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

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

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

Children become like the things they love.

A teacher, therefore, who would think that he could prepare himself for his mission through study alone would be mistaken. The first thing required of a teacher is that he be rightly disposed for his task.

There is a great sense of community within the Montessori classroom, where children of differing ages work together in an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competitiveness. There is respect for the environment and for the individuals within it, which comes through experience of freedom within the community.

At a given moment a child becomes 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.