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How Can We Speak Of Democracy Or Freedom When From The Very Beginning Of Life We Mould The Child To Undergo Tyranny, To Obey A Dictator? How Can We Expect Democracy When We Have Reared Slaves? Real Freedom Begins At The Beginning Of Life, Not At The Adult Stage. These People Who Have Been Diminished In Their Powers, Made Short-sighted, Devitalized By Mental Fatigue, Whose Bodies Have Become Distorted, Whose Wills Have Been Broken By Elders Who Say: "your Will Must Disappear And Mine Prevail!"-how Can We Expect Them, When School-life Is Finished, To Accept And Use The Rights Of Freedom?

-Maria Montessori

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How Can We Speak

Maria Montessori

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How Can We Speak Of Democracy Or Freedom When From The Very Beginning Of Life We Mould The Child To Undergo Tyranny, To Obey A Dictator? How Can We Expect Democracy When We Have Reared Slaves? Real Freedom Begins At The Beginning Of Life, Not At The Adult Stage. These People Who Have Been Diminished In Their Powers, Made Short-sighted, Devitalized By Mental Fatigue, Whose Bodies Have Become Distorted, Whose Wills Have Been Broken By Elders Who Say: "your Will Must Disappear And Mine Prevail!"-how Can We Expect Them, When School-life Is Finished, To Accept And Use The Rights Of Freedom?

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One Of The Great Problems Facing Men Is Their Failure To Realize The Fact That A Child Possesses An Active Psychic Life Even When He Cannot Manifest It, And That The Child Must Secretly Perfect This Inner Life Over A Long Period Of Time.

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.

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.

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.

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.

But If For The Physical Life It Is Necessary To Have The Child Exposed To The Vivifying Forces Of Nature, It Is Also Necessary For His Psychical Life To Place The Soul Of The Child In Contact With Creation.

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

To Give A Child Liberty Is Not To Abandon Him To Himself.

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

We Shall Walk Together On This Path Of Life, For All Things Are Part Of The Universe And Are Connected With Each Other To Form One Whole Unity.

Never Help A Child With A Task At Which He Feels He Can Succeed.

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.

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

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

A Child Is A Discoverer. He Is An Amorphous, Splendid Being In Search Of His Own Proper Form.

Today, However, Those Things Which Occupy Us In The Field Of Education Are The Interests Of Humanity At Large And Of Civilization, And Before Such Great Forces We Can Recognize Only One Country-the Entire World.

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.

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

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

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.

The Land Is Where Our Roots Are. The Children Must Be Taught To Feel And Live In Harmony With The Earth.

A Teacher, Therefore, Who Would Think That He Could Prepare Himself For His Mission Through Study Alone Would Be Mistaken. The First Thing Required Of A Teacher Is That He Be Rightly Disposed For His Task.

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

Growth Comes From Activity, Not From Intellectual Understanding.

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

Only Practical Work And Experience Lead The Young To Maturity.

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.

There Are Many Who Hold, As I Do, That The Most Important Part Of Life Is Not The Age Of University Studies, But The First One, The Period From Birth To The Age Of Six. For That Is The Time When A Man's Intelligence Itself, His Greatest Implement, Is Being Formed. But Not Only His Intelligence; The Full Totality Of His Psychic Powers.

The Child Seeks For Independence By Means Of Work; An Independence Of Body And Mind.

Within The Child Lies The Fate Of The Future.

The Human Hand Allows The Mind To Reveal Itself.

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

If I Am Going Up A Ladder, And A Dog Begins To Bite At My Ankles, I Can Do One Of Two Things - Either Turn Round And Kick Out At The It, Or Simply Go On Up The Ladder. I Prefer To Go Up The Ladder!

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

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 Hands Are The Instruments Of Man’s Intelligence.

Conventions Which Camouflage A Man's True Feelings Are A Spiritual Lie Which Help Him Adapt Himself To The Organized Deviations Of Society.

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

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.

Never Help A Child With A Task That They Feel They Can Complete Themselves.

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.

In The Vivid Description Of The Gospel, It Would Seem That We Must Help The Christ Hidden In Every Poor Man, In Every Prisioner, In Every Sufferer. But If We Paraphrased The Marvelous Scene And Applied It To The Child, We Should Find That Christ Goes To Help All Men In The Form Of The Child.

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.

In Nature Everything Is Transformed But Nothing Destroyed.

In Nature Nothing Creates Itself And Nothing Destroys Itself.

The Child’s Parents Are Not His Makers But His Guardians.

There Is A Great Sense Of Community Within The Montessori Classroom, Where Children Of Differing Ages Work Together In An Atmosphere Of Cooperation Rather Than Competitiveness. There Is Respect For The Environment And For The Individuals Within It, Which Comes Through Experience Of Freedom Within The Community.

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

Play Is The Work Of The Child.

Children Playing

To Assist A Child We Must Provide Him With An Environment Which Will Enable Him To Develop Freely.

How Often Is The Soul Of Man - Especially In Childhood - Deprived Because He Is Not Allowed To Come In Contact With Nature.

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.

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.

The Child Should Live In An Environment Of Beauty.

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.

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 . . .

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.

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

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.

By The Age Of Three, The Child Has Already Laid Down The Foundations Of His Personality As A Human Being, And Only Then Does He Need The Help Of Special Scholastic Influences. So Great Are The Conquests He Has Made That One May Well Say: The Child Who Goes To School At Three Is Already A Little Man.

Peace Is What Every Human Being Is Craving For, And It Can Be Brought About By Humanity Through The Child.

Do Not Tell Them How To Do It. Show Them How To Do It And Do Not Say A Word. If You Tell Them, They Will Watch Your Lips Move. If You Show Them, They Will Want To Do It Themselves.

Sometimes Very Small Children In A Proper Environment Develop A Skill And Exactness In Their Work That Can Only Surprise Us.

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 . . .

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

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.

Our Goal Is Not So Much The Imparting Of Knowledge As The Unveiling And Developing Of Spiritual Energy.

First The Education Of The Senses, Then The Education Of The Intellect.

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.

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

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

The Instructions Of The Teacher Consist Then Merely In A Hint, A Touch-enough To Give A Start To The Child. The Rest Develops Of Itself.

Only When The Child Is Able To Identify Its Own Center With The Center Of The Universe Does Education Really Begin.

Discipline Must Come Through Liberty.

Do Not Offer The Child The Content Of The Mind, But The Order For That Content.

It Is In The Encounter Of The Maternal Guiding Instincts With The Sensitive Periods Of The Newly Born That Conscious Love Develops Between Parent And Child.

All Human Victories, All Human Progress, Stand Upon The Inner Force.

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.

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

We Do Not Believe In The Educative Power Of Words And Commands Alone, But Seek Cautiously, And Almost Without The Child's Knowing It, To Guide His Natural Activity.

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.

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.

The Word Education Must Not Be Understood In The Sense Of Teaching But Of Assisting The Psychological Development Of The Child.

The Greatest Source Of Discouragement Is The Conviction That One Is Unable To Do Something

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.

What The Hand Does The Mind Remembers.

My Vision Of The Future Is No Longer Of People Taking Exams And Proceeding From Secondary School To University But Of Passing From One Stage Of Independence To A Higher, By Means Of Their Own Activity And Effort Of Will.

Visions Of The Future

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

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

Imitation Is The First Instinct Of The Awakening Mind.

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

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.

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

The Child Becomes A Person Through Work.

Character Formation Cannot Be Taught. It Comes From Experience And Not From Explanation.

There Should Be Music In The Child's Environment, Just As There Does Exist In The Child's Environment Spoken Speech. In The Social Environment The Child Should Be Considered And Music Should Be Provided.

... 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.

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.

We Must, Therefore, Quit Our Roles As Jailers And Instead Take Care To Prepare An Environment In Which We Do As Little As Possible To Exhaust The Child With Our Surveillance And Instruction

He Who Is Served Is Limited In His Independence.

When Children Come Into Contact With Nature, They Reveal Their Strength.

The First Aim Of The Prepared Environment Is, As Far As It Is Possible, To Render The Growing Child Independent Of The Adult.

The Child Is Essentially Alien To This Society Of Men And Might Express His Position In The Words Of The Gospel: My Kingdom Is Not Of This World

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

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

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.

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.

There Are Many Things Which No Teacher Can Convey To A Child Of Three, But A Child Of Five Can Do It With Ease.

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.

The Child Has A Different Relation To His Environment From Ours... The Child Absorbs It. The Things He Sees Are Not Just Remembered; They Form Part Of His Soul. He Incarnates In Himself All In The World About Him That His Eyes See And His Ears Hear.

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

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

When The Child Goes Out, It Is The World Itself That Offers Itself To Him. Let Us Take The Child Out To Show Him Real Things Instead Of Making Objects Which Represent Ideas And Closing Them Up In Cupboards.

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.

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.

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

How Can We Speak Of Democracy Or Freedom When From The Very Beginning Of Life We Mould The Child To Undergo Tyranny, To Obey A Dictator? How Can We Expect Democracy When We Have Reared Slaves? Real Freedom Begins At The Beginning Of Life, Not At The Adult Stage. These People Who Have Been Diminished In Their Powers, Made Short-sighted, Devitalized By Mental Fatigue, Whose Bodies Have Become Distorted, Whose Wills Have Been Broken By Elders Who Say: "your Will Must Disappear And Mine Prevail!"-how Can We Expect Them, When School-life Is Finished, To Accept And Use The Rights Of Freedom?

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

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

The Real Preparation For Education Is The Study Of One's Self.

The More The Capacity To Concentrate Is Developed, The More Often The Profound Tranquility In Work Is Achieved, Then The Clearer Will Be The Manifestation Of Discipline Within The Child.

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

If Education Recognizes The Intrinsic Value Of The Child's Personality And Provides An Environment Suited To Spiritual Growth, We Have The Revelation Of An Entirely New Child Whose Astonishing Characteristics Can Eventually Contribute To The Betterment Of The World.

We Shall Walk Together On This Path Of Life, For All Things Are A Part Of The Universe, And Are Connected With Each Other To Form One Whole Unity. This Idea Helps The Mind Of The Child To Become Fixed, To Stop Wandering In An Aimless Quest For Knowledge. He Is Satisfied, Having Found The Universal Centre Of Himself With All Things.

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.

But An Adult If He Is To Provide 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.

Independence Is Not A Static Condition; It Is A Continuous Conquest, And In Order To Reach Not Only Freedom, But Also Strength, And The Perfecting On One's Powers, It Is Necessary To Follow This Path Of Unremitting Toil.

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

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.

A New Education From Birth Onwards Must Be Built Up. Education Must Be Reconstructed And Based On The Law Of Nature And Not On The Preconceived Notions And Prejudices Of Adult Society.

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

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.

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.

Under The Urge Of Nature And According To The Laws Of Development, Though Not Understood By The Adult, The Child Is Obliged To Be Serious About Two Fundamental Things ... The First Is The Love Of Activity... The Second Fundamental Thing Is Independence.

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.

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.

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

Movement, Or Physical Activity, Is Thus An Essential Factor In Intellectual Growth, Which Depends Upon The Impressions Received From Outside. Through Movement We Come In Contact With External Reality, And It Is Through These Contacts That We Eventually Acquire Even Abstract Ideas.

Bring The Child To The Consciousness Of His Own Dignity And He Will Feel Free.

Teach By Teaching, Not By Correcting

The Development Of The Mind Comes Through Movement

A Child Starts From Nothing And Advances Alone. It Is The Child's Reason About Which The Sensitive Periods Revolve. The Reason Provides The Initial Force And Energy, And A Child Absorbs His First Images To Assist The Reason And Act On It.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

The Child Has A Mind Able To Absorb Knowledge. He Has The Power To Teach Himself.

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

This Is The Treasure We Need Today - Helping The Child Become Independent Of Us And Make His Way By Himself, Receiving In Return His Gifts Of Hope And Light.

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.

Whatever Is Presented To Him Must Be Made Beautiful And Clear, Striking His Imagination. Once This Love Has Been Kindled, All Problems Confronting The Educationist Will Disappear.

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

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

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."

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.

At One Year Of Age The Child Says His First Intentional Wordhis Babbling Has A Purpose, And This Intention Is A Proof Of Conscious Intelligencehe Becomes Ever More Aware That Language Refers To His Surroundings, And His Wish To Master It Consciously Becomes Also Greater.subconsciously And Unaided, He Strains Himself To Learn, And This Effort Makes His Success All The More Astonishing.

Children Must Grow Not Only In The Body But In The Spirit, And The Mother Longs To Follow The Mysterious Spiritual Journey Of The Beloved One Who To-morrow Will Be The Intelligent, Divine Creation, Man.

Supposing I Said There Was A Planet Without Schools Or Teachers, Where Study Was Unknown, And Yet The Inhabitants -- Doing Nothing But Live And Walk About -- Came To Know All Things, To Carry In Their Minds The Whole Of Learning; Would You Not Think I Was Romancing? Well, Just This, Which Seems So Fanciful As To Be Nothing But The Invention Of A Fertile Imagination, Is A Reality. It Is The Child's Way Of Learning.

Of All Things Love Is The Most Potent.

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 We Really Want Children To Grow Into Independent And Resourceful Adults, We Should Stop Pouring Their Milk As Soon As They Have Learned To Pour It Themselves And Stop Fastening Their Buttons As Soon As They Can Fasten Them Without Help.

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 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.

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

The Ancient Saying, "there Is Nothing In The Intellect Which Was Not First In Some Way In The Senses," And Senses Being Explorers Of The World, Opens The Way To Knowledge.

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?

The Children Are Now Working As If I Did Not Exist.

Free The Child's Potential, And You Will Transform Him Into The World.

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.

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.

The Exercises Of Practical Life Are Formative Activities, A Work Of Adaptation To The Environment. Such Adaptation To The Environment And Efficient Functioning Therein Is The Very Essence Of A Useful Education.

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.

No One Can Be Free Unless He Is Independent.

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.

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.

The Child Is The Spiritual Builder Of Mankind, And Obstacles To His Free Development Are The Stones In The Wall By Which The Soul Of Man Has Become Imprisoned.

The Child Will Reveal Himself Through Work.

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.

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.

Education Should Therefore Include The Two Forms Of Work, Manual And Intellectual, For The Same Person, And Thus Make It Understood By Practical Experience That These Two Kinds Complete Each Other And Are Equally Essential To A Civilized Existence.

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.

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.

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

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

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?

The Child's Conquest Of Independence Begins With His First Introduction To Life. While He Is Developing, He Perfects Himself And Overcomes Every Obstacle That He Finds In His Path. A Vital Force Is Active Within Him, And This Guides His Efforts Towards Their Goal. It Is A Force Called The 'horme', By Sir Percy Nunn.

...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.

The Teacher’s First Duty Is To Watch Over The Environment, And This Takes Precedence Over All The Rest. It’s Influence Is Indirect, But Unless It Be Well Done There Will Be No Effective And Permanent Results Of Any Kind, Physical, Intellectual Or Spiritual.

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.

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

The Essence Of Independence Is To Be Able To Do Something For One’s Self. Adults Work To Finish A Task, But The Child Works In Order To Grow, And Is Working To Create The Adult, The Person That Is To Be. Such Experience Is Not Just Play... It Is Work He Must Do In Order To Grow Up.

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