When a wealthy Englishman, Paul Ashfield travels to Australia in search of the birth mother he thinks deserted him, he never expects to meet and fall in love with Daphne Clarke. Upon meeting her parents, Paul is horrified by the possibility that they have the same mother. He beats a hasty retreat, believing he has slept with his sister.
Amidst the turmoil of WW2 they meet again in singapore, where he discovers the truth, Daphne is not his sister. They marry as the Japanese pour into Malaya and Singapore teeters on the birnk of invasion. In the chaotic aftermath, each believe the other has died during the bombing. When they finally see each other again, it is in a church, where Paul is about to enter into an arranged marriage.
"This watch is one of the only Benedictine sundials of its size in known existence. This Anglo-Saxon portable sundial is the oldest watch in the English speaking world. It's a pendant, a fob, a personal timepiece, a talisman and a real collector's treasure.
It’s thought to have been made by St. Dunstan who was a silversmith based at the Cathedral. It was found in the cloisters of the Cathedral in 1948 during excavations, but how it got there is a mystery as St. Dunstan lived in a totally different part of the old cathedral, which burnt down.
Presenter Jonathan Foyle says: "This is an object that totally changed the way we keep track of time. It’s extremely rare, one of the earliest examples, and very delicate...."
Maria Montessori was born in the town of Chiaravalle in the province of Ancona, Italy in the year 1870 in an era where it was not common to treat children with respect. The old adage applied – Children should be seen and not heart. Her father, Alessandro Montessori, worked in an official capacity for the Italian government and was a respected member of the bourgeois civil service. Her mother, Renide Stoppani, came from a wealthy, well-educated family known for their devotion to the liberation and unity of Italy.
It was her mother who encouraged Maria towards advanced education and convinced her to register at the Regia Scuola Tecnica Michaelangelo Buonarroti in engineering studies at the age of thirteen. She disliked it greatly and knew that this was not a model for an ideal school. She decided to drop out of her engineering program. Her family, friends, and especially her father, all cheered the decision for they were shocked that she would choose such an unlady-like profession.
Much to their chagrin, Maria decided to go to the University of Rome and become a student of their medical program. She graduated with a score of 100 out of 105 in 1896, the first female doctor in Italy’s history.
A month after her graduation, she was chosen to represent Italy in a Women's International Congress in Berlin, Germany. When she returned to Rome, she was appointed as a surgical assistant at Santo Spirito, worked at the children’s hospital, and maintained a private practice.
By 1897 Maria came to the realization that the children she worked with could not be adequately treated in the hospitals and should instead be educated in schools. Towards this goal, she began to devote more and more of her time towards perfecting education. In 1912 she developed The Montessori Method – a method of learning that used nature to meet the real needs of children.
In 1900 she became a director of a small school for 'challenged' youth. Her methods were hailed as experimental, but miraculous. She believed that children should be taught “how” prior to executing a task.
While working there, Maria had a love affair with a colleague, Dr. Montesano. In 1898, Maria gave birth to her only child, Mario Montessori. They vowed to keep their relationship and the identity of the father of her son a secret. They pledged that neither of them would ever marry another person. Montesano failed to live up to his end of the bargain, however, and fell in love with and married another woman while still working with Montessori in daily contact. The pain of this betrayal caused her to leave the school. She sent her son to a wet nurse and later to a boarding school.
In 1907 Montessori actively began to emphasize her theories and methods of pedagogy. She became the director for a group of daycare centers for children of the working class in one of the worst neighbourhoods in Rome. Her pupils were labelled as “wild and unruly”. Yet, under her guidance and methods, they began to respond. She respected the children and always held them in the highest regard and insisted that the teachers she employed did the same.
The success of their work was amazing. Children younger than three and four years old began to read, write, and initiate self-respect. Her method encouraged these underprivileged children to “absorb their culture”. But they absorbed much more than mere reading and writing – they soon progressed to botany, zoology, mathematics, geography, with great ease and spontaneous energy.
Critics complained her methods were too rigorous and harsh. But instead she argued, “I studied my children, and they taught me how to teach them." To hear such a statement today, would not turn heads. In Maria Montessori’s day, however, everyone was left agape and shocked. Because she believed that the learning environment was just as important as the learning itself, her school was the first to have child-sized tables and chairs made for the students. Her schools were often peaceful, orderly places, were the children valued their space for concentration and the process of learning.
Her methods completely contradicted traditional forms of educational. For example, adults often reprimand children about runny noses, but never take the time to teach them how to take care of it themselves. Maria said, “I decided to give the children a slightly humorous lesson on how to blow their noses. After I had shown them different ways to use a handkerchief, I ended by indicating how it could be done as unobtrusively as possible. I took out my handkerchief in such a way that they could hardly see it and blew my nose as softly as I could. The children watched me in rapt attention, but failed to laugh. I wondered why, but I had hardly finished my demonstration when they broke out into applause that resembled a long repressed ovation in a theater. When I was on the point of leaving the school, the children began to shout, 'Thank you, thank you for the lesson!'"
On one occasion, a teacher was late. The eager students actually crawled through the window and got right to work while they waited. Maria created the game of silence, a brief period of meditation that allowed the children to start the day with a sense of peace and focus.
In the latter years of her life, from around 1907 to the mid-1930's, Maria devoted all of her time and energy in founding schools that taught her method throughout Europe and North America. She also traveled to India and Sri Lanka, and until 1947, she trained thousands of teachers in the Montessori curriculum and methodology.
Maria Montessori died in 1952 in the Netherlands after a lifetime devoted to the study of child development. She also worked for women’s rights and social reform. Her success in Italy led to international recognition, and during her lifetime she traveled the world lecturing and training. ‘Educate for Peace’ was her guiding principle which influenced her every deed.
Her work lives on through the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the organization she founded in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1929 to carry on her work.
Maria made numerous memorable quotations. Following is a collection of her most famous ones:
I cannot stop thinking about the victims of the Italian earthquake. I've tried to imagine how uncomfortable life is in a tent for the nearly 20,000 people left homeless. They have lost everything - their homes, family fotos, favourite possessions, all forms of entertainment, the ability to cook supper tonight, or soak in a hot bath after a long day. It is still chilly in the mountain air. I can't imagine how difficult it is for the seniors to have to sleep on the ground in tents. Or the small children who need formula and diaper changes.
We take too much for granted in our lives. The earthquake in Abruzzo is big reminder for all of us to take stock and be grateful for what we have, especially in these difficult economic times.
I could feel the desperation by the rescuers depicted in the following video who searched with their bare hands to find life within the rubble.
How traumatic for everyone, especially the rescuers who may search but never find life. My heart goes out to them all.
Repubblica.it has posted some aerial images of the devastation in central Italy
Today I mourn the loss of life caused by the devastating earthquake in L'Aquila in the Abruzzi region of Italy. My heart broke for those who were lost, dead, or missing, and even more so for the survivors who have lost heir homes and possessions.
My mother's family came from Villa San Leonardo near Ortona in the province of Chieti. L'aquila is only a short drive from there and I remember passing through the small city on the way to Rome. At the time, I marvelled at the ancient archicture and quaintness. I vowed to visit there one day. Sadly, I never got the chance.
The walled city dates back to the 13th century. In addition to its university, it has several churches built in the Renaissance and a castle. The town's economy was built on the trade of wool and silk and was the home of one of Europe's first printing presses.
Now, of its 70,000 inhabitants, over 200 are dead and almost two thousand injured with many more still missing.
It's hard to imagine that in 30 seconds, so much life can be wiped out with many medieval structures damaged or turned into complete rubble. The 6.3 magnitude shake destroyed numerous buildings and damaged many others including 4 of the churches.
But my faith in Italy and Italians is strong. They are experts at architecture and education and medicine. The Italian government has many programs and iniatiatives to help restore or preserve its architecture and history. They are no strangers to earthquake and know what to do.
L'Aquila is in my thoughts and prayers. My prayers go out to all affected.
