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A Child Is An Eager Observer And Is Particularly Attracted By The Actions Of The Adults And Wants To Imitate Them. In This Regard An Adult Can Have A Kind Of Mission. He Can Be An Inspiration For The Child's Actions, A Kind Of Open Book Wherein A Child Can Learn How To Direct His Own Movements. But An Adult, If He Is To Afford Proper Guidance, Must Always Be Calm And Act Slowly So That The Child Who Is Watching Him Can Clearly See His Actions In All Their Particulars.

-Maria Montessori

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A Child Is An

Maria Montessori

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A Child Is An Eager Observer And Is Particularly Attracted By The Actions Of The Adults And Wants To Imitate Them. In This Regard An Adult Can Have A Kind Of Mission. He Can Be An Inspiration For The Child's Actions, A Kind Of Open Book Wherein A Child Can Learn How To Direct His Own Movements. But An Adult, If He Is To Afford Proper Guidance, Must Always Be Calm And Act Slowly So That The Child Who Is Watching Him Can Clearly See His Actions In All Their Particulars.

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The Greatness Of The Human Personality Begins At The Hour Of Birth. From This Almost Mystic Affirmation There Comes What May Seem A Strange Conclusion: That Education Must Start From Birth.

Discipline Must Come Through Liberty.

Praise, Help, Or Even A Look, May Be Enough To Interrupt Him, Or Destroy The Activity. It Seems A Strange Thing To Say, But This Can Happen Even If The Child Merely Becomes Aware Of Being Watched. After All, We Too Sometimes Feel Unable To Go On Working If Someone Comes To See What We Are Doing. The Great Principle Which Brings Success To The Teacher Is This: As Soon As Concentration Has Begun, Act As If The Child Does Not Exist. Naturally, One Can See What He Is Doing With A Quick Glance, But Without His Being Aware Of It.

At Birth, The Child Leaves A Person - His Mother's Womb - And This Makes Him Independent Of Her Bodily Functions. The Baby Is Next Endowed With An Urge, Or Need, To Face The Out World And To Absorb It. We Might Say That He Is Born With 'the Psychology Of World Conquest.' By Absorbing What He Finds About Him, He Forms His Own Personality.

If Children Are Allowed Free Development And Given Occupation To Correspond With Their Unfolding Minds Their Natural Goodness Will Shine Forth.

Let Us Treat Them [children], Therefore, With All The Kindness Which We Would Wish To Help To Develop In Them.

The Greatest Step Forward In Human Evolution Was Made When Society Began To Help The Weak And The Poor, Instead Of Oppressing And Despising Them.

We Must Help The Child To Act For Himself, Will For Himself, Think For Himself; This Is The Art Of Those Who Aspire To Serve The Spirit.

Little Children, From The Moment In Which They Are Weaned, Are Making Their Way Toward Independence.

The Essence Of Independence Is To Be Able To Do Something For One’s Self.

Work Is Necessary; It Can Be Nothing Less Than A Passion; A Person Is Happy In Accomplishment.

For What Is The Use Of Transmitting Knowledge If The Individual's Total Development Lags Behind?

We Are The Sowers - Our Children Are Those Who Reap. We Labor So That Future Generations Will Be Better And Nobler Than We Are.

A Humankind Abandoned In Its Earlier Formative Stage Becomes Its Own Greatest Threat To Survival.

A Child Is Mysterious And Powerful; And Contains Within Himself The Secret Of Human Nature.

Watch The Unending Activity Of The Flowing Stream Or The Growing Tree. See The Breakers Of The Ocean, The Unceasing Movements Of The Earth, The Planets, The Sun And The Stars. All Creation Is Life, Movement, Work.

An Education Capable Of Saving Humanity Is No Small Undertaking; It Involves The Spiritual Development Of Man, The Enhancement Of His Value As An Individual, And The Preparation Of Young People To Understand The Times In Which They Live.

If Help And Salvation Are To Come They Can Only Come From The Children, For The Children Are The Makers Of Men.

Children Display A Universal Love Of Mathematics, Which Is Par Excellence The Science Of Precision, Order, And Intelligence.

To Have A Vision Of The Cosmic Plan, In Which Every Form Of Life Depends On Directed Movements Which Have Effects Beyond Their Conscious Aim, Is To Understand The Child's Work And Be Able To Guide It Better.

Love And The Hope Of It Are Not Things One Can Learn; They Are A Part Of Life's Heritage.

If A Child Finds No Stimuli For The Activities Which Would Contribute To His Development, He Is Attracted Simply To 'things' And Desires To Posses Them.

The Unknown Energy That Can Help Humanity Is That Which Lies Hidden In The Child.

Discipline Must Come Through Liberty. . . . We Do Not Consider An Individual Disciplined Only When He Has Been Rendered As Artificially Silent As A Mute And As Immovable As A Paralytic. He Is An Individual Annihilated, Not Disciplined.

Order Is ... The True Key To Rapidity Of Reaction.

Plainly, The Environment Must Be A Living One, Directed By A Higher Intelligence, Arranged By An Adult Who Is Prepared For His Mission.

At A Given Moment A Child Becomes Interested In A Piece Of Work, Showing It By The Expression Of His Face, By His Intense Attention, By His Perseverance In The Same Exercise. That Child Has Set Foot Upon The Road Leading To Discipline.

Only Practical Work And Experience Lead The Young To Maturity.

The ‘absorbent Mind’ Welcomes Everything, Puts Its Hope In Everything, Accepts Poverty Equally With Wealth, Adopts Any Religion And The Prejudices And Habits Of Its Countrymen, Incarnating All In Itself. This Is The Child!

To Aid Life, Leaving It Free, However, That Is The Basic Task Of The Educator.

A Great Deal Of Time And Intellectual Force Are Lost In The World, Because The False Seems Great And The Truth So Small And Insignificant.

Imitation Is The First Instinct Of The Awakening Mind.

The Whole Of Mankind Is One And Only One, One Race, One Class And One Society.

One Who Has Drunk At The Fountain Of Spiritual Happiness Says Good-by Of His Own Accord To The Satisfactions That Come From A Higher Professional Status ... What Is The Greatest Sign Of Success For A Teacher Thus Transformed? It Is To Be Able To Say, "the Children Are Now Working As If I Did Not Exist.

The Teacher, When She Begins Work In Our Schools, Must Have A Kind Of Faith That The Child Will Reveal Himself Through Work.

We Teachers Can Only Help The Work Going On, As Servants Wait Upon A Master. We Then Become Witnesses To The Development Of The Human Soul; The Emergence Of The New Man Who Will No Longer Be The Victim Of Events But, Thanks To His Clarity Of Vision, Will Become Able To Direct And To Mold The Future Of Mankind.

Two Things Are Necessary, The Development Of Individuality And The Participation Of The Individual In A Truly Social Life.

The Child Is An Enigma… He Has The Highest Potentialities, But We Do Not Know What He Will Be.

Education Cannot Be Effective Unless It Helps A Child To Open Up Himself To Life.

We Must Support As Much As Possible The Child's Desires For Activity; Not Wait On Him, But Educate Him To Be Independent.

The Hand Is The Prehensile Organ Of The Mind.

An Educational Method That Shall Have Liberty As Its Basis Must Intervene To Help The Child To A Conquest Of Liberty. That Is To Say, His Training Must Be Such As Shall Help Him To Diminish As Much As Possible The Social Bonds Which Limit His Activity.

The Child's True Constructive Energy, A Dynamic Power, Has Remained Unnoticed For Thousands Of Years. Just As Men Have Trodden The Earth, And Later Tilled Its Surface, Without Thought For The Immense Wealth Hidden In Its Depths, So The Men Of Our Day Make Progress After Progress In Civilized Life, Without Noticing The Treasures That Lie Hidden In The Psychic World Of Infancy.

The Child Is Truly A Miraculous Being, And This Should Be Felt Deeply By The Educator.

We Must Clearly Understand That When We Give The Child Freedom And Independence, We Are Giving Freedom To A Worker Already Braced For Action, Who Cannot Live Without Working And Being Active.

A Child Is An Eager Observer And Is Particularly Attracted By The Actions Of The Adults And Wants To Imitate Them. In This Regard An Adult Can Have A Kind Of Mission. He Can Be An Inspiration For The Child's Actions, A Kind Of Open Book Wherein A Child Can Learn How To Direct His Own Movements. But An Adult, If He Is To Afford Proper Guidance, Must Always Be Calm And Act Slowly So That The Child Who Is Watching Him Can Clearly See His Actions In All Their Particulars.

He Who Is Served Is Limited In His Independence.

The Development Of The Mind Comes Through Movement

The Social Rights Of Children Must Be Recognized So That A World Suited To Their Needs May Be Constructed For Them. The Greatest Crime That Society Commits Is That Of Wasting The Money Which It Should Use For Children On Things That Will Destroy Them And Society Itself As Well.

There Is No Description, No Image In Any Book That Is Capable Of Replacing The Sight Of Real Trees, And All Of The Life To Be Found Around Them In A Real Forest.

Establishing Lasting Peace Is The Work Of Education; All Politics Can Do Is Keep Us Out Of War.

In Nature Everything Is Transformed But Nothing Destroyed.

What Is A Scientist?... We Give The Name Scientist To The Type Of Man Who Has Felt Experiment To Be A Means Guiding Him To Search Out The Deep Truth Of Life, To Lift A Veil From Its Fascinating Secrets, And Who, In This Pursuit, Has Felt Arising Within Him A Love For The Mysteries Of Nature, So Passionate As To Annihilate The Thought Of Himself.

There Is In The Child A Special Kind Of Sensitivity Which Leads Him To Absorb Everything About Him, And It Is This Work Of Observing And Absorbing That Alone Enables Him To Adapt Himself To Life

Our Aim Is Not Merely To Make The Child Understand, And Still Less To Force Him To Memorize, But So To Touch His Imagination As To Enthuse Him To His Innermost Core.

The Adult Ought Never To Mold The Child After Himself, But Should Leave Him Alone And Work Always From The Deepest Comprehension Of The Child Himself.

Children Become Like The Things They Love.

Joy, Feeling One’s Own Value, Being Appreciated And Loved By Others, Feeling Useful And Capable Of Production Are All Factors Of Enormous Value For The Human Soul.

The Great Constructive Energies Of The Child ... Have Hitherto Been Concealed Beneath An Accumulation Of Ideas Concerning Motherhood. We Used To Say It Was The Mother Who Formed The Child; For It Is She Who Teaches Him To Walk, Talk, And So On. But None Of This Is Really Done By The Mother. It Is An Achievement Of The Child. What The Mother Brings Forth Is The Baby, But It Is The Baby Who Produces The Man. Should The Mother Die, The Baby Still Grows Up And Completes His Work Of Making The Man.

Concentration Is The Key That Opens Up To The Child The Latent Treasures Within Him.

No Adult Can Bear A Child’s Burden Or Grow Up In His Stead.

Children Have An Anxious Concern For Living Beings, And The Satisfaction Of This Instinct Fills Them With Delight. It Is Therefore Easy To Interest Them In Taking Care Of Plants And Especially Of Animals. Nothing Awakens Foresight In A Small Child Such As This. When He Knows That Animals Have Need Of Him, That Little Plants Will Dry Up If He Does Not Water Them, He Binds Together With A New Thread Of Love Today's Passing Moments With Those Of The Morrow.

We Especially Need Imagination In Science. It Is Not All Mathematics, Nor All Logic, But It Is Somewhat Beauty And Poetry.

We Must Therefore Turn To The Child As To The Key To The Fate Of Our Future Life.

In The Psychological Realm Of Relationship Between Teacher And Child, The Teacher's Part And Its Techniques Are Analogous To Those Of The Valet; They Are To Serve, And To Serve Well: To Serve The Spirit.

Scientific Observation Then Has Established That Education Is Not What The Teacher Gives; Education Is A Natural Process Spontaneously Carried Out By The Human Individual, And Is Acquired Not By Listening To Words But By Experiences Upon The Environment.

The Environment Itself Will Teach The Child, If Every Error He Makes Is Manifest To Him, Without The Intervention Of A Parent Of Teacher, Who Should Remain A Quiet Observer Of All That Happens.

Growth Is Not Merely A Harmonious Increase In Size, But A Transformation.

Watching A Child Makes It Obvious That The Development Of His Mind Comes Through His Movements.

The Needs Of Mankind Are Universal. Our Means Of Meeting Them Create The Richness And Diversity Of The Planet. The Montessori Child Should Come To Relish The Texture Of That Diversity.

Within The Child Lies The Fate Of The Future.

When Mental Development Is Under Discussion, There Are Many Who Say, 'how Does Movement Come Into It? We Are Talking About The Mind.' And When We Think Of Intellectual Activity, We Always Imagine People Sitting Still, Motionless. But Mental Development Must Be Connected With Movement And Be Dependent On It. It Is Vital That Educational Theory And Practice Should Be Informed By That Idea.

No One Can Be Free Unless He Is Independent.

Preventing War Is The Work Of Politicians, Establishing Peace Is The Work Of Educationists.

It Is Almost Possible To Say That There Is A Mathematical Relationship Between The Beauty Of His Surroundings And The Activity Of The Child; He Will Make Discoveries Rather More Voluntarily In A Gracious Setting Than In An Ugly One.

A Child In His Earliest Years, When He Is Only Two Or A Little More, Is Capable Of Tremendous Achievements Simply Through His Unconscious Power Of Absorption, Though He Is Himself Still Immobile. After The Age Of Three He Is Able To Acquire A Great Number Of Concepts Through His Own Efforts In Exploring His Surroundings. In This Period He Lays Hold Of Things Through His Own Activity And Assimilates Them Into His Mind.

Whoever Touches The Life Of The Child Touches The Most Sensitive Point Of A Whole Which Has Roots In The Most Distant Past And Climbs Toward The Infinite Future.

Education Today, In This Particular Social Period, Is Assuming Truly Unlimited Importance. And The Increased Emphasis On Its Practical Value Can Be Summed Up In One Sentence: Education Is The Best Weapon For Peace.

Children Are Human Beings To Whom Respect Is Due, Superior To Us By Reason Of Their Innocence And Of The Greater Possibilities Of Their Future.

Concentration Is A Part Of Life. It Is Not The Consequence Of A Method Of Education.

The Education Of Even A Small Child, Therefore, Does Not Aim At Preparing Him For School, But For Life.

The Teacher's Task Is Not To Talk, But To Prepare And Arrange A Series Of Motives For Cultural Activity In A Special Environment Made For The Child.

To Let The Child Do As He Likes When He Has Not Yet Developed Any Powers Of Control Is To Betray The Idea Of Freedom.

It Is The Child Who Makes The Man, And No Man Exists Who Was Not Made By The Child He Once Was.

Play Is The Work Of The Child.

Children Playing

I Have Studied The Child. I Have Taken What The Child Has Given Me And Expressed It And That Is What Is Called The Montessori Method.

The Most Important Period Of Life Is Not The Age Of University Studies, But The First One, The Period From Birth To The Age Of Six.

Knowing What We Must Do Is Neither Fundamental Nor Difficult, But To Comprehend Which Presumptions And Vain Prejudices We Must Rid Ourselves Of In Order To Be Able To Educate Our Children Is Most Difficult.

Children Are Not Only Sensitive To Silence, But Also To A Voice Which Calls Them ... Out Of That Silence.

To Teach Details Is To Bring Confusion; To Establish The Relationship Between Things Is To Bring Knowledge.

A Child Needs Freedom Within Limits.

The First Thing Required Of A Teacher Is That He Be Rightly Disposed For His Task.

When A Child Is Given A Little Leeway, He Will At Once Shout, "i Want To Do It!" But In Our Schools, Which Have An Environment Adapted To Children's Needs, They Say, "help Me To Do It Alone." And These Words Reveal Their Inner Needs.

The Principal Agent Is The Object Itself And Not The Instruction Given By The Teacher. It Is The Child Who Uses The Objects; It Is The Child Who Is Active, And Not The Teacher.

The Task Of The Educator Lies In Seeing That The Child Does Not Confound Good With Immobility And Evil With Activity.

The Teacher Must Derive Not Only The Capacity, But The Desire, To Observe Natural Phenomena. The Teacher Must Understand And Feel Her Position Of Observer: The Activity Must Lie In The Phenomenon.

What We Need Is A World Full Of Miracles, Like The Miracle Of Seeing The Young Child Seeking Work And Independence, And Manifesting A Wealth Of Enthusiasm And Love.

It Is Exactly In The Repetition Of The Exercises That The Education Of The Senses Exists; Not That The Child Shall Know Colors, Forms Or Qualities, But That He Refine His Senses Through An Exercise Of Attention, Comparison And Judgment.

The Aim Of Education Should Not Be To Teach How To Use Human Energies To Improve The Environment, For We Are Finally Beginning To Realize That The Cornerstone Of Education Is The Development Of The Human Personality, And That In This Regard Education Is Of Immediate Importance For The Salvation Of Mankind.

An Interesting Piece Of Work, Freely Chosen, Which Has The Virtue Of Inducing Concentration Rather Than Fatigue, Adds To The Child's Energies And Mental Capacities, And Leads Him To Self-mastery.

The Undisciplined Child Enters Into Discipline By Working In The Company Of Others; Not Being Told He Is Naughty.” “discipline Is, Therefore, Primarily A Learning Experience And Less A Punitive Experience If Appropriately Dealt With.

Bring The Child To The Consciousness Of His Own Dignity, And He Will Be Free. We See No Limit To What Should Be Offered To The Child, For His Will Be An Immense Field Of Chosen Activity.

Let The Children Be Free; Encourage Them; Let Them Run Outside When It Is Raining; Let Them Remove Their Shoes When They Find A Puddle Of Water; And When The Grass Of The Meadows Is Wet With Dew, Let Them Run On It And Trample It With Their Bare Feet; Let Them Rest Peacefully When A Tree Invites Them To Sleep Beneath Its Shade; Let Them Shout And Laugh When The Sun Wakes Them In The Morning.

The Objects In Our System Are Instead A Help To The Child Himself, He Chooses What He Wants For His Own Use, And Works With It According To His Own Needs, Tendencies And Special Interests. In This Way, The Objects Become A Means Of Growth.

Great Tact And Delicacy Is Necessary For The Care Of The Mind Of A Child From Three To Six Years, And An Adult Can Have Very Little Of It.

The Development Of The Individual Can Be Described As A Succession Of New Births At Consecutively Higher Levels.

Within The Child Lies The Fate Of The Future. Whoever Wishes To Confer Some Benefit On Society Must Preserve Him From Deviations And Observe His Natural Ways Of Acting. A Child Is Mysterious And Powerful And Contains Within Himself The Secret Of Human Nature.

Growth Comes From Activity, Not From Intellectual Understanding.

What Advice Can We Give To New Mothers? Their Children Need To Work At An Interesting Occupation: They Should Not Be Helped Unnecessarily, Nor Interrupted, Once They Have Begun To Do Something Intelligent.

Education Must Start From Birth.

The Child Who Has Felt A Strong Love For His Surroundings And For All Living Creatures, Who Has Discovered Joy And Enthusiasm In Work, Gives Us Reason To Hope That Humanity Can Develop In A New Direction.

If We Can, When We Have Established Individual Discipline, Arrange The Children, Sending Each One To His Own Place, In Order, Trying To Make Them Understand The Idea That Thus Placed They Look Well, And That It Is A Good Thing To Be Placed In Order . . .

We Cannot Know The Consequences Of Suppressing A Child's Spontaneity When He Is Just Beginning To Be Active. We May Even Suffocate Life Itself. That Humanity Which Is Revealed In All Its Intellectual Splendor During The Sweet And Tender Age Of Childhood Should Be Respected With A Kind Of Religious Veneration. It Is Like The Sun Which Appears At Dawn Or A Flower Just Beginning To Bloom. Education Cannot Be Effective Unless It Helps A Child To Open Up Himself To Life.

At About A Year And A Half, The Child Discovers Another Fact, And That Is That Each Thing Has Its Own Name.

Free Choice Is One Of The Highest Of All The Mental Processes.

It Is Not The Child As A Physical But As A Psychic Being That Can Provide A Strong Impetus To The Betterment Of Mankind. It Is The Spirit Of The Child That Can Determine The Course Of Human Progress And Lead It Perhaps Even To A Higher Form Of Civilization.

The Child Should Live In An Environment Of Beauty.

It Is Not In Human Nature For All Men To Tread The Same Path Of Development, As Animals Do Of A Single Species.

The Child, Making Use Of All That He Finds Around Him, Shapes Himself For The Future.

The Goal Of Early Childhood Education Should Be To Activate The Child's Own Natural Desire To Learn.

The Child Endures All Things.

Since It Is Through Movement That The Will Realises Itself, We Should Assist A Child In His Attempts To Put His Will Into Act.

The Teacher's Task Is Not A Small Easy One! She Has To Prepare A Huge Amount Of Knowledge To Satisfy The Child's Mental Hunger. She Is Not Like The Ordinary Teacher, Limited By A Syllabus. The Needs Of The Child Are Clearly More Difficult To Answer.

Adults Look Upon A Child As Something Empty That Is To Be Filled Through Their Own Efforts, As Something Inert And Helpless For Which They Must Do Everything, As Something Lacking An Inner Guide And In Constant Need Of Inner Direction. . . . An Adult Who Acts In This Way, Even Though He May Be Convinced That He Is Filled With Zeal, Love, And A Spirit Of Sacrifice On Behalf Of His Child, Unconsciously Suppresses The Development Of The Child's Own Personality.

Social Grace, Inner Discipline And Joy. These Are The Birthright Of The Human Being Who Has Been Allowed To Develop Essential Human Qualities.

Growth And Psychic Development Are Therefore Guided By: The Absorbent Mind, The Nebulae And The Sensitive Periods, With Their Respective Mechanisms. It Is These That Are Hereditary And Characteristic Of The Human Species. But The Promise They Hold Can Only Be Fulfilled Through The Experience Of Free Activity Conducted In The Environment.

Any Child Who Is Self-sufficient, Who Can Tie His Shoes, Dress Or Undress Himself, Reflects In His Joy And Sense Of Achievement The Image Of Human Dignity Which Is Derived From A Sense Of Independence.

It Is Easy To Substitute Our Will For That Of The Child By Means Of Suggestion Or Coercion; But When We Have Done This We Have Robbed Him Of His Greatest Right, The Right To Construct His Own Personality.

Education Should No Longer Be Most Imparting Of Knowledge, But Must Take A New Path, Seeking The Release Of Human Potentialities.

The Fundamental Basis Of Education Must Always Remain That One Must Act For Oneself. That Is Clear. One Must Act For Him Or Herself.

No One Who Has Ever Done Anything Really Great Or Successful Has Ever Done It Simply Because He Was Attracted By What We Call A 'reward' Or By The Fear Of What We Call A 'punishment.'

The First Idea That The Child Must Acquire, In Order To Be Actively Disciplined, Is That Of The Difference Between Good And Evil.

A Child's Work Is To Create The Person She/he Will Become.

The Adult Works To Improve His Environment While The Child Works To Improve Himself.

We Seek To Sow Life In The Child Rather Than Theories, To Help Him In His Growth, Mental And Emotional As Well As Physical, And For That We Must Offer Grand And Lofty Ideas To The Human Mind.

Rewards And Punishments, To Speak Frankly, Are The Desk Of The Soul, That Is, A Means Of Enslaving A Child's Spirit, And Better Suited To Provoke Than To Prevent Deformities.

The Human Hand Allows The Mind To Reveal Itself.

The More Perfect The Approximation To Truth, The More Perfect Is Art.

There Is In Every Child A Painstaking Teacher So Skillful That He Obtains Identical Results In All Children In All Parts Of The World. The Only Language Men Ever Speak Perfectly Is The One They Learn In Babyhood, When No One Teaches Them Anything.

It Is Well To Cultivate A Friendly Feeling Towards Error, To Treat It As A Companion Inseparable From Our Lives, As Something Having A Purpose, Which It Truly Has.

Solicitous Care For Living Things Affords Satisfaction To One Of The Most Lively Instincts Of The Child's Mind. Nothing Is Better Calculated Than This To Awaken An Attitude Of Foresight.

The Best Instruction Is That Which Uses The Least Words Sufficient For The Task.

...we Discovered That Education Is Not Something Which The Teacher Does, But That It Is A Natural Process Which Develops Spontaneously In The Human Being. It Is Not Acquired By Listening To Words, But In Virtue Of Experiences In Which The Child Acts On His Environment. The Teacher's Task Is Not To Talk, But To Prepare And Arrange A Series Of Motives For Cultural Activity In A Special Environment Made For The Child.

If Education Is Always To Be Conceived Along The Same Antiquated Lines Of A Mere Transmission Of Knowledge, There Is Little To Be Hoped From It In The Bettering Of Man's Future. For What Is The Use Of Transmitting Knowledge If The Individual's Total Development Lags Behind?

Freedom Without Organization Of Work Would Be Useless. The Child Left Free Without Means Of Work Would Go To Waste, Just As A New-born Baby, If Left Free Without Nourishment, Would Die Of Starvation.the Organization Of The Work, Therefore, Is The Cornerstone Of This New Structure Of Goodness [in Education], But Even That Organization Would Be In Vain Without The Liberty To Make Use Of It.

The Concept Of An Education Centered Upon The Care Of The Living Being Alters All Previous Ideas. Resting No Longer On A Curriculum, Or A Timetable, Education Must Conform To The Facts Of Human Life.

To Stimulate Life, Leaving It Then Free To Develop, To Unfold, Herein Lies The First Task Of The Teacher.

No One Can Be Free Unless He Is Independent. Therefore, The First Active Manifestations Of The Child's Individual Liberty Must Be So Guided That Through This Activity He May Arrive At Independence.

The Development Of The Child During The First Three Years After Birth Is Unequaled In Intensity And Importance By Any Period That Precedes Or Follows In The Whole Life Of The Child.

When We Want To Infuse New Ideas, To Modify Or Better The Habits And Customs Of A People, To Breathe New Vigor Into Its National Traits, We Must Use The Children As Our Vehicle; For Little Can Be Accomplished With Adults.

When Dealing With Children There Is Greater Need For Observing Than Of Probing

Respect All The Reasonable Forms Of Activity In Which The Child Engages And Try To Understand Them.

Times Have Changed, And Science Has Made Great Progress, And So Has Our Work; But Our Principles Have Only Been Confirmed, And Along With Them Our Conviction That Mankind Can Hope For A Solution To Its Problems, Among Which The Most Urgent Are Those Of Peace And Unity, Only By Turning Its Attention And Energies To The Discovery Of The Child And To The Development Of The Great Potentialities Of The Human Personality In The Course Of Its Formation.

Times Have Changed

The Child’s Progress Does Not Depend Only On His Age, But Also On Being Free To Look Around Him.

The Laws Governing The Universe Can Be Made Interesting And Wonderful To The Child, More Interesting Even That Things In Themselves, And He Begins To Ask: What Am I? What Is The Task Of Man In This Wonderful Universe? Do We Merely Live Here For Ourselves, Or Is There Something More For Us To Do? Why Do We Struggle And Fight? What Is Good And Evil? Where Will It All End?

No One Can Help Us To Achieve The Intimate Isolation By Which We Find Our Secret Worlds, So Mysterious, Rich And Full. If Others Intervene, It Is Destroyed. This Degree Of Thought, Which We Attain By Freeing Ourselves From The External World, Must Be Fed By The Inner Spirit, And Our Surroundings Cannot Influence Us In Any Way Other Than To Leave Us In Peace.

The Greatest Sign Of Success For A Teacher...is To Be Able To Say, "the Children Are Now Working As If I Did Not Exist."

Culture And Education Have No Bounds Or Limits; Now Man Is In A Phase In Which He Must Decide For Himself How Far He Can Proceed In The Culture That Belongs To The Whole Of Humanity.

How Does He Achieve This Independence? He Does It By Means Of A Continuous Activity. How Does He Become Free? By Means Of Constant Effort. We Know That Development Results From Activity. The Environment Must Be Rich In Motives Which Lend Interest To Activity And Invite The Child To Conduct His Own Experiences.

It Is True That We Cannot Make A Genius. We Can Only Give To Teach Child The Chance To Fulfil His Potential Possibilities.

A Man Is Not What He Is Because Of The Teachers He Has Had, But Because Of What He Has Done

The Essential Thing Is To Arouse Such An Interest That It Engages The Child’s Whole Personality.

The Work Of Education Is Divided Between The Teacher And The Environment.

With Younger Children The Greatest Reward Is To Be Able To Pass On To A New Stage In Each Subject. It Is A Punishment To A Young Child Not To Be Allowed To Use The Apparatus But To Sit Still And Do Nothing.

The Child Is Endowed With Unknown Powers, Which Can Guide Us To A Radiant Future. If What We Really Want Is A New World, Then Education Must Take As Its Aim The Development Of These Hidden Possibilities.

The Child, In Fact, Once He Feels Sure Of Himself, Will No Longer Seek The Approval Of Authority After Every Step.

The Study Of Love And Its Utilization Will Lead Us To The Source From Which It Springs, The Child.

These Words Reveal The Child’s Inner Needs; ‘help Me To Do It Alone’.

It Follows That At The Beginning Of His Life The Individual Can Accomplish Wonders Without Effort And Quite Unconsciously.

If We Try To Think Back To The Dim And Distant Past... What Is It That Helps Us Reconstruct Those Times, And To Picture The Lives Of Those Who Lived In Them? It Is Their Art... It Is Thanks To The Hand, The Companion Of The Mind, That Civilization Has Arisen.

We Teachers Can Only Help The Work Going On, As Servants Wait Upon A Master.

The Role Of Education Is To Interest The Child Profoundly In An External Activity To Which He Will Give All His Potential

The Greatness Of The Human Personality Begins At The Hour Of Birth.

Only Through Freedom And Environmental Experience Is It Practically Possible For Human Development To Occur.

Our Care Of The Child Should Be Governed, Not By The Desire To Make Him Learn Things, But By The Endeavor Always To Keep Burning Within Him That Light Which Is Called Intelligence.

The Greatest Triumph Of Our Educational Method Should Always Be This: To Bring About The Spontaneous Progress Of The Child.

The Secret Of Good Teaching Is To Regard The Child's Intelligence As A Fertile Field In Which Seeds May Be Sown, To Grow Under The Heat Of Flaming Imagination.

Joy Is The Evidence Of Inner Growth.

The Observation Of The Way In Which The Children Pass From The First Disordered Movements To Those Which Are Spontaneous And Ordered -- This Is The Book Of The Teacher; This Is The Book Which Must Inspire Her Actions . . .

Learning To Speak, Therefore, And The Power It Brings Of Intelligent Converse With Others, Is A Most Impressive Further Step Along The Path Of Independence ... Learning To Walk Is Especially Significant, Not Only Because It Is Supremely Complex, But Because It Is Done In The First Year Of Life.

The Child Becomes A Person Through Work.

A Vital Force Is Active In Every Individual And Leads It Towards Its Own Evolution.

An Adult Who Does Not Understand That A Child Needs To Use His Hands And Does Not Recognize This As The First Manifestation Of An Instinct For Work Can Be An Obstacle To The Child's Development

The First Essential For The Child’s Development Is Concentration. The Child Who Concentrates Is Immensely Happy.

The Only Language Men Ever Speak Perfectly Is The One They Learn In Babyhood, When No One Can Teach Them Anything!

This Then Is The First Duty Of An Educator: To Stir Up Life But Leave It Free To Develop.

Order Is Not Goodness; But Perhaps It Is The Indispensable Road To Arrive At It.

It Is Necessary For The Teacher To Guide The Child Without Letting Him Feel Her Presence Too Much, So That She May Always Be Ready To Supply The Desired Help, But May Never Be The Obstacle Between The Child And His Experience.

Nothing Is Created Or Destroyed In Nature.

The Task Of The Educator Lies In Seeing That The Child Does Not Confound Good With Immobility, And Evil With Activity, As Often Happens In Old-time Discipline . . . A Room In Which All The Children Move About Usefully, Intelligently, And Voluntarily, Without Committing Any Rough Or Rude Act, Would Seem To Me A Classroom Very Well Disciplined Indeed.

Freedom In Intellectual Work Is Found To Be The Basis Of Internal Discipline.

To Consider The School As A Place Where Instruction Is Given Is One Point Of View. But, To Consider The School As A Preparation For Life Is Another. In The Latter Case, The School Must Satisfy All The Needs Of Life.

The Environment Must Be Rich In Motives Which Lend Interest To Activity And Invite The Child To Conduct His Own Experiences.

Beauty Lies In Harmony, Not In Contrast; And Harmony Is Refinement; Therefore, There Must Be A Fineness Of The Senses If We Are To Appreciate Harmony.

This Is Education, Understood As A Help To Life; An Education From Birth, Which Feeds A Peaceful Revolution And Unites All In A Common Aim, Attracting Them As To A Single Centre. Mothers, Fathers, Politicians: All Must Combine In Their Respect And Help For This Delicate Work Of Formation, Which The Little Child Carries On In The Depth Of A Profound Psychological Mystery, Under The Tutelage Of An Inner Guide. This Is The Bright New Hope For Mankind.

When The Children Had Completed An Absorbing Bit Of Work, They Appeared Rested And Deeply Pleased. It Almost Seemed As If A Road Had Opened Up Within Their Souls That Led To All Their Latent Powers, Revealing The Better Part Of Themselves. They Exhibited A Great Affability To Everyone, Put Themselves Out To Help Others And Seemed Full Of Good Will.

Except When He Has Regressive Tendencies, The Child's Nature Is To Aim Directly And Energetically At Functional Independence.

If An Educational Act Is To Be Efficacious, It Will Be Only That One Which Tends To Help Toward The Complete Unfolding Of Life. To Be Thus Helpful It Is Necessary Rigorously To Avoid The Arrest Of Spontaneous Movements And The Imposition Of Arbitrary Tasks.

No Social Problem Is As Universal As The Oppression Of The Child

... The First Thing His Education Demands Is The Provision Of An Environment In Which He Can Develop The Powers Given Him By Nature. This Does Not Mean Just To Amuse Him And Let Him Do What He Likes. But It Does Mean That We Have To Adjust Our Minds To Doing A Work Of Collaboration With Nature, To Being Obedient To One Of Her Laws, The Law Which Decrees That Development Comes From Environmental Experience.

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