No, the child is the builder of man. There is no man existing who has not been formed by the child he once was.
MARIA MONTESSORINo, the child is the builder of man. There is no man existing who has not been formed by the child he once was.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity.
MARIA MONTESSORIIf intelligence is the triumph of life, the spoken word is the marvellous means by which this intelligence is manifested.
MARIA MONTESSORIBooks are mute as far as sound is concerned. It follows that reading aloud is a combination of two distinct operations, of two ‘languages.’ It is something far more complex than speaking and reading taken separately by themselves.
MARIA MONTESSORIIf the ways of the Almighty are not humanly logical, it is not the fault of the Almighty but of the limitations of human logic.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe 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 MONTESSORIIf help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe social relations which are the basis of the reproduction of the species are founded upon the continuous union of parents in marriage.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe hand is, in the highest degree, a human characteristic. It is man’s organ of grasp and of the sense of touch, while in animals these two functions are relegated to the mouth.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe 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 MONTESSORIEstablishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.
MARIA MONTESSORIThe only language men ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood, when no one can teach them anything!
MARIA MONTESSORIIt is fortunate, I think, that nature is not bounded by human reason and by laboratory work and experimentation, for by the laws of pure reason and by microscopic investigation, it might easily have been proved, long before this, that children could not be born.
MARIA MONTESSORIWe recommend for the training of teachers not only a considerable artistic education in general but special attention to the art of reading.
MARIA MONTESSORIWith man, the life of the body depends on the life of the spirit.
MARIA MONTESSORIWe await the successsive births in the soul of the child. We give all possible material, that nothing may lack to the groping soul, and then we watch for the perfect faculty to come, safeguarding the child from interruption so that it may carry its efforts through.
MARIA MONTESSORI