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.

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.

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

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.

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

The child seeks for independence by means of work; an independence of body and mind.

Little children, from the moment in which they are weaned, are making their way toward independence.