Quotes & Sayings About Montessori

The study of expression ought to form a part of the study of psychology, but it also comes within the province of anthropology because the habitual, life-long expressions of the face determine the wrinkles of old age, which are distinctly an anthropological characteristic. — Maria Montessori

you do not exist, you cannot hope to grow. That is the tremendous step the child takes, the step that goes from nothing to something. — Maria Montessori

The child's true constructive energy, a dynamic power, has remained unnoticed for thousands of years. Just as men have trodden the earth, and later tilled its surface, without thought for the immense wealth hidden in its depths, so the men of our day make progress after progress in civilized life, without noticing the treasures that lie hidden in the psychic world of infancy. — Maria Montessori

The child becomes a person through work. — Maria Montessori

Red RodsBefore elaborating any system of education, we must therefore create a favorable environment that will encourage the flowering of a child's natural gifts. All that is needed is to remove the obstacles. And this should be the basis of, and point of departure for, all future education. The first thing to be done, therefore, is to discover the true nature of a child and then assist him in his normal development. — Maria Montessori

Education should no longer be most imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities. — Maria Montessori

To stimulate life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself
that is the first duty of the educator. — Maria Montessori

Of all things love is the most potent. — Maria Montessori

The activity of the child has always been looked upon as an expression of his vitality. — Maria Montessori

The work of education is divided between the teacher and the environment. — Maria Montessori

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. — Maria Montessori

The possibility of observing the developments of the psychical life of the child as natural phenomena and experimental reactions transforms the school itself in action into a kind of scientific laboratory for the psychogenetic study of man. — Maria Montessori

It's going to be a little further for me to take my children, but the Montessori has been good for my children so I'm willing to take them further. I think it will be a good thing to keep them in the program. — Connie Smith

Nothing is created or destroyed in nature ... — Maria Montessori

Since it is through movement that the will realises itself, we should assist a child in his attempts to put his will into act. — Maria Montessori

To stimulate life, leaving it then free to develop, to unfold, herein lies the first task of the teacher. — Maria Montessori

The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one's self. — Maria Montessori

The needs of mankind are universal. Our means of meeting them create the richness and diversity of the planet. The Montessori child should come to relish the texture of that diversity. — Maria Montessori

The greatest development is achieved during the first years of life, and therefore it is then that the greatest care should be taken. If this is done, then the child does not become a burden; he will reveal himself as the greatest marvel of nature. — Maria Montessori

Our work is not to teach, but to help the absorbent mind in its work of development. How marvelous it would be if by our help, if by an intelligent treatment of the child, if by understanding the needs of his physical life and by feeding his intellect, we could prolong the period of functioning of the absorbent mind! — Maria Montessori

The child is an enigma ... He has the highest potentialities, but we do not know what he will be. — Maria Montessori

The art of Montessori, which simply means finding the best way to help the child himself become what he was meant to become from the first moment of conception, is an art that joins home and school. That means parent and teacher supporting one another in their responsibility to the life of the child. — Maria Montessori

Conventions which camouflage a man's true feelings are a spiritual lie which help him adapt himself to the organized deviations of society ... — Maria Montessori

The development of language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between people. — Maria Montessori

The essential thing is to arouse such an interest that it engages the child's whole personality. — Maria Montessori

The greatest step forward in human evolution was made when society began to help the weak and the poor, instead of oppressing and despising them. — Maria Montessori

Work is necessary; it can be nothing less than a passion; a person is happy in accomplishment. — Maria Montessori

The child is much more spiritually elevated than is usually supposed. He often suffers, not from too much work, but from work that is unworthy of him. — Maria Montessori

The teacher's first duty is to watch over the environment, and this takes precedence over all the rest. It's influence is indirect, but unless it be well done there will be no effective and permanent results of any kind, physical, intellectual or spiritual. — Maria Montessori

My experiences as a Montessori teacher have led me to realize that our goal as educators is not to impart facts to children as though they were empty vessels to be filled, but to open their eyes so they can exclaim joyfully, "Wow, look at what I am becoming! I've got to know more!" (from Walking in Wonder) — Elizabeth White

The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity. — Maria Montessori

When you have solved the problem of controlling the attention of the child, you have solved the entire problem of its education. — Maria Montessori

The human hand allows the mind to reveal itself. — Maria Montessori

How often is the soul of man - especially in childhood - deprived because he is not allowed to come in contact with nature. — Maria Montessori

The instructions of the teacher consist then merely in a hint, a touch-enough to give a start to the child. The rest develops of itself. — Maria Montessori

The child who has felt a strong love for his surroundings and for all living creatures, who has discovered joy and enthusiasm in work, gives us reason to hope that humanity can develop in a new direction. — Maria Montessori

Montessori Schools. Dr. Maria Montessori developed the Montessori method of teaching in the early 1900s after observing children's natural curiosity and innate desire to learn. — Daniel H. Pink

If children are allowed free development and given occupation to correspond with their unfolding minds their natural goodness will shine forth. — Maria Montessori

There are many things which no teacher can convey to a child of three, but a child of five can do it with ease. — Maria Montessori

The child is essentially alien to this society of men and might express his position in the words of the Gospel: My kingdom is not of this world — Maria Montessori

Only practical work and experience lead the young to maturity. — Maria Montessori

The hand is the prehensile organ of the mind. — Maria Montessori

The world of education is like an island where people cut off from the world are prepared for life by exclusion from it. — Maria Montessori

To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely. — Maria Montessori

One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child. — Maria Montessori

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. — Maria Montessori

The teacher's task is not a small easy one! She has to prepare a huge amount of knowledge to satisfy the child's mental hunger. She is not like the ordinary teacher, limited by a syllabus. The needs of the child are clearly more difficult to answer. — Maria Montessori

Montessori called the child under six years old "a sensorial explorer" and based her educational approach for the child's early years upon the child's learning through the senses. — Paula Polk Lillard

Children love to polish brass and silver, then move on to polishing their own shoes. — Tim Seldin

Learning to speak, therefore, and the power it brings of intelligent converse with others, is a most impressive further step along the path of independence ... Learning to walk is especially significant, not only because it is supremely complex, but because it is done in the first year of life. — Maria Montessori

The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth. — Maria Montessori

No adult can bear a child's burden or grow up in his stead. — Maria Montessori

If education is protection to life, you will realize that it is necessary that education accompany life during its whole course. — Maria Montessori

Deceit is a kind of garment that conceals the soul. It might even be compared to a whole wardrobe, so many are its guises. — Maria Montessori

The adult works to improve his environment while the child works to improve himself. — Maria Montessori

This system in which a child is constantly moving objects with his hands and actively exercising his senses, also takes into account a child's special aptitude for mathematics. When they leave the material, the children very easily reach the point where they wish to write out the operation. They can thus carryout an abstract mental operation and acquire a kind of natural and spontaneous inclination for mental calculations. — Maria Montessori

In the first three years of life, the foundations of physical and also of psychic health are laid. In these years, the child not only increases in size but passes through great transformations. This is the age in which language and movement develop. The child must be safeguarded in order that these activities may develop freely. — Maria Montessori

The selfsame procedure which zoology, a branch of the natural sciences, applies to the study of animals, anthropology must apply to the study of man; and by doing so, it enrolls itself as a science in the field of nature. — Maria Montessori

What advice can we give to new 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 intelligent. — Maria Montessori

The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, The children are now working as if I did not exist. — Maria Montessori

Education, as conceived today, is something separated both from biological and social life. — Maria Montessori

The ancient superficial idea of the uniform and progressive growth of the human personality has remained unaltered, and the erroneous belief has persisted that it is the duty of the adult to fashion the child according to the pattern required by society. — Maria Montessori

All human victories, all human progress, stand upon the inner force. — Maria Montessori

Today, however, those things which occupy us in the field of education are the interests of humanity at large and of civilization, and before such great forces we can recognize only one country-the entire world. — Maria Montessori

Joy, feeling one's own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul. — Maria Montessori

We must therefore turn to the child as to the key to the fate of our future life. — Maria Montessori

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. — Maria Montessori

Such prizes and punishments are, if I may be allowed the expression, the bench of the soul, the instrument of slavery for the spirit. — Maria Montessori

The education of the senses has, as its aim, the refinement of the differential perception of stimuli by means of repeated exercises. — Maria Montessori

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

What is generally known as discipline in traditional schools is not activity, but immobility and silence. It is not discipline, but something that festers inside a child, arousing his rebellious feelings. — Maria Montessori

The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon. — Maria Montessori

The undisciplined child enters into discipline by working in the company of others; not being told he is naughty." "Discipline is, therefore, primarily a learning experience and less a punitive experience if appropriately dealt with. — Maria Montessori

The observation of the way in which the children pass from the first disordered movements to those which are spontaneous and ordered
this is the book of the teacher; this is the book which must inspire her actions ... — Maria Montessori

The child's progress does not depend only on his age, but also on being free to look around him. — Maria Montessori

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

I was more than an elementary teacher, for I was present, or directly taught the children, from eight in the morning to seven in the evening without interruption. These two years of practice are my first and indeed my true degree in pedagogy. From the very beginning of my — Maria Montessori

The unknown energy that can help humanity is that which lies hidden in the child. — Maria Montessori

If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men. — Maria Montessori

The child's conquest of independence begins with his first introduction to life. While he is developing, he perfects himself and overcomes every obstacle that he finds in his path. A vital force is active within him, and this guides his efforts towards their goal. It is a force called the 'horme', by Sir Percy Nunn. — Maria Montessori

There should be music in the child's environment, just as there does exist in the child's environment spoken speech. In the social environment the child should be considered and music should be provided. — Maria Montessori

Childhood constitutes the most important element in an adult's life, for it is in his early years that a man is made. — Maria Montessori

Bread baking is a daily activity for 2- year-olds in this Montessori infant community in Sweden and in many other places. — Susan Mayclin Stephenson

Happiness is not the whole aim of education. A man must be independent in his powers and character; able to work and assert his mastery over all that depends on him. — Maria Montessori

There can be no 'graduated exercises in drawing' leading up to an artistic creation. That goal can be attained only through the development of mechanical technique and through the freedom of the spirit. — Maria Montessori

A child's character develops in accordance with the obstacles he has encountered ... or the freedom favoring his development that he has enjoyed. — Maria Montessori

To teach details is to bring confusion; to establish the relationship between things is to bring knowledge. — Maria Montessori

When a child is given a little leeway, he will at once shout, "I want to do it!" But in our schools, which have an environment adapted to children's needs, they say, "Help me to do it alone." And these words reveal their inner needs. — Maria Montessori

An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking; it involves the spiritual development of man, the enhancement of his value as an individual, and the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live. — Maria Montessori

A child starts from nothing and advances alone. It is the child's reason about which the sensitive periods revolve. The reason provides the initial force and energy, and a child absorbs his first images to assist the reason and act on it. — Maria Montessori

No one can be free unless he is independent. — Maria Montessori

Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create. — Maria Montessori

The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. — Maria Montessori

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

An adult who does not understand that a child needs to use his hands and does not recognize this as the first manifestation of an instinct for work can be an obstacle to the child's development — Maria Montessori

Aesthetic and moral education are closely related to this sensory education. Multiply the sensations, and develop the capacity of appreciating fine differences in stimuli and we refine the sensibility and multiply man's pleasures. Beauty lies in harmony, not in contrast; and harmony is refinement; therefore, there must be a fineness of the senses if we are to appreciate harmony. The aesthetic harmony of nature is lost upon him who has coarse senses. The world to him is narrow and barren. In life about us, there exist inexhaustible fonts of aesthetic enjoyment, before which men pass as insensible as the brutes seeking their enjoyment in those sensations which are crude and showy, since they are the only ones accessible to them. Now, from the enjoyment of gross pleasures, vicious habits very often spring. Strong stimuli, indeed, do not render acute, but blunt the senses, so that they require stimuli more and more accentuated and more and more gross. — Montessori Maria

A vital force is active in every individual and leads it towards its own evolution. — Maria Montessori

Environment is undoubtedly a secondary factor in the phenomena of life; it can modify in that it can help or hinder, but it can never create. — Maria Montessori

We cannot create observers by saying 'observe', but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and these means are procured through education of the senses. — Maria Montessori

The exercises of practical life are formative activities, a work of adaptation to the environment. Such adaptation to the environment and efficient functioning therein is the very essence of a useful education. — Maria Montessori