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.
Interpretation
A teacher's love for a child must be complemented by a deep understanding of the world.
Maria Montessori emphasizes that effective teaching extends beyond affection for students; it requires a comprehensive grasp of the universe and the commitment to continual self-improvement. A teacher must not only love their students but also prepare thoroughly to guide them, thereby fostering a rich learning environment rooted in understanding and dedication.
In practice
In a speech for Teacher Appreciation Day, emphasizing the importance of a teacher's holistic understanding.
... 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.
The reader must come armed , in a serious state of intellectual readiness. This is not easy because he comes to the text alone. In reading, one's responses are isolated, one'sintellect thrown back on its own resourses. To be confronted by the cold abstractions of printed sentences is to look upon language bare, without the assistance of either beauty or community. Thus, reading is by its nature a serious business. It is also, of course, an essentially rational activity.
The best method for a given teacher is the one which is most familiar to the teacher.
Do not be an arrogant scholar, for scholarship cannot subsist with arrogance.
The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine.
A democratic society depends upon an informed and educated citizenry.
Censoring books that deal with difficult, adolescent issues does not protect anybody. Quite the opposite. It leaves kids in the darkness and makes them vulnerable. Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. Our children cannot afford to have the truth of the world withheld from them
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