Maria Montessori Quotes

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

To consider the school as a place where instruction is given is one point of view. But, to consider the school as a preparation for life is another. In the latter case, the school must satisfy all the needs of life.

The word education must not be understood in the sense of teaching but of assisting the psychological development of the child.

When mental development is under discussion, there are many who say, 'How does movement come into it? We are talking about the mind.' And when we think of intellectual activity, we always imagine people sitting still, motionless. But mental development must be connected with movement and be dependent on it. It is vital that educational theory and practice should be informed by that idea.

Do not tell them how to do it. Show them how to do it and do not say a word. If you tell them, they will watch your lips move. If you show them, they will want to do it themselves.

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.

Human dignity ... is derived from a sense of independence.

The greatest source of discouragement is the conviction that one is unable to do something

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.

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

Of all things love is the most potent.

The prize and punishments are incentives toward unnatural or forced effort, and, therefore we certainly cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with them.

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

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

Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.

It is not the child as a physical but as a psychic being that can provide a strong impetus to the betterment of mankind. It is the spirit of the child that can determine the course of human progress and lead it perhaps even to a higher form of civilization.

Teach by teaching, not by correcting

... the first thing his education demands is the provision of an environment in which he can develop the powers given him by nature. This does not mean just to amuse him and let him do what he likes. But it does mean that we have to adjust our minds to doing a work of collaboration with nature, to being obedient to one of her laws, the law which decrees that development comes from environmental experience.

The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult.