The child, making use of all that he finds around him, shapes himself for the future.
Interpretation
Children learn and grow by interacting with their environment, which prepares them for future challenges.
This quote by Maria Montessori emphasizes the idea that children actively engage with their surroundings to learn and develop crucial skills for their future. It highlights the importance of experiential learning and the role of the environment in shaping a child's growth and abilities, suggesting that every experience can contribute to personal development.
In practice
In a parenting workshop discussing the importance of experiential learning.
... 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.
When we want to infuse new ideas, _x000D_ to modify or better the habits and customs of a people, _x000D_ to breathe new vigor into its national traits, _x000D_ we must use the children as our vehicle; for little can be accomplished with adults.
Noble ideas, great sentiments have always existed and have always been transmitted, but wars have never ceased.
What we need is a world full of miracles, like the miracle of seeing the young child seeking work and independence, and manifesting a wealth of enthusiasm and love.
To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.
It is fortunate, I think, that nature is not bounded by human reason and by laboratory work and experimentation, for by the laws of pure reason and by microscopic investigation, it might easily have been proved, long before this, that children could not be born.
Stay curious, keep learning and keep growing. And always strive to be more interested than interesting.
I think someone should explain to the child that it's OK to make mistakes. That's how we learn. When we compete, we make mistakes.
The man who never reads lives only one.
I've always thought of myself as a cattle-handling specialist, a college professor first; autism is secondary.
Reading is like looking through several windows which open to an infinite landscape....For me life without reading would be like being in prison, it would be as if my spirit were in a straightjacket; life would be a very dark and narrow place.
It is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until the very essence of the Bible flows from you.
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