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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!

-Maria Montessori

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If I Am Going

Maria Montessori

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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!

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The Child Can Only Develop Fully By Means Of Experience In His Environment. We Call Such Experience 'work'.

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.

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

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

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.

Red Rodsbefore Elaborating Any System Of Education, We Must Therefore Create A Favorable Environment That Will Encourage The Flowering Of A Child's Natural Gifts. All That Is Needed Is To Remove The Obstacles. And This Should Be The Basis Of, And Point Of Departure For, All Future Education. The First Thing To Be Done, Therefore, Is To Discover The True Nature Of A Child And Then Assist Him In His Normal Development.

Discipline Must Come Through Liberty.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

The Senses, Being The Explorers Of The World, Open The Way To Knowledge.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

If The Idea Of The Universe Is Presented To The Child In The Right Way, It Will Do More For Him Than Just Arouse His Interest, For It Will Create In Him Admiration And Wonder, A Feeling Loftier Than Any Interest And More Satisfying.

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 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.

Giving Children The Opportunity To Stir Up Life And Leave It Free To Discover.

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

He Does It With His Hands, By Experience, First In Play And Then Through Work. The Hands Are The Instruments Of Man's Intelligence.

This System In Which A Child Is Constantly Moving Objects With His Hands And Actively Exercising His Senses, Also Takes Into Account A Child's Special Aptitude For Mathematics. When They Leave The Material, The Children Very Easily Reach The Point Where They Wish To Write Out The Operation. They Can Thus Carryout An Abstract Mental Operation And Acquire A Kind Of Natural And Spontaneous Inclination For Mental Calculations.

The Activity Of The Child Has Always Been Looked Upon As An Expression Of His Vitality.

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.

Joy Is The Evidence Of Inner Growth.

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

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.

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

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

The Child's Conquests Of Independence Are The Basic Steps In What Is Called His 'natural Development'.

Of All Things Love Is The Most Potent.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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."

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.

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.

Adults Have Not Understood Children Or Adolescents And They Are, As A Consequence, In Continual Conflict With Them.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Imitation Is The First Instinct Of The Awakening Mind.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

A Child's Character Develops In Accordance With The Obstacles He Has Encountered... Or The Freedom Favoring His Development That He Has Enjoyed.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Education Demands, Then, Only This: The Utilization Of The Inner Powers Of The Child For His Own Instruction.

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.

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.

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.

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

No One Can Be Free Unless He Is Independent.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Play Is The Work Of The Child.

Children Playing

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?

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.

All Our Handling Of The Child Will Bear Fruit, Not Only At The Moment, But In The Adult They Are Destined To Become.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Childhood Constitutes The Most Important Element In An Adult's Life, For It Is In His Early Years That A Man Is Made.

He Who Experiments Must, While Doing So, Divest Himself Of Every Preconception. It Is Clear Then That If We Wish To Make Use Of A Method Of Experimental Psychology, The First Thing Necessary Is To Renounce All Former Creeds And To Proceed By Means Of The Method In The Search For Truth.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

The Child Should Live In An Environment Of Beauty.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

A Child Needs Freedom Within Limits.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Child Builds His Inmost Self Out Of The Deeply Held Impressions He Receives.

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

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 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.

The Development Of The Mind Comes Through Movement

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 Child Who Concentrates Is Immensely Happy

Within The Child Lies The Fate Of The Future.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Environment Is Undoubtedly A Secondary Factor In The Phenomena Of Life; It Can Modify In That It Can Help Or Hinder, But It Can Never Create.

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.

The Child Has Other Powers Than Ours, And The Creation He Achieves Is No Small One; It Is Everything.

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.

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

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.

Education Must Start From Birth.

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.

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

Every Great Cause Is Born From Repeated Failures And From Imperfect Achievements.

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

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.

The Real Preparation For Education Is A Study Of One's Self. The Training Of The Teacher...is Something Far More Than A Learning Of Ideas. It Includes The Training Of Character; It Is A Preparation Of The Spirit.

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.

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

One Test Of The Correctness Of Educational Procedure Is The Happiness Of The Child.

The Prize And Punishments Are Incentives Toward Unnatural Or Forced Effort, And, Therefore We Certainly Cannot Speak Of The Natural Development Of The Child In Connection With 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.

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

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

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

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

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 Human Hand Allows The Mind To Reveal Itself.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The Child Becomes A Person Through Work.

Only Practical Work And Experience Lead The Young To Maturity.

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

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.

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.

The Hand Is The Prehensile Organ Of The Mind.

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

The Child Is Both A Hope And A Promise For Mankind.

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

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

The First Duty Of The Educator, Whether He Is Involved With The Newborn Infant Or The Older Child, Is To Recognize The Human Personality Of The Young Being And Respect It.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

... 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.

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

Deceit Is A Kind Of Garment That Conceals The Soul. It Might Even Be Compared To A Whole Wardrobe, So Many Are Its Guises.

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Barry Humphries

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

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