Background Image

...

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.

-Maria Montessori

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

When The Child Goes

Maria Montessori

...

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.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Maria Montessori

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.

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

Only Practical Work And Experience Lead The Young To Maturity.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

As Soon As Children Find Something That Interests Them They Lose Their Instability And Learn To Concentrate.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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 Child Is Both A Hope And A Promise For Mankind.

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 . . .

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

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

The 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.

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

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

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.

There Can Be No Substitute For Work, Neither Affection Nor Physical Well-being Can Replace It.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

A Child Needs Freedom Within Limits.

Teach By Teaching, Not By Correcting

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Child Endures All Things.

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

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 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.

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

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

No One Can Be Free Unless He Is Independent.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Education Must Start From Birth.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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

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 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 Development Of The Mind Comes Through Movement

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

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 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.

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

The Child Will Reveal Himself Through Work.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

Of All Things Love Is The Most Potent.

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

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.

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

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

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 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.

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.

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.

Children Become Like The Things They Love.

Joy Is The Evidence Of Inner Growth.

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

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 World Of Education Is Like An Island Where People Cut Off From The World Are Prepared For Life By Exclusion From It.

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

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.

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

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.

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.'

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

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 Human Hand Allows The Mind To Reveal Itself.

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

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.

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

The Child Should Live In An Environment Of Beauty.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Imitation Is The First Instinct Of The Awakening Mind.

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.

Discipline Must Come Through Liberty.

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.

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.

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.

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

Imagination Does Not Become Great Until Human Beings, Given The Courage And The Strength, Use It To Create.

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

The 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

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

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

Growth Comes From Activity, Not From Intellectual Understanding.

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.

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

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.

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

Trending Author

Thomas Campbell

Florynce Kennedy

Roy Blount, Jr.

Category