Maria Montessori Quotes

The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child's own natural desire to learn.

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.

The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life.

Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning.

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.

To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely.

The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six.

The child who has felt a strong love for his surroundings and for all living creatures, who has discovered joy and enthusiasm in work, gives us reason to hope that humanity can develop in a new direction.

The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self. Adults work to finish a task, but the child works in order to grow, and is working to create the adult, the person that is to be. Such experience is not just play... it is work he must do in order to grow up.

Peace is what every human being is craving for, and it can be brought about by humanity through the child.

We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.

The greatest sign of success for a teacher...is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."

Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world.

Our aim is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core.

The senses, being the explorers of the world, open the way to knowledge.

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.

What the hand does the mind remembers.

Whoever touches the life of the child touches the most sensitive point of a whole which has roots in the most distant past and climbs toward the infinite future.

The child has a mind able to absorb knowledge. He has the power to teach himself.

When children come into contact with nature, they reveal their strength.

Any child who is self-sufficient, who can tie his shoes, dress or undress himself, reflects in his joy and sense of achievement the image of human dignity which is derived from a sense of independence.

We are the sowers - our children are those who reap. We labor so that future generations will be better and nobler than we are.

Play is the work of the child.

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

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

Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.

Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.

What we need is a world full of miracles, like the miracle of seeing the young child seeking work and independence, and manifesting a wealth of enthusiasm and love.

As soon as children find something that interests them they lose their instability and learn to concentrate.

One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of 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 first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult.

The whole of mankind is one and only one, one race, one class and one society.

Growth comes from activity, not from intellectual understanding.

He does it with his hands, by experience, first in play and then through work. The hands are the instruments of man's intelligence.

The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth.

Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.

The teacher's task is not a small easy one! She has to prepare a huge amount of knowledge to satisfy the child's mental hunger. She is not like the ordinary teacher, limited by a syllabus. The needs of the child are clearly more difficult to answer.

The secret of good teaching is to regard the child's intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination.

We must help the child to act for himself, will for himself, think for himself; this is the art of those who aspire to serve the spirit.

...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. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.

The child, making use of all that he finds around him, shapes himself for the future.

Only through freedom and environmental experience is it practically possible for human development to occur.

The child is both a hope and a promise for mankind.

Joy is the evidence of inner growth.

Teach by teaching, not by correcting

The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.

Education should no longer be most imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities.

Education today, in this particular social period, is assuming truly unlimited importance. And the increased emphasis on its practical value can be summed up in one sentence: education is the best weapon for peace.

Under the urge of nature and according to the laws of development, though not understood by the adult, the child is obliged to be serious about two fundamental things ... the first is the love of activity... The second fundamental thing is independence.