Susan Mayclin Stephenson tackles a large subject, Cosmic Education, which Montessori defined as a "unifying global and universal view[s] of the past, present and future." Stephenson takes the reader from birth to the end of the elementary age with examples of how the child grows into an understanding of Cosmic Education through their experiences at home and at school. Central to her thesis is the theme of discovering one's cosmic task, which depends on "fostering…curiosity and compassion toward other beings." Stephenson concludes with examples from around the world and illustrates how children are born with this tendency toward compassion and how it is experienced from birth through age twelve within Montessori environments.