Quotes from Dr. Maria MontessoriThe secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of a flaming imagination. The real preparation for education is the study of 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. The more the capacity to concentrate is developed, the more often the profound tranquility in work is achieved, then the clearer will be the manifestation of discipline within the child. The child is both hope and a promise for mankind. The role of education is to interest the child profoundly in an external activity to which he will give all of his potential. The activity of the child has always been looked upon as an expression of his vitality. But his activity is really the work he performs in building up the man he is to become. It is the incarnation of the human spirit. Education should no longer be mostly imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities. Our aim is not 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. Education must be reconstructed and based on the law of nature and not on the preconceived notions and prejudices of adult society. 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. Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future. It is the child who makes the man, and no man exists who was not made by the child he once was. It is the spirit of the child that can determine the course of human progress and lead it perhaps even to a greater form of civilization. It is true that we cannot make a genius. We can only give to each child the chance to fulfill his potential possibilities. The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence. Our schools show that children of different ages help one another. There are many things that no teacher can convey to a child of three, but a child of five can do it with ease. Work is necessary; it can be nothing less than a passion; a person is happy in accomplishment. Confidences would come more easily in the years they are longed for if they were invited in the years when living was exciting and every act a great adventure. If children are allowed free development and given occupation to correspond with their unfolding minds their natural goodness will shine forth. The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period birth to age six. For that is the time when man’s intelligence itself, his greatest implement is being formed. About Us / Montessori / Classroom / Teachers / F.A.Q.s |