Sodalite class celebrated the International World Children’s Day.
At first the children were given the task of deciding what to bring with them to found a new civilization on another planet. After looking through 16 items that they were given and choosing four more, they learned that the spaceship was too small and had to take six items away. This they had to do again, leaving them with only eight of the most important items of their choice. Many groups decided that
- health care
- clean air
- clean water
were important among other things. (Rainbows were also important! 😊)
Using the book “If the World was 100 People”, we visualized how many people on Earth have access to an education, a safe home, the internet… We saw that not everything is shared equally. The children learned that many years ago, people had written a list of Human Rights. As children are special, the Rights of the Child were decided in the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989.
Together, the children read some of the articles and discussed them in groups. At the end they drew pictures or wrote the articles they felt were significant to them.
In ‘Education and Peace’ Dr. Montessori wrote
“Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education.”
Creating an atmosphere of respect and understanding of others is a core value of the Montessori pedagogy. What better way to honour everyone’s equal value than to celebrate the rights that all humans share and to learn about the special rights that belong to children?