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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.

-Maria Montessori

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The Teacher's Task Is

Maria Montessori

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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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Order Is One Of The Needs Of Life Which, When It Is Satisfied, Produces A Real Happiness

Teach By Teaching, Not By Correcting

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.

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.

...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 Hand Is The Prehensile Organ Of The Mind.

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

Happiness Is Not The Whole Aim Of Education. A Man Must Be Independent In His Powers And Character; Able To Work And Assert His Mastery Over All That Depends On Him.

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.

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.

No One Can Be Free Unless He Is Independent.

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.

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

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

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

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.

There Must Be Provision For The Child To Have Contact With Nature; To Understand And Appreciate The Order, The Harmony And The Beauty In Nature.

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

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

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

The Child Endures All Things.

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!

In Nature Everything Is Transformed But Nothing Destroyed.

Do Not Erase The Designs The Child Makes In The Soft Wax Of His Inner Life.

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

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

Education, As Conceived Today, Is Something Separated Both From Biological And Social Life.

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.

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

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.

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.

Two Things Are Necessary, The Development Of Individuality And The Participation Of The Individual In A Truly Social 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 First Essential For The Child’s Development Is Concentration. The Child Who Concentrates Is Immensely Happy.

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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

Play Is The Work Of The Child.

Children Playing

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.

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.

The Child Is Much More Spiritually Elevated Than Is Usually Supposed. He Often Suffers, Not From Too Much Work, But From Work That Is Unworthy Of Him.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Children Become Like The Things They Love.

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

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.

Human Dignity ... Is Derived From A Sense Of Independence.

Within The Child Lies The Fate Of The Future.

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.

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

No One Can Be Free Unless He Is Independent... In Reality, He Who Is Served Is Limited In His Independence.

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

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

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

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

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.

... 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Child Who Concentrates Is Immensely Happy

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

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

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.

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.

Joy Is The Evidence Of Inner Growth.

Only Practical Work And Experience Lead The Young To Maturity.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 . . .

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.

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.

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 Hands Are The Instruments Of Man’s Intelligence.

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

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.

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

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

It Is Necessary, Then, To Give The Child The Possibility Of Developing According To The Laws Of His Nature, So That He Can Become Strong, And, Having Become Strong, Can Do Even More Than We Dared Hope For Him.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Imitation Is The First Instinct Of The Awakening Mind.

Education Must Start From Birth.

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.

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.

Nothing Is Created Or Destroyed In Nature.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

The Human Hand Allows The Mind To Reveal Itself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Social Problem Is As Universal As The Oppression Of The Child ... No Slave Was Ever So Much The Property Of His Master As The Child Is Of His Parent ... Never Were The Rights Of Man Ever So Disregarded As In The Case Of The Child.

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

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.

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

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.

Growth Comes From Activity, Not From Intellectual Understanding.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.'

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

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

It Is Not Enough For The Teacher To Love The Child. She Must First Love And Understand The Universe. She Must Prepare Herself, And Truly Work At It.

The Child Becomes A Person Through Work.

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Dirk Kempthorne

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