Inspirational Quotes on Child-Led Learning, Respectful Parenting, and Nature-Based Explorations For Parents and Educators

Child-led learning, respectful parenting, Montessori philosophy, and nature-based explorations are all cornerstones of holistic education that nurtures the whole child. These approaches prioritize the child’s autonomy, curiosity, and connection to the natural world, promoting a love for learning and emotional well-being. In this collection of inspirational quotes, parents and educators will find wisdom and guidance to guide their practice in creating enriching, empowering, and joyful learning environments for children. Whether you’re a seasoned educator or a newcomer to these philosophies, I hope these quotes will inspire and motivate you to embrace child-centered, respectful, and nature-infused education.

“How much fuller and richer life would be if we saw the child in all his greatness, all his beauty, instead of focusing on all his little mistakes?” – Maria Montessori

“Do we believe and constantly insist that cooperation among the peoples of the world is necessary in order to bring about peace? If so, what is needed first of all is a collaboration with children…. All our efforts will come to nothing until we remedy the great injustice done to the child, and remedy it by cooperating with him. If we are among the men of good will who yearn for peace, we must lay the foundation for peace ourselves, by working for the social world of the child.” – Maria Montessori

“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.” — Maria Montessori

“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.“ – Maria Montessori

“Children live in the world of their own interests, and the work they do there must be respected, for although many activities of children may seem pointless to grownups, nature is using them for her own ends. She is building mind and character as well as bone and muscle.” – Maria Montessori

Children have an anxious concern for living beings, and the satisfaction of this instinct fills them with delight. It is therefore easy to interest them in taking care of plants and especially of animals. Nothing awakens foresight in a small child such as this. When he knows that animals have need of him, that little plants will dry up if he does not water them, he binds together with a new thread of love for today’s passing moments with those of the morrow. ~Maria Montessori

If we change our whole attitude and say to ourselves, “My child knows what is best for him, Let us of course watch that he comes to no harm, but instead of trying to teach him our ways let us give him the freedom to live his little life in his own way,” then perhaps, if we are observant, we shall learn something about the ways of childhood. This is a new way to look at the responsibility which weighs so heavily on many parents. ~Maria Montessori

“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.” – Dr. Suess

Don’t ask yourself at the end of the day if you did everything right. Ask yourself what you learned and how well you loved, then grow from your answer. That is perfect parenting. – LR Knost

“It is time for a return to childhood, to simplicity, to running and climbing and laughing in the sunshine, to experiencing happiness instead of being trained for a lifetime of pursuing happiness. It is time to let children be children again.” – LR Knost

“Children become like the things they love.” – Maria Montessori

“What the hand does, the mind remembers.” – Maria Montessori

“There is no description, no image in any book that is capable of replacing the sight of real trees, and all of the life to be found around them in a real forest.” – Maria Montessori

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” – David Polis

“Let them look at the mountains and the stars up above. Let them look at the beauty of the waters and the trees and flowers on earth. They will then begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education.” – David Polis

“Every day in a hundred small ways, our children ask
‘Do you see me?’,
‘Do you hear me?’,
‘Do I matter?’.
Their behavior often reflects our response.” – LR Knost

“No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” – James Comer

“I would far rather write a prescription for safe outdoor play for my patients than see them five years later with depression, anxiety, and obesity.” – W. Kohatsu

“The person who is developing freely and naturally arrives at a spiritual equilibrium in which he is master of his actions, just as one who has acquired physical poise can move freely.” – Maria Montessori

“A child is a discoverer. He is an amorphous, splendid being in search of his own proper form.” – Maria Montessori

“Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.” – Unknown

“Let the children 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 damp 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.” – Maria Montessori

“A child’s imagination does not require magazine worth place spaces in order to thrive. An active imagination craves mud, fresh air, sunshine, and freedom.” – Brooke Hampton

“My vision of the future is no longer of people taking exams and proceeding from secondary school to University but of passing from one stage of independence to a higher, by means of their own activity and effort of will.” — Maria Montessori

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“If we could say; “We are respectful and courteous in our dealing with children, we treat them as we should like to be treated ourselves,” we should have mastered a great educational principle and be setting an example of a good education.” – Maria Montessori

“Having a parent who listens, creates a child who believes he or she has a voice that matters in this world.” – Rachel Macy Stafford

“Our aim is not only 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 do not want complacent pupils, but eager ones.” – Maria Montessori

“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 fear of what we call a ‘punishment’…. Every victory
and every advance in human progress comes from an inner compulsion.” – Maria Montessori

“As soon as children find something that interests them, they lose their instability and learn to concentrate.” – Maria Montessori

“Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.” – Mark Twain

“Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples, and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself.” ― William Martin

“The senses, being explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge. Our apparatus for educating the senses offers the child a key to guide his explorations of the world.” – Maria Montessori

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” ― James Baldwin

“It is not true that I invented what is called the Montessori Method… 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.” – Maria Montessori

“Nothing else ever will make you as happy or as sad, as proud or as tired, for nothing is quite as hard as helping a person develop his own individuality especially while you struggle to keep your own.” – M Kelly

“The only language men ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood when no one can teach them anything!” – Maria Montessori

“The 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 flaming imagination. ” – Maria Montessori

“Children are not the people of tomorrow but are people of today. They have a right to be taken seriously, and to be treated with tenderness and respect. They should be allowed to grow into whoever they were meant to be. ‘The unknown person’ inside of them is our hope for the future.” ― Janusz Korczak

“When I say to a parent, “read to a child”, I don’t want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.” – Mem Fox

” The respect and protection of women and of maternity should be raised to the position of an inalienable social duty and should become one of the principles of human morality. ” – Maria Montessori

“Effective parenting and, more specifically, effective discipline, don’t require punishment. Equating discipline with punishment is an unfortunate, but common misconception. The root word in discipline is actually disciple which in the verb form means to guide, lead, teach, model, and encourage. In the noun form disciple means one who embraces the teaching of, follows the example of, and models their life after.” – LR Knost

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” – Antoine de Saint Exupéry

“If we hope to create a non-violent world where respect and kindness replace fear and hatred, we must begin with how we treat each other at the beginning of life. For that is where our deepest patterns are set. From these roots grow fear and alienation – or love and trust.” – Suzanne Arms

“If you like to make things out of wood or sew, or dance, or style people’s hair, or dream up stories and act them out, or play the trumpet, or jump rope, or whatever you really love to do, and you love that in front of your children, that’s going to be a far more important gift than anything you could ever give them wrapped up in a box with ribbons.” – Fred M. Rogers

“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.” – Rachel Carson

“Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.” – L. B. Johnson

“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” – Mother Teresa

“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.” – Maria Montessori

“Adult’s role is to teach children limits with love or the world will teach them without it.” — Paula Polk Lillard

“Adults have not understood children or adolescents and they are, as a consequence, in continual conflict with them. The remedy is not that adults should gain some new intellectual knowledge or achieve a higher standard of culture. No, they must find a different point of departure. The adult must find within himself the still unknown error that prevents him from seeing the child as he is.” – Maria Montessori

“One becomes a well-balanced adult only if one has fully been a child.” – Maria Montessori

“A child is a discoverer. He is an amorphous, splendid being in search of his own proper form.” — Maria Montessori

“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.” —Leo Tolstoy

Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful, it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living a heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.” LR Knost

“We need a renaissance of wonder. We need to renew, in our hearts and in our souls, the deathless dream, the eternal poetry, the perennial sense that life is miracle and magic.” – E. Merrill Root

“Do not erase the designs the child makes in the soft wax of her inner life.” – Maria Montessori

“It is crucial that when your children look into your eyes, regardless of circumstances bearing down on them, what they see is someone that believes in them. But that same power causes devastation when a child encounters an angry, irresponsibly mouthed parent. That is death to the heart and vision of a child. As parents, we especially carry this powerful responsibility. We are very powerful. Point that power carefully.” – Danny Silk

“The prize and the punishment are incentives toward the unnatural or forced effort, and, therefore we certainly cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with them.” – Maria Montessori

“… because we evolved in nature, we have a biological need to connect with it. We love nature because we learned to love the things that helped us survive. We feel comfortable in nature because that is where we have lived for most of life on earth. We are genetically determined to love the natural world. It is in our DNA.” – Qing Li.

“Everything you do for me, you take away from me.” – Maria Montessori

“The small child walks to develop his powers, he is building up his being. He goes slowly. He has neither rhythmic step nor goal. But things around him allure him and urge him forward.”
— Paula Polk Lillard

“A child, more than anyone else, is a spontaneous observer of nature.” – Maria Montessori

“The environment is in us, not outside of us. The trees are our lungs, the rivers our bloodstream. We are all interconnected, and what you do to the environment ultimately you do to yourself. ” – Ian Somerhalder

“Every child has a different learning style and pace. Each child is unique, not only capable of learning but also capable of succeeding. ” – Robert John Meehan

“If children live with criticism, They learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, They learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule, They learn to be shy.
If children live with shame, They learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, They learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, They learn to be patient.
If children live with praise, They learn to appreciate.
If children live with acceptance, They learn to love.
If children live with approval, They learn to like themselves.
If children live with honesty, They learn truthfulness.
If children live with security, They learn to have faith in themselves and others.
If children live with friendliness, They learn the world is a nice place in which to live.”
― Dorothy Law Nolte

“When a child’s life is full of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, textures, people, and places, he will learn. When he feels safe and loved, he’ll learn. When parents begin to recover from their own ideas of what learning should look like (what they remember from school) they will begin a new life of natural learning, too.” – Santra Dodd

“Everyone in the world ought to do the things for which he is specially adapted. It is the part of wisdom to recognize what each one of us is best fitted for, and it is the part of education to perfect and utilize such predispositions. Because education can direct and aid nature but can never transform her.” – Maria Montessori

“What advice can we give to mothers? Their children need to work at an interesting occupation;
they should not be helped unnecessarily, nor interrupted, once they have begun to do something purposeful.” – Maria Montessori

“As a rule … we do not respect our children. We try to force them to follow us without regard to their special needs. We are overbearing with them, and above all, rude; and then we expect them to be submissive and well-behaved, knowing all the time how strong is their instinct of imitation and how touching their faith in and admiration of us.” – Maria Montessori

“If salvation and help are to come, it is through the child; for the child is the constructor of man.” – Maria Montessori

“Research suggests that optimal parent-child relationship at any stage of development can be recognized by its balance between parents’ acknowledgment of the child’s immaturity – shown by providing structure, control, and regiment (demandingness) – and the parents’ acknowledgment of the child’s emergence as a confident, competent person – shown by providing stimulation, warmth, and respect for individuality (responsiveness).” – Baumrind

“Free choice is one of the highest of all the mental processes.” – Maria Montessori

“Every great cause is born from repeated failures and from imperfect achievements.” – Maria Montessori

“Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them.” – Maria Montessori

“When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength”. – Maria Montessori

“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.” – Maria Montessori

“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.” – Maria Montessori

“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” – David Attenborough

“All human victories, all human progress, stand upon the inner force. Thus a young student may become a great doctor if he is spurred to his study by an interest which makes medicine his real vocation. But if he works in the hope of an inheritance, or of making a desirable marriage, or if indeed he is inspired by any material advantage, he will never become a true master or a great doctor, and the world will never make one step forward because of his work.” The Montessori Method

“The “Children’s House” is a garden of child culture, and we most certainly do not keep the children for so many hours in school with the idea of making students of them!… Considering the method as a while, we must begin our work by preparing the child for the forms of social life, and we must attract his attention to these forms.” The Montessori Method

“The first dawning of real discipline comes through work. At a given moment it happens that a child becomes keenly interested in a piece of work showing it by the expression of his face, by his intense attention, by his perseverance in the same exercise. That child has set foot upon the road leading to discipline. Whatever be his undertaking – an exercise for the senses, an exercise in buttoning up or lacing together, or washing dishes – it is all one and the same.” The Montessori Method

“There will come a day when the directress herself shall be filled with wonder to see that all the children obey her with gentleness and affection, not only ready, but intent, at a sign from her. They will look toward her who has made them live, and will hope and desire to receive from her, new life.” The Montessori Method

“I felt this, intuitively, and believed that not the didactic material, but my voice which called to them, awakened the children, and encouraged them to use the didactic material, and through it, to educate themselves. I was guided in my work by the deep respect which I felt for their misfortune, and by love which these unhappy children know how to awaken in those who are near them.”
The Montessori Method

“Today we hold the pupils in school, restricted by those instruments so degrading to body and spirit, the desk and material prizes and punishments. Our aim in all this is to reduce them to the discipline of immobility and silence, – to lead them, – where? Far too often towards no definite end. Often the education of children consists in pouring into their intelligence the intellectual content of school programmes. And often these programmes have been imposed by law upon the teacher and the child. Ah, before such dense and wilful disregard of the life which is growing within these children, we should hide our heads in shame and cover our guilty faces with our hands! Sergi says truly: “Today an urgent need imposes itself upon society: the reconstruction of methods in education and instruction, and he who fights for this cause fights for human regeneration.”
The Montessori Method

“This idea of the collective ownership of the school is new and very beautiful and profoundly educational. … The mothers may go at any hour of the day to watch, to admire, or to meditate upon the life there. It is in every way a continual stimulus to reflection, and a fount of evident blessing and help to their children. We may say that the mothers adore the “Children’s House,” and the directress. How many delicate and thoughtful attentions these good mothers show the teacher of their little ones! They often leave sweets or flowers upon the sill of the schoolroom window, as a silent token, reverently, almost religiously, given.”
The Montessori Method

“It may be that the life lived by the very poor is a thing which some of you here today have never actually looked upon in all its degradation. … The soul of the people is being set free from the torpor of vice, from the shadows of ignorance. The little children too have a ‘House’ of their own. The new generation goes forward to meet the new era, the time when misery shall no longer be deplored but destroyed. They go to meet the time when the dark dens of vice and wretchedness shall have become things of the past, and when no trace of them shall be found among the living.” … What a change of emotions we should experience and how we should hasten here, as the wise men guided by a dream and star hastened to Bethlehem!”
The Montessori Method

“The enormous majority of citizens are honest without any regard whatever to the threats of the law. The real punishment of normal man is the loss of the consciousness of that individual power and greatness which are the sources of his inner life. A man whom we would consider crowned by happiness and fortune may be suffering from this form of punishment. Far too often man does not see the real punishment which threatens him. And it is just here that education may help.”
The Montessori Method

“No teacher can furnish the child with the agility which he acquires through gymnastic exercises: it is necessary that the pupil perfect himself through his own efforts…; a man is not what he is because of the teacher he has had, but because of what he has done. “
The Montessori Method

“Repetition is the secret to perfection, and this is why the exercises are connected with the common activities of daily life. If a child does not set a table for a group of people who are really going to eat, if he does not have real brushes for cleaning, and real carpets to sweep whenever they are used, if he does not himself have to wash and dry dishes and glasses he will never attain any real ability. And if he does not live a social life based on proper education. He will never attain that graceful naturalness which is so attractive in our children.”

The Discovery of the Child

“It is the child who builds up the man, the child alone. The adult cannot take his place in this work; the exclusion of the adult from the child’s “world” and ”work” is still more evident and more absolute than the exclusion of the child from the work producing the social order superimposed on nature in which the adult reigns. The child’s work belongs to another order and has a wholly different force from the work of the adult. Indeed one might say that the one is opposed to the other. The child’s work is done unconsciously, in abandonment to a mysterious spiritual energy, actively engaged in creation. ”
The Secret of Childhood,

“It is tremendously important that we should understand the spontaneous way in which the child develops himself. We are so anxious to help, to us it seems the burden of growth and development is so great that we must do all we can to make the pathway easy. And so our love may easily overreach itself and by providing too many urges, too many cautions and corrections.”

Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“Being active with one’s own hands, having a determined practical aim to reach, is what really gives inner discipline. When the hand perfects itself in a work chosen spontaneously and the will to succeed is born together with the will to overcome difficulties or obstacles; it is then that something which differs from intellectual learning arises. The realisation of one’s own value is born in the consciousness. ”
Childhood to Adolescence

“We must take man himself, take him with patience and confidence, across all the planes of education. We must put everything before him, the school, culture, religion, the world itself. We must help him to develop within himself that which will make him capable of understanding. It is not merely words, it is a labour of education. This will be a preparation for peace – for peace cannot exist without justice and without men endowed with a strong personality and a strong conscience. ” Citizen of the World

“Free activity makes children happy. We can see how happy they are, but it is not the fact that they are happy that is important; the important thing is that a child can construct a man through this free activity. ” The 1946 London Lectures

“If we correct a child we must do so very gently. We must be his interpreter; this must be our first act of charity to the human being. ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“We say that we correct them for their own good, and a great deal of the time we honestly believe it. But it is strange how often what we feel to their good amounts to the same thing as our own comfort. ”
Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents, p. 43

“The apparent fatigue of the child between the first and second period of work is interesting; at that moment the aspect of the child is not calm and happy as at the end of the curve; indeed, he shows signs of agitation, moves about, and walks, but does not disturb the others. It may be said that he is in search of the maximum satisfaction for his interest, and is preparing for his ‘great work’. But, on the other hand, when the cycle is completed, the child detaches himself from his internal concentration; refreshed and satisfied, he experiences the higher social impulses, such as desiring to make confidences and to hold intimate communion with other souls. ”
The Advanced Montessori

“Any child who is self-sufficient, who can tie his shoes, dress or undress himself, reflects in his joy and sense of achievement the image of human dignity, which is derived from a sense of independence. ”
The Child in the Family

“Children have an anxious concern for living beings, and therefore the satisfaction of this instinct fills them with delight. It is therefore easy to interest them in taking care of plants and especially of animals. Nothing awakens foresight in a small child, who lives as a rule for the passing moment and without care for the morrow, so much as this. ”
The Discovery of the Child, p. 73

“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 Absorbent Mind

“We need to change our attitude and see the greatness of the child’s achievements rather than the small and dry leaves of his errors (errors we have caused). ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“Great evils are not resolved by alleviating a collective error. Take the case of woman’s emancipation: it is not a question of giving women a few more rights, but of recognizing a human personality full of vigor, capable of giving a great and sure contribution to the progress of humanity.”

Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“Work for a child must possess some variety within itself. A child does not have to know the reasons for sowing or reaping to have his interest aroused. He will readily undertake very simple actions which have an immediate end or which permit him to use some special effort. He will for example, gladly pluck weeds from paths or furrows, sweep up dried leaves or carry away an old branch. In a word, to have a field of activity and occasion for new experiences bring satisfaction to the animating spirit which prompts a child to make its way in the world. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“…when we speak of the freedom of a small child, we do not mean to countenance the external disorderly actions which children left to themselves engage in as a relief from their aimless activity, but we understand by this the freeing of his life from the obstacles which can impede his normal development. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“The children, by carefully directing their movements, had overcome the defect in this piece of furniture. The simplicity or imperfection of external objects often serves to develop the activity and the dexterity of the pupils.”

The Montessori Method

“Since the child now learns to move rather than to sit still, he prepares himself not for the school, but for life. The liberty of the child should have its limits the collective interest; We must, therefore, check in the child whatever offends or annoys others, or whatever tends toward rough or ill-bred acts.”

The Montessori Method

“We habitually serve children; and this is not only an act of servility toward them, but it is dangerous, since it tends to suffocate their useful, spontaneous activity. We are inclined to believe that children are like puppets, and we wash them and feed them as if they were dolls. We do not stop to think that the child who does not do, does not know how to do.”

The Montessori Method

“Independence is not a static condition; it is a continuous conquest, and in order to reach not only freedom, but also strength, and the perfecting on one’s powers, it is necessary to follow this path of unremitting toil. ”
The Absorbent Mind

“We must give him the means and encourage him. ‘Courage, my dear, courage! You are a new man that must adapt to this new world. Go on triumphantly. I am here to help you.’ This kind of encouragement is instinctive in those who love children. ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“In our plan for the education of little children we must create an attractive environment. Into this environment we must put everything that is good for the mind, along with an understanding and affectionate person…. Naughtiness will disappear if we give children the right environment at a sufficiently early age. This environment must provide a great deal of mental food and warm, loving treatment. ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“We must study the correlation between life and the environment. In nature all is correlated. This is the purpose of nature. Nature is not concerned just with the conservation of individual life or with the betterment of itself. It is a harmony, a plan of construction. Everything fits into the plan: rocks, earth, water, plants, man, etc. ” The 1946 London Lectures

“Those whom nature has fitted to care for children see a change in them every day, almost every hour. They see these small changes as admirable. This is an art which cannot be acquired without effort. To encourage is to rejoice, so that the child sees that you are rejoicing. ” The 1946 London Lectures

“The mind of the child takes elements from the environment and incarnates them into his being. This does not happen through heredity, but is the consequence of a creative potential within the child. All children in the world follow this law, in the same way, with the same intensity. The creative potential of the child is not the prerogative of one race or another; it is inherent in the nature of the child. ”
Citizen of the World

“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. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“In school the teacher stands by, she does not correct or interfere with the child’s work. When something goes wrong she waits to be asked for help, but most often a child persists until he himself does it right. This is perseverance, the beginning of will power which is so important a part of personality. ”
Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“I am about to describe a lesson which proved most successful in teaching the perfect silence to which it is possible to attain… I took her [ infant] in my arms, where she lay quiet and good… I went into the schoolroom with the children clustered about me… I said to them, ” I have brought you a little teacher… None of you can breathe so silently as she.” Surprised glances and laughter. ” A little teacher, yes, because none of you know how to be as quiet as she does.” At this all the children changed their positions and became quiet…The children looked serious. The idea of the superiority of the little teacher seemed to have reached them… The children looked about amazed, they had never thought that even when sitting quietly they were making noises, and that the silence of a little babe is more profound than the silence of grown people. They almost ceased to breathe… The little one seemed to have left behind her a subtle charm which enveloped the souls of children. Indeed, there is in nature nothing more sweet than the silent breathing of a new-born babe. There is an indescribable majesty about this human life which in repose and silence gathers strength and newness of life. ” The Montessori Method

“If the adult, through a fatal misunderstanding, instead of helping the child to do things for himself, substitutes himself for the child, then that adult becomes the blindest and most powerful obstacle to the development of the child’s psychic life. In this misunderstanding, in the excessive competition between adult work and child work, lies the first great drama of the struggle between man and his work, and perhaps the origin of all the dramas and struggles of mankind. ” The Secret of Childhood

“There can be no doubt of the fact that a child absorbs an enormous number of impressions from his environment and that external help given to this natural instinct kindles within him a lively enthusiasm. In this way education can be a real help to the natural development of the mind. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“Children indeed love flowers, but they need to do something more than remain among them and contemplate their coloured blossoms. They find their greatest pleasure in acting, in knowing, in exploring, even apart from the attraction of external beauty. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“I do say that ‘don’ts’ are far less effective – indeed they are often definitely harmful when they fill a young child with fear or resentment – than providing him with some alternative activity at which he may work joyfully, forgetting all about the previous activity or behaviour which you were anxious for him to stop. ”
Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“We had seen that nature prepares indirectly the embryo; she issues no orders until the organs have been prepared for obedience. Character can be built only in the same way. Nothing is gained by mere imitation or forced obedience; there must be inner preparation by which obedience becomes possible, and such preparation is indirect. Very clearly stands out the necessity for a prepared environment for children, and freedom wherein the soul can expand its powers. ”
Education for a New World

“Children are so responsive that if you treat your child with kindness and consideration he too will be kind. If you let him pursue his own little affairs and interests undisturbed, you will find that he will be less inclined to disturb yours. Try to interfere with him as little as possible, there is no need to worry about him growing up ignorant or ill-mannered. Instead he will be observant and intelligent, independent and persevering, and these qualities lie at the root of personality. ”
Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“The punishment, so frequent in schools, which consists in subjecting the culprit to public reprimand and is almost tantamount to the torture of the pillory, fills the soul with a crazy, unreasoning fear of public opinion, even of an opinion, manifestly unjust and false. ”
Citizen of the Worldf

“Love is more than the electricity which lightens our darkness, more than the etheric waves that transmit our voices across space, more than any of the energies that man has discovered and learned to use. Of all things love is the most potent. ”
The Absorbent Mind

“We can love our children so dearly that it makes us blind to what is best for them. We can desire so eagerly that they shall grow into fine men and women that we correct and frustrate them at every turn without once realising that they have within themselves the power of their own development. ”
Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“Children should be made to realise that all great achievements in culture and in the arts, all sciences and industries that have brought benefit to humanity, are due to the work of men who often struggled in obscurity and under conditions of great hardship; men driven by a profound passion, by an inner fire, to create with their research, with their work, new benefits not only for the people who lived in their times, but also for those of the future. We must convey to the children the nobility of this altruism. ”
Citizen of the World

“I have seen that children can do much for the community. In the child is much knowledge, much wisdom. If we do not profit from it, it is only because of neglect on our part to become humble and to see the wonder of this soul and learn what the child can teach. ”
Citizen of the World

“The child has a fundamental role in the construction of the human being. If the dignity and the rights of workers are recognised, so should be the dignity and the rights of the worker who produces man. Based on the affirmation of the child’s dignity, we have to ensure the child’s right and freedom to grow and develop wholesomely, so that he can contribute to human progress with all his faculties, thus fulfilling the task assigned to him by nature. ”
Citizen of the World

“When work has become a habit, the intellectual level rises rapidly, and organised order causes good conduct to become a habit. Children then work with order, perseverance, and discipline, persistently and naturally; the permanent, calm and vivifying work of the physical organism resembles the respiratory rhythm. ”
The Advanced Montessori Method Volume I

“Just as we cannot directly help the child’s body to grow into manhood, so we cannot form his mind or character for him. But we can supply his mental needs as we supply his bodily ones and both should be treated in an equally scientific way. ”
Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“The children, who live a life more pure than ours, are divine workers; without pretensions, without pride, they accomplish humanity’s magnum opus: the construction of man. And those who assist in this great work are enriched by the children’s spiritual values and are elevated. The superiority and condescension evinced by adults towards the child crumble and, instead, a sense of humility emerges, the same sense that is evoked in him who succeeds in tearing the veil that hides the secrets of creation. ”
Citizen of the World

“There are many who hold, as I do, that 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. For that is the time when man’s intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed. But not only his intelligence; the full totality of his psychic powers. ”
The Absorbent Mind

“What is most wanted is no patronizing charity for humanity, but a reverent consciousness of its dignity and worth. ”
To Educate the Human Potential

“If we study the psychology of children aged between three and six, we see that movement, and especially the movement of the hand, plays a most important part in mental development of children in this age group… Movement of the hand is essential. Little children revealed that the development of the mind is stimulated by the movement of the hands. The hand is the instrument of the intelligence. The child needs to manipulate objects and to gain experience by touching and handling.”
The 1946 London Lectures

“Directing our action toward mankind means, first and foremost, doing so with regard to the child. The child, that ‘forgotten citizen’, must be appreciated in accordance with his true value. His rights as a human being who shapes all of mankind must become sacred, and the secret laws of his normal psychic development must light the way for civilisation. ”

Education and Peace

“The teacher of children up to six years of age knows that she has helped mankind in an essential part of its formation…. She will be able to say: ‘I have served the spirits of those children, and they have fulfilled their development, and I kept them company in their experiences.’ ”
The Absorbent Mind

“The child who has never learned to act alone, to direct his own actions, to govern his own will, grows into an adult who is easily led and must always lean upon others. ”
Citizen of the World

“The satisfaction which they find in their work has given them a grace and ease like that which comes from music. ”

The Discovery of the Child

“The child has the capacity to educate himself, not in typical schools with their exact syllabuses where children must be obedient, but at a school where he is not controlled, does not have to compete, but can work with enthusiasm according to natural laws. If we do not know these laws and respect them, then we are in danger of spoiling this great work of the child’s. ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“The teacher, in this first period, before concentration has shown itself, must be like the flame which heartens all by its warmth, enlivens and invites. ” The Absorbent Mind

“…the principle that a teacher must have special training that is not simply intellectual but which also touches the heart… is only a first, if essential, step in the process of awakening the soul of the child. A child’s own activities must then find the means that lead to its own development. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“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 in the Family

“Teachers should cultivate a staunch belief in their mission. Only then will it be possible to create a new world through education. However, if this highest of aims is to be attained, also educational methods must radically change to become an active aid to the psychic development of the child, in an environment prepared following dictates culled from exhaustive study and diligent research. ”
Citizen of the World

“Adults must defend children. We adults must see the real humanity in children, the humanity which will take our place one day, if we are to have social progress. Social progress means that the next generation is better than the one before. ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“The question is to bring about a radical change in the way we view human relations, endeavouring to influence men’s consciousness by giving them new ideals, fighting indifference and incomprehension; to awaken in person’s spirit a sense of gratitude towards others. This can also be done with children. In fact, these endeavours should begin with the children, giving them the opportunity to reflect on the social value of work, on the beauty of labour carried out by others, whereby the common effort enriches the life of all. ”
Citizen of the World

“We can sum this up in two sentences; the first actually said by a child to his teacher: ‘Help me to do it by myself’. The other is one we gave: ‘Every useless help is an obstacle to development’. ”
Citizen of the World

“A child is constantly inspecting his surroundings, his “house”; and when a chair is out of place, making the room look disorderly, we can be certain that it will be the smallest children who will notice it. Before a child reaches the age of three, the highest form of work and the most ennobling that engages him is that of arranging furniture and putting things in order, and it is also the one that calls for the greatest activity. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“An inner change has taken place, but nature is quite logical in arousing now in the child not only a hunger for knowledge and understanding, but a claim to mental independence, a desire to distinguish good from evil by his own powers, and to resent limitation by arbitrary authority. In the field of morality, the child now stands in need of his own inner light. ”
To Educate the Human Potential

“The environment itself will teach the child, if every error he makes is manifest to him, without the intervention of a parent or teacher, who should remain a quiet observer of all that happens. ”
The Child in the Family

“The characteristic of children under 6 years of age is that it is almost impossible to teach them; children of this age cannot take from a teacher. Therefore they are considered to be too young to go to school and therefore education does not begin until 6 years of age. Another characteristic of this age is that the children know and understand a great deal. They are full of knowledge. This would seem to be a contradiction, but the truth is that these children must take knowledge by themselves from the environment. ”
The Child, Society and the World

“We must help them to learn how to walk without assistance, to run, to go up and down stairs, to pick up fallen objects, to dress and undress, to wash themselves, to express their needs in a way that is clearly understood, and to attempt to satisfy their desires through their own efforts. All this is part of education for independence. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“In serving the child, one serves life; in helping nature one rises to the next stage, that of super-nature, for to go upward is a law of life. And it is the children who have made this beautiful staircase that mounts ever higher. ”
The Absorbent Mind

“On every teacher and every parent, I urge not great instruction, but humility and simplicity in dealing with small children. Their lives are fresh, without rivalry or external ambitions, it takes so little to make them happy, to let them work in their own way towards the normal development of the men and women they will be. ”
Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“Clearly, we have a social duty towards this future man, this man who exists as a silhouette around the child, a duty towards this man of tomorrow. Perhaps a great future leader or a great genius is with us and his power will come from the power of the child he is today. This is the vision which we must have. ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“The hands help the development of the intellect. When a child is capable of using his hands, he can have a quantity of experiences in the environment through using them. In order to develop his consciousness, then his intellect, and then his will, he must have exercises and experiences. ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“The child is a great worker. The child is important, not because he needs our love, not because he needs our protection, not because he is a poor beggar, but because he is the creator of man. The child is important, for his powers, though mysterious, are intelligible. We must understand the child’s needs in order to be of help to him. ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“A child has learned not only to keep silent, but when he should be silent. He has not only learned the various kinds of greetings, but he has also learned which one to use with another child, with his mother or father, with a stranger, or with one who is old and respected. In other words, he must use according to time and circumstances the many things which he has learned perfectly. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“Your little sons and daughters are men and women in the making. Let them keep their childish secret and you will have the satisfaction of having them turn to you for help when they need it, and you will see over the years how the secret of their childhood grows into adult firmness of character and a fine independence. ” Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“Man has abandoned the natural path of life for the fatal way of civilisation…The child is entirely in the care of the adults, and they, unless lighted by wisdom of nature or science, will present the greatest obstacle in the child’s life. ” Education for a New World

“The child who has to sit still listening to a teacher is in the worst possible state of mind and body for learning. Likewise, the child whose life at home is strictly ordered according to the convenience of grown-ups without knowledge or consideration of the natural movement and active interest of childhood is in the worst possible state of mind and body, either for obedience or good manners. ”
Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“The child’s type of mind is an absorbing mind; it absorbs whatever is around it. An adult’s mind elaborates. We call the child’s mind the absorbent mind. It is a mind endowed with special psychic powers, which we lose later, because whatever we adults want to acquire we have to acquire with effort and fatigue. . A marvellous fact is that this absorbent mind never feels fatigue. It is just like a camera: it clicks, and everything is there all of a sudden. ”
The 1946 London Lectures

“The educator must be as one inspired by a deep worship of life, and must, through this reverence, respect, while he observes with human interest, the development of the child life….There exists only one real biological manifestation: the living individual; and toward single individuals, one by one observed, education must direct itself. ”
The Discovery of the Child

“When we give the child the possibility to fix his attention in an orderly fashion upon some objects which also permit a motor exercise, we give such clearness to the mind of the child. This clearness gives a new fascination and a new impulse, a new mode of observation. ”
The Montessori Approach to Music

“The laws governing the universe can be made interesting and wonderful to the child, more interesting even than 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? ”
To Educate the Human Potential

“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 Absorbent Mind

“How often I have heard worried mothers complain that their children never seem able to keep still for two minutes in a row. And I always answer, “Of course children cannot keep still on demand; it is not natural. But as for being little fidgets, that is another matter. It is easy enough to stop that.” Fidgeting is aimless movement, and a healthy child does not move aimlessly as a rule, unless he is thwarted in some way. What so many parents do not realize is that continual movement is natural to children, and that they develop through activity. Of course these are times when it is necessary that a child should keep still – you have just dressed your daughter to go out, for instance, and you cannot have her tearing off to the garden to make mud pies. Well, there is an alternative to sitting her down and simply telling her to keep still until you are ready. Have you been observing her carefully? What, then, is her latest interest in a quiet activity? Perhaps only half an hour ago you saw her absorbed in fitting the key in the door and turning the lock. If you have a little case with a lock and key, then give it to her. If she takes it with interest and immediately begins fitting the key and undoing the catch, you will be surprised to see how long she will keep herself occupied.” Maria Montessori Speaks To Parents

“The “Children’s House” is the environment which is offered to the child that he may be given the opportunity of developing his activities. This kind of school is not of a fixed type, but may vary according to the financial resources at disposal and to the opportunities afforded by the environment. It out to be a real house; that is to say, a set of rooms with a garden of which the children are masters. A garden which contains shelters is ideal, because the children can play or sleep under them, and can also bring their table out to work or dine… The special characteristics of the equipment of these houses is that it is adapted for children and not adults. They contain not only didactic material specially fitted for the intellectual development of the child, but also a complete equipment for the management of the miniature family.” Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

“Agreeable manners. Incident. – “Is it true, Miss, that the village church is more than a kilometer from here? My mother has ordered me to go there. I thought I had arrived, and I was so pleased. I have come a long way, and I am so very, very tired.” “Indeed,” replied the girl, who was standing at the gate of her home, “you are still a kilometer and a half from the church. But come through my gate, and take the short cut I will show you through my fields. You will get to the church in five minutes.” What an amiable girl!

Successive relations of cause and effect. – The village girl showed amenity to the little traveler. The latter reached the church quickly, was saved much fatigue, and felt great relief.

Memory. – Have you always been pleasant to your companions? Have you always been ready to lend a comrade anything he has asked for? Have you always thanked those who have done you favors in an agreeable manner?

Comparison, association, abstraction. – Comparison between an agreeable child and a boorish one.

Judgment, reasoning. – Why is it necessary to be courteous to all? Is it sufficient to give help solely to show oneself to be amiable?

Sentiments. – He who is amiable has a soul rich in sweetness and suavity. What sympathy he evokes in all! The disagreeable person is irritated by trifles. He excites disgust and fear in others. He who is affable shows love to his neighbor.

Volition. – Children, accustom yourselves to be pleasant to every one. You should be pleasant when you are conferring some favor, otherwise the favor will seem irksome. When you want something, do you ask for it arrogantly? If so, it will be easier to say no than yes to you. On the other hand, if you ask politely for something, will it not be difficult to refuse you?” – Spontaneous Activity in Education

“The teacher must never substitute his own intelligence for that of the child, but rather make the child himself think, and induce him to exercise his own activity…In the definition period, the master should not say: ” A bird is a vertebrate animal covered with feathers; it has two limbs which have been transformed into wings,” but by rapid questions, corrections, and analogies, he should induce the child to find the precise definition for himself.” Spontaneous Activity in Education

“The child that has to adapt himself to the environment can only adapt to it by copying others. If children did not copy, each man would start a new civilisation and there would be no continuity. Human evolution is continuous because small children copy the older ones. The continuity of man is not a result of heredity but of imitation. ” The 1946 London Lectures

“Although the adult relegates the child to an existence among toys, and inexorably denies him those exercises which would promote his internal development, he claims that the child should imitate him in the moral sphere. The adult says to the child: “Do as I do.” The child is to become a man, not by training and development, but by imitation. It is as if a father were to say in the morning to his little one: “Look at me, see how tall I am; when I return this evening, I shall expect you to have grown a foot.” Spontaneous Activity in Education

“If a robust and brutal criminal can perish from starvation of the soul, what will be the fate of the infant if we take no account of his spiritual needs? His body is fragile, his bones are in process of growth, his muscles, overloaded with sugar, cannot yet elaborate their powers; they can only elaborate themselves; the delicate structure of his organism requires, it is true, nutriment and oxygen; but if its functions are to be satisfactorily performed, it requires joy. It is a joyous spirit which causes “the bones of man to exult.” Spontaneous Activity in Education

“The psychical salvation of children is based upon the means and the liberty to live, and these should become another of the “natural rights” accorded to the new generations; established as a social and philosophic conception, it should supersede the present “obligation to provide instruction,” which is a burden not only on State economy but also on the vigor of posterity. If the psychical phenomena of the children in the national schools do not tend to enrich psychology, they become ends in themselves, just as the beautify of Nature is an end in itself.” Spontaneous Activity in Education

“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 tomorrow will be the intelligent, divine creation, man… On the same positive lines along which [science] has improved the health and saved the physical life of the children, it is bound in the future to benefit and to reinforce their inner life, which is the real human life. On the same positive lines science will proceed to direct the development of the intelligence, of character, and of those latent creative forces which lie hidden in the marvelous embryo of man’s spirit.” Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

“The functions to be established by the child fall into two groups: (1) the motor functions by which he is to secure his balance and learn to walk, and to coordinate his movements; (2) the sensory functions through which, receiving sensations from his environment, he lays the foundations of his intelligence by a continual exercise of observation, comparison and judgment. In this way he gradually comes to be acquainted with his environment and to develop his intelligence. ” Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

“In the sitting-room, or “club-room,” a kind of parlor in which the children amuse themselves by conversation, games, or music, etc., the furnishings should be especially tasteful. Little tables of different sizes, little armchairs and sofas should be placed here and there. Many brackets of all kinds and sizes, upon which may be put statuettes, artistic vases or framed photographs, should adorn the walls; and, above all, each child should have a little flower-pot, in which he may sow the seed of some indoor plant, to tend and cultivate it as it grows. On the table of this sitting-room should be placed large albums of colored pictures, and also games of patience, or various geometric solids, with which the children can play at pleasure, constructing figures, etc. A piano, or, better, other musical instruments, possibly harps of small dimensions, made especially for children, completes the equipment. In this “club-room” the teacher may sometimes entertain the children with stories, which will attract a circle of interested listeners.” Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

“The Dressing Room. Here each child has his own little cupboard or shelf. In the middle of the room there are very simple washstands, consisting of tables, on each of which stand a small basin, soap and nail-brush. Against the wall stand little sinks with water-taps. Here the children may draw and pour away their water. There is no limit to the equipment of the “Children’s House” because the children themselves do everything. They sweep the rooms, dust and wash the furniture, polish the brasses, lay and clear away the table, wash up, sweep and roll up the rugs, wash a few little clothes, and cook eggs. As regards their personal toilet, the children know how to dress and undress themselves. They hang their clothes on little hooks, placed very low so as to be within reach of a little child, or else they fold up such articles of clothing, as their little serving-aprons, of which they take great care, and lay them inside a cupboard kept for the household linen. I short, where the manufacture of toys has been brought to such a point of complication and perfection that children have at their disposal entire dolls’ houses, complete wardrobes for dressing and undressing dolls, kitchens where they can pretend to cook, toy animals as nearly life-like possible, this method seeks to give all this to the child in reality – making him an actor in a living scene. ” Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

“The technique of my method as it follows the guidance of the natural physiological and psychical development of the child, may be divided into three parts:

Motor education.
Sensory education.
Language.

The care and management of the environment itself afford the principal means of motor education, while sensory education and the education of language are provided for by my didactic material.” Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

“Education of the movements is one of the principal factors in producing that outward appearance of “discipline” to be found in the ” Children’s Houses.” … Muscular education has reference to:

The primary movements of everyday life (walking, rising, sitting, handling objects).
The care of the person.
Management of the household.
Gardening.
Manual work.
Gymnastic exercises.
Rhythmic movements.”

Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook

“We must not set ourselves the educational problem of seeking means whereby to organize the internal personality of the child and develop his characteristics; the sole problem is that of offering the child the necessary nourishment.

It is by this means that the child develops an organized and complex activity which, while it responds to a primitive impulse, exercises the intelligence and develops qualities we consider lofty, and which we supposed were foreign to the nature of the young child, such as patience and perseverance in work, and in the moral order, obedience, gentleness, affection, politeness, serenity; qualities we are accustomed to divide into different categories, and as to which, hitherto, we have cherished the illusion that it was our task to develop them gradually by out direct interposition, although in practice we have never known by what means to do so successfully.

In order that the phenomenon should come to pass it is necessary that the spontaneous development of the child should be accorded perfect liberty; that is to say, that its calm and peaceful expansion should not be disturbed by the intervention of an untimely and disturbing influence.” – Spontaneous Activity in Education

“Once the teacher understands that mysterious powers exist within the child and that these reveal themselves spontaneously through the child’s activities, his attitude will change, no longer being that of a superior toward an inferior; for he will realize that here is a treasure that must be allowed to yield benefits. Humanity is in dire need of this new type of educator. ” – Citizen of the World

“The little child who persists in his exercises, concentrated and absorbed, is obviously elaborating the constant man, the man of character, he who will find in himself all human values, crowning that unique fundamental manifestation: persistence in work. Whatever task the child may choose it will be all the same, provided he persists in it. For what is valuable is not the work itself, but the work as a means for the construction of the psychic man. ” The Advanced Montessori Method Volume I

“Children develop their brains as well as their bodies through movement, and in the process of concentration, self-discipline, and perseverance with an active interest, the foundations of character are laid. To give our children a fine start in life we must see that their surroundings satisfy their need for activity and development, remembering at the same time that our own part is not that of instructor and interferer but of helper and friend. ” Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“There is no punishment or reward in our schools to interfere with the joy in the work itself. The only reward is in the completion of the work – it is at this time that internal discipline establishes itself, and the foundations of character are laid. ” Maria Montessori Speaks to Parents

“When work has become a habit, the intellectual level rises rapidly, and organized order causes good conduct to become a habit. Children then work with order, perseverance, and discipline, persistently and naturally; the permanent, calm, and vivifying work of the physical organism resembles the respiratory rhythm. The pivot, the medium of this construction of the personality, is working in freedom, in accordance with the natural wants of the inner life; thus freedom in intellectual work is found to be the basis of internal discipline. The great achievement of the Children’s House” is to produce disciplined children.” Spontaneous Activity in Education

“Each tiny thing is worthy of the scientist’s minute attention; he counts the articulations which make up the claws of an insect, and knows the veinings of its most delicate wings; he finds interesting details where the ordinary eye would not linger for a moment. St. Francis also observed these things, but they awoke in him a feeling of spiritual joy and called forth a hymn of praise: “Who, who gave me these little fairy feet, furnished with healthy and flexible little bones, to enable me to spring swiftly from branch to branch, from twig to twig? Who further gave me eyes, crystal globes that revolve and see before and behind, to spy out all my enemies, the predatory kite, the black crow, the greedy goose? And he gave me wings, delicate tissues of gold and green and blue, which reflect the color of the skies and of my trees.” The vision of the teacher should be at once precise like that of the scientist, and spiritual like that of the saint. The preparation for science and the preparation for sanctity should form a new soul, for the attitude of the teacher should be at once positive, scientific, and spiritual.” Spontaneous Activity in Education

“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. ” The Absorbent Mind

“It is verily upon the perfect and tranquil spiritual life of the child that depends the health or sickness of the soul, the strength or weakness of the character, the clearness or obscurity of the intellect. And if, during the delicate and precious period of childhood, a sacrilegious form of servitude has been inflicted upon the children, it will no longer be possible for men successfully to accomplish great deeds. ” Citizen of the World

“The absorption of the environment is an intellectual activity. It is a psychic necessity that the child explores the environment; it satisfies his spirit. After he has had the satisfaction of observing one thing that interests him, he goes on until he is attracted by something else. In this way the child can walk for miles. ” The 1946 London Lectures

“If a child meets certain difficulties in his work the other children never spontaneously help him…. But if there is an accident when help is really needed, the child will rise and go to help. He will leave all he is doing, no matter how important, in order to help. This is a social relation very different from our own. We adults are always ready to help those who need no help, but if there is someone in real need of help, a help that will require sacrifice from us, we immediately look for a way of escape from giving it. ” Citizen of the World

“The scientific laboratory, the field of Nature where the teacher will be initiated into ” the observation of the phenomena of the inner life” should be the school in which free children develop with the help of material designed to bring about development. When she feels herself, aflame with interest, “seeing” the spiritual phenomena of the child, and experiences a serene joy and an insatiable eagerness in observing them, then she will know that she is “initiated.” Then she will begin to become a “teacher.” Spontaneous Activity in Education

“In a “Children’s House”.. we initiated the study of “artistic” furnishing. It is well known that every little corner of Italy is a storehouse of local art, and there is no province which in bygone times did not contain graceful and convenient objects, due to combination of practical sense and artistic instinct. Nearly all these treasures are now being dispersed, and the very memory of them is dying out, under the tyranny of the stupid and uniform “hygienic” fashions of our day. It was therefore a delightful undertaking on the part of Maria Maraini to make careful inquiries into the rustic local art of the past, and give it new life by reproducing, in the furniture of the “Children’s House,” the forms and colors of tables, chairs, sideboards, and pottery, the designs of textiles and the characteristic decorative motives to be met with in old country-houses. This revival of rustic art will bring back into use objects used by the poor in ages less wealthy than ours, and meanwhile may be a revelation in “economy.” If, instead of school benches, such simple and graceful objects were manufactured, even this school furniture would show how beauty may be evolved from ugliness by eliminating superfluous material; for beauty is a question, not of material, but of inspiration. Hence we must not look to richness of material, but to refinement of spirit for these practical reforms.” Spontaneous Activity in Education

“Our teachers thus penetrate the secret of childhood, and have a knowledge far superior to that of the ordinary teacher who becomes acquainted only with the superficial facts of the children’s lives. Knowing the child’s secret, she had a deep love for him, perhaps for the first time understanding what love really is. ”
Education for a New World

“Future peace depends on this task and remember well that the peace brought about by the child does not consist of bringing to a mutual understanding adult men who are ever in rivalry, but of building a new society in which the individualities are protected during that original period in which they are constructing themselves. And this is the sort of peace that only the child can provide.” The India Lectures, 1940

An education which succeeds in evoking interest… interest leading to a choice of some action, and the carrying out of it with the whole energy of the user, all his constructive enthusiasm… such an education has awakened a man to life. He has come into contact with that “breath of life” of which the bible speaks… the transforming breath which makes a living man out of a thing of clay.” Lectures, 1934

“I will not here recur the discussions so forth called forth about interest and effort; they have been classed as contradictory aspects of the same thing, and many have said in education we have to choose between the two. In their view interest refers to what we like doing, and effort to what we dislike. But effort is the bringing into action of the individual’s entire energy, and this happens only where interest is felt. Man is no machine… he acts inspired by interests… generosity…enthusiasm; and he will then throw himself with all his life, strength, and activity into this effort… even if it is irksome.” Lectures, 1934

“We consider that children of different ages should work together, and in practice we have determined that these children should be of three different ages – of one year’s difference between… Having three years of difference in one class enables the younger children to be helped through imitation or otherwise of the older children, and as it often happens that the older children give real lessons to the younger ones, it also gives an occasion to the older ones to learn to sympathize with the younger ones by realizing how one reacts when one has not yet reached the mental development of the older age. As we do not force the children to this reciprocal help it results in a form of social relationship.” The London and India Lectures

“.. the child did not use his liberty merely to experience enjoyment from the environment, neither did he behave as one who hated restrictions, but he manifested himself as one fascinated, attracted to concentrated work. When he found himself in a suitable environment he burst forth into work, as a spring of water suddenly released. He repulsed many of the conditions that stood for individual satisfaction; he discarded all aids and did not seek for rest, but asked for more and more work. He took from the environment for himself only that which was purely necessary for his existence, and he merged himself in the fascination of a work of his own selection, without rest, moved by his own urge. Through this phenomenon there came a complete transformation of the child, a new kind of child was revealed – one full of joy and at the same time orderly and calm, thus providing happier social relations with all his companions irrespective of their age. Not only was this beneficial to his mentality, but also to his physical health. It was as if another nature had arisen and come to the surface.” The Child’s Place in Society, 1936

“Were the child our teacher he would say that we were mistaken in believing that we do everything for our own satisfaction. We really do it impelled by that inner urge which goes beyond our individual needs because we have a cosmic finality to which we must contribute. Instead, man has made himself the center and aim of his work, he has considered it done for his personal satisfaction and from this conception arises the tragic conflict of human existence. In this profound error, this giving exclusively egotistical aims to the enormous environment which he has built up, man has forgotten the child, he has omitted to build an environment suitable to its needs, and has forgotten to establish conditions of freedom for the child.” The Child’s Place in Society, 1936

“We saw that in the first plane the teacher needed to have great tact in not interfering with the activity of the children, which at that time was particularly motor and sensorial. In the second period this refinement of treatment must be extended to the moral life of the children, for this is the problem of this age. This may sound surprising since many think the question of morality comes at a much later age. One might think it never comes , because one ignores the period in which nature gives this moral elaboration to formation of man’s soul. If this development has not been helped during the period of sensitivity when this moral construction takes place, then at a later stage, situations will arise, difficult to deal with, which will require social adaptations to be enforced from the outside.” The Second Plane of Education, 1939

“..we must consider the child as he really is – as the active builder and not only the germ of man. He is as it were a worker in a mighty construction, that being the cosmic mission entrusted to him – the construction of humanity itself. He is working under the guidance of an interior directive and it is the adult which is to him this aid of his work. Therefore we say ‘The Child is the Father of Man’. Hence we see the importance of the child and not only his weakness; he is indeed a force, a source of life on which we depend.” The Child’s Place in Society, 1936

“It is interesting to notice that where life is simple and natural and where the children participate in the adult’s life, they are calm and happy. ” The London Lectures (1946)

“What I consider another advantage is that by working together the children find a practical solution to their difficulties. For instance, in the case of someone wanting some particular thing that is being used by another, he has to wait till it is free; moving about they meet each other. Whereas if they were on the contrary seated on benches as you are, this social meeting would not take place. Society is not formed, is it, by passive individuals who are performing actions. “London 1927

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