Quotes on Montessori

To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.

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.

We teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master.

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.

Only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur.

Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The child is truly a miraculous being, and this should be felt deeply by the educator.

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’s parents are not his makers but his guardians.

Character formation cannot be taught. It comes from experience and not from explanation.

Free choice is one of the highest of all the mental processes.

The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence.

The human hand allows the mind to reveal itself.

The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self.

The first essential for the child’s development is concentration. The child who concentrates is immensely happy.

Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them.

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.