With man, the life of the body depends on the life of the spirit.
MARIA MONTESSORIIndeed there are powers in the small child that are far greater than is generally realized, because it is in this period that the construction, the building-up, of man takes place, for at birth, psychically speaking, there is nothing at all – zero!
More Maria Montessori Quotes
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We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.
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Early childhood education is the key to the betterment of society.
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Moral Education is the source of that spiritual equilibrium on which everything else depends and which may be compared to that physical equilibrium or sense of balance, without which it is impossible to stand upright or to move into any other position.
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The teacher, in short, can use reading to introduce her pupils to the most varied subjects; and the moment they have been thus started, they can go on to any limit guided by the single passion for reading.
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Woman was always the custodian of human sentiment, morality and honour, and in these respects, man always has yielded woman the palm.
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The child is not an empty being who owes whatever he knows to us who have filled him up with it.
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Books 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.
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It is surprising to notice that even from the earliest age, man finds the greatest satisfaction in feeling independent. The exalting feeling of being sufficient to oneself comes as a revelation.
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The child’s mind is not the type of mind we adults possess. If we call our type of mind the conscious type, that of the child is an unconscious mind. Now an unconscious mind does not mean an inferior mind.
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At three years of age, the child has already laid the foundations of the human personality and needs the special help of education in the school.
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My system is to be considered a system leading up, in a general way, to education. It can be followed not only in the education of little children from three to six years of age, but can be extended to children up to ten years of age.
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All work is noble; the only ignoble thing is to live without working.
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We all know the sense of comfort of which we are conscious when a good half of the floor space in a room is unencumbered; this seems to offer us the agreeable possibility of moving about freely.
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Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.
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I have for many years interested myself in the study of children from three years upwards. Many have urged me to continue my studies on the same lines with older children. But what I have felt to be most vital is the need for more careful and particularized study of the tiny child.
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The ancient superficial idea of the uniform and progressive growth of the human personality has remained unaltered, and the erroneous belief has persisted that it is the duty of the adult to fashion the child according to the pattern required by society.
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Travel stories teach geography; insect stories lead the child into natural science; and so on.
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The maternal duty of suckling her own children, prescribed to mothers by hygienists, is based on a physiological principle: the mother’s milk nourishes an infant more perfectly than any other.
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If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.
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One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.
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The only language men ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood, when no one can teach them anything!
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Joy, feeling one’s own value, being appreciated and loved by others, feeling useful and capable of production are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.
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The chief symptom of adolescence is a state of expectation, a tendency towards creative work, and a need for the strengthening of self-confidence.
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If intelligence is the triumph of life, the spoken word is the marvellous means by which this intelligence is manifested.
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Suddenly, the child becomes very sensitive to the rudeness and humiliations which he had previously suffered with patient indifference.
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It is better to treat an adolescent as if he had greater value than he actually shows than as if he had less and let him feel that his merits and self-respect are disregarded.
MARIA MONTESSORI