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QUOTES BY DR. MARIA MONTESSORICompiled by Pat Thompson and Don Jennings. "The first thing required of a teacher is that he be rightly
disposed for his task." "The teacher, when she begins work in our schools, must have
a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work.
She must free herself from all preconceived ideas concerning the
levels at which the children may be." "The teacher's skill in not interfering comes with practice,
like everything else, but it never comes easily. It means rising
to spiritual heights. True spirituality realizes that even to help
can be a source of pride." "We must be taught and we must be willing to accept guidance
if we wish to become effective teachers." "...a teacher should never forget that he is a teacher and
that his mission is one of education." "When we think about mixed ages, we must make sure we aren't
starving children intellectually or physically ... we should not
have a supermarket, but just what is essential." "The work of education is divided between the teacher and
the environment." "The objects in our system are instead a help to the child
himself, he chooses what he wants for his own use, and works with
it according to his own needs, tendencies and special interests.
In this way, the objects become a means of growth." "In brief, the teacher's principle duty in the school may
be described as follows: She should explain the use of the material.
She is the main connecting link between the material, that is the
objects, and the child. This is a simple, modest duty, and yet it
is much more delicate than that found in the older schools, where
the material simply helps the children to understand the mind of
the teacher, who must pass on her own ideas to a child, who must
in turn receive them." "To become acquainted with the material, a teacher should
not just look at it, study it in a book, or learn its use through
the explanations of another. Rather, she must exercise herself with
it for a long time, trying in this way to evaluate through her own
experience the difficulties of, or the interests inherent in, each
piece of material that can be given to a child, trying to interpret,
although imperfectly, the impressions which a child himself can
get from it. Moreover, if a teacher has enough patience to repeat
an exercise as often as a child, she can measure in herself the
energy and endurance possessed by a child of a determined age. For
this final purpose, the teacher can grade the materials and thus
judge the capacity of a child for a certain kind of activity at
a given stage of his development." "They do not understand us, they cannot defend themselves
from us, and they accept whatever we tell them. They not only accept
abuse, but feel guilty whenever we blame them." "Let us always remember that inner discipline is something
to come and not something always present." "Our goal is not so much the imparting of knowledge as the
unveiling and developing of spiritual energy." "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." "....you yourselves must be filled with wonder and when you
have acquired that, you are prepared." [index] "Freedom is understood, in a very elementary fashion, as the
immediate release from oppressive bonds; as a cessation of corrections
and of submission to authority. This conception is plainly negative,
that is to say, it means only the elimination of coercion. From
this comes, often enough, a very simple reaction: a disorderly pouring
out of impulses previously controlled by the adult's will. To let
the child do as he likes when he has not yet developed any powers
of control is to betray the idea of freedom. The result is children
who are disorderly because order had been imposed upon them, lazy
because they had previously been forced to work, and disobedient
because their obedience had been enforced." "Discipline, the first result of an order establishing itself
within, is the principal phenomenon to be looked for as the 'external
sign' of an internal process that has been initiated." "Our task is to show the way to discipline. Discipline is
born when the child concentrates his attention on some objects that
attracts him and provides him not only with a useful exercise but
with a control of error." "The roots of every plant seek out, from among the many substances
which the soil contains, only those which they need." "She (the directress) understands and believes that the children
must be free to choose their own occupations just as they must never
be interrupted in their spontaneous activities. No work may be imposed
- no threats, no rewards, no punishments." "This is the period in which discipline becomes established:
a form of active peace, of obedience and love, when work is perfected
and multiplied, just as when the flowers in spring get their colors
and prepare a distant harvest of sweet and nourishing fruit."
"So what we call the first level of obedience is that in which
the child can obey, but not always. It is a period in which obedience
and disobedience seem to be combined." "The children are almost like saints or godly and I didn't
want to spoil it by saying anything wrong. They are so innocent,
I didn't want to mislead them." [index] "With regard to the child, education should correspond to
them, so that instead of dividing the schools into nursery, primary,
secondary and university, we should divide education in planes and
each of these should correspond to the phase the developing individuality
goes through." "And gradually we educators are confronted with a simple but
important fact: that to help the child is not what he needs, and
indeed that to give help is an impediment for the child. Therefore
he must be allowed to act freely on his own initiative in this free
environment." "Culture and education have no bounds or limits; now man is
in a phase in which he must decide for himself how far he can proceed
in the culture that belongs to the whole of humanity." [index] "What is to be particularly noted in these child conversions
is a psychic cure, a return to what is normal. Actually, the normal
child is one who is precociously intelligent, who has learned to
overcome himself and to live in peace, and who prefers a disciplined
task to futile idleness. When we see a child in this light, we would
more properly call his 'conversion' a 'normalization'. "An interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the
virtue of inducing concentration rather than fatigue, adds to the
child's energies and mental capacities, and leads him to self-mastery."
"The child is the spiritual builder of mankind, and obstacles
to his free development are the stones in the wall by which the
soul of man has become imprisoned." "As soon as children find something that interests them they
lose their instability and learn to concentrate." " I would not be able to cite a single example of a conversion
taking place without an interesting task that concentrated the child's
activities. There are wide varieties of conversions that have occurred
in this way. Children of a nervous temperament have become calm.
The depressed have regained their spirits, and all have advanced
together along the path of disciplined work, making progress through
the outward manifestation of an inner energy which has found a means
of expressions." "A fugue is a kind of flight, a taking refuge. A flight into
play or into a world of fancy often conceals an energy that has
been divided. It represents a subconscious defense of the ego which
flees from suffering or danger and hides itself behind a mask."
"The average intelligence of normal children is low compared
to that of normalized children. Because their energies have been
misdirected, they are like children with broken bones who have need
of special care if they are to become physically fit again. But
instead of receiving the delicate treatment which they need for
the correction of their psychic disorders and the furthering of
their intellectual growth, children are frequently bullied about.
A diverted mind cannot be forced and any attempt to correct it in
this way will provoke a psychological reaction." [index] "There is only one basis for observation: the children must
be able to express themselves and thus reveal those needs and attitudes
which would otherwise remain hidden or repressed in an environment
that did not permit them to act spontaneously. An observer obviously
needs something to observe, and if he must be trained to be able
to see and recognize objective truth, he must have at his disposal
children placed in such an environment that they can manifest their
natural traits." "The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it
is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult.
" "A child is an eager observer and is particularly attracted
by the actions of the adults and wants to imitate them. In this
regard an adult can have a kind of mission. He can be an inspiration
for the child's actions, a kind of open book wherein a child can
learn how to direct his own movements. But an adult, if he is to
afford proper guidance, must always be calm and act slowly so that
the child who is watching him can clearly see his actions in all
their particulars." "But in those countries where the toy making industry is less
advanced, you will find children with quite different tastes. They
are also calmer, more sensible and happy. Their one idea is to take
part in the activities going on about them. They are more like ordinary
folk, using and handling the same things as the grown-ups."
[index] "Supposing I said there was a planet without schools or teachers,
where study was unknown, and yet the inhabitants -- doing nothing
but live and walk about -- came to know all things, to carry in
their minds the whole of learning; would you not think I was romancing?
Well, just this, which seems so fanciful as to be nothing but the
invention of a fertile imagination, is a reality. It is the child's
way of learning." "It may be said that that we acquire knowledge by using our
minds; but the child absorbs knowledge directly into his psychic
life." "The child has other powers than ours, and the creation he
achieves is no small one; it is everything." "There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important
part of life is not the age of university studies, but the first
one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time
when a man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being
formed. But not only his intelligence; the full totality of his
psychic powers." "Only practical work and experience lead the young to maturity."
"A teacher said a word rapidly in passing, and on return saw
it had been written with moveable letters. For these mites of four,
once was enough, though a child of seven requires much repetition
before he grasps the word correctly. All this was due to that special
period of sensitivity; the mind was like soft wax, susceptible at
this age to impressions which could not be taken in at a later stage,
when this special malleability would have disappeared." "A child learns to adjust himself and make acquisitions in
his sensitive periods. These are like a beam that lights interiorly
or a battery that furnishes energy. It is this sensibility which
enables a child to come into contact with the external world in
a particularly intense manner. At such a time everything is easy;
all is life and enthusiasm. Every effort marks an increase in power.
Only when the goal has been obtained does fatigue and the weight
of indifference come on." [index] "The absorbent mind is indeed a marvelous gift to humanity!
By merely 'living' and without and conscious effort the individual
absorbs from the environment even a complex cultural achievement
like language. If this essential mental form existed in the adult,
how much easier would our studies be!" "It is a mental chemistry that takes place in the child, producing
a chemical transformation. These impressions not only penetrate
the mind of the child, they form it; they become incarnated, for
the child makes his own 'mental flesh' in using the things that
are in his environment. We have called this type of mind the 'absorbent
mind' and it is difficult for us to conceive the magnitude of its
powers." [index] Role of Montessori Environment in the Absorbent Mind "We must give the child relaxation from the continuous direction
of adults. So we give them the right environment, relaxation and
freedom from orders. This is an indirect treatment; it is not the
correction of the individual but the preparation for a new life.
This is something children have never had, even in the grandest
and richest of homes. For even in a palace, you find that the children
are relegated to some obscure nursery." "The concept of an education centered upon the care of the
living being alters all previous ideas. Resting no longer on a curriculum,
or a timetable, education must conform to the facts of human life."
"The characteristic of children under 6 years of age is that
it is almost impossible to teach them; children of this age cannot
take from a teacher. Therefore they are considered to be too young
to go to school and therefore education does not begin until 6 years
of age. Another characteristic of this age is that the children
know and understand a great deal. They are full of knowledge. This
would seem to be a contradiction, but the truth is that these children
must take knowledge by themselves from the environment." "During this early period, education must be understood as
a help to the unfolding of the child's inborn psychic powers. This
means that we cannot use the orthodox methods of teaching, which
depends on talk." "This system in which a child is constantly moving objects
with his hands and actively exercising his senses, also takes into
account a child's special aptitude for mathematics. When they leave
the material, the children very easily reach the point where they
wish to write out the operation. They can thus carryout an abstract
mental operation and acquire a kind of natural and spontaneous inclination
for mental calculations." "In the mysterious period which follows immediately after
birth, the child-who is a psychic entity endowed with a specially
refined form of sensitiveness - might be regarded as an ego asleep.
But all of a sudden he wakes up and hears delicious music; all his
fibers begin to vibrate. The baby might think that no other sound
had ever reached his ears, but really it was because his soul was
not responsive to other sounds. Only human speech had any power
to stir him." "The child is truly a miraculous being, and this should be
felt deeply by the educator." [index]
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