467 Quotes by Maria Montessori

The ancient saying, “There is nothing in the intellect which was not first in some way in the senses,” and senses being explorers of the world, opens the way to knowledge.

When a child is given a little leeway, he will at once shout, “I want to do it!” But in our schools, which have an environment adapted to children’s needs, they say, “Help me to do it alone.” And these words reveal their inner needs.

Children display a universal love of mathematics, which is par excellence the science of precision, order, and intelligence.

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 school must permit the free, natural manifestations of the child if in the school scientific pedagogy is to be born. This is the essential reform. No one may affirm that such a.

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.

Order is one of the needs of life which, when it is satisfied, produces a real happiness.

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 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.