467 Quotes by Maria Montessori

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

The child’s progress does not depend only on his age, but also on being free to look around him.

The child is essentially alien to this society of men and might express his position in the words of the Gospel: My kingdom is not of this world

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

We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are a part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity. This idea helps the mind of the child to become fixed, to stop wandering in an aimless quest for knowledge. He is satisfied, having found the universal centre of himself with all things.

An educational method that shall have liberty as its basis must intervene to help the child to a conquest of liberty. That is to say, his training must be such as shall help him to diminish as much as possible the social bonds which limit his activity.

The child, in fact, once he feels sure of himself, will no longer seek the approval of authority after every step.

And so 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.