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.

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. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual's total development lags behind?

The development of the individual can be described as a succession of new births at consecutively higher levels.

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.

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

A child is a discoverer. He is an amorphous, splendid being in search of his own proper form.

The real preparation for education is the study of one's self.