Educationalist Montessori Quotes

If the whole of mankind is to be united into one brotherhood, all obstacles must be removed so that men, all over the surface of the globe, should be as children playing in a garden. ~ Maria Montessori

Children love to polish brass and silver, then move on to polishing their own shoes. ~ Tim Seldin

The social relations which are the basis of the reproduction of the species are founded upon the continuous union of parents in marriage. ~ Maria Montessori

The word education must not be understood in the sense of teaching but of assisting the psychological development of the child. ~ Maria Montessori

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

A humankind abandoned in its earlier formative stage becomes its own greatest threat to survival. ~ Maria Montessori

How often is the soul of man - especially in childhood - deprived because he is not allowed to come in contact with nature. ~ Maria Montessori

He who is served is limited in his independence. ~ Maria Montessori

When we want to infuse new ideas,
to modify or better the habits and customs of a people,
to breathe new vigor into its national traits,
we must use the children as our vehicle; for little can be accomplished with adults. ~ Maria Montessori

The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon. ~ Maria Montessori

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

If we try to think back to the dim and distant past ... what is it that helps us reconstruct those times, and to picture the lives of those who lived in them? It is their art ... It is thanks to the hand, the companion of the mind, that civilization has arisen. ~ Maria Montessori

It is almost possible to say that there is a mathematical relationship between the beauty of his surroundings and the activity of the child; he will make discoveries rather more voluntarily in a gracious setting than in an ugly one. ~ Maria Montessori

Within the child lies the fate of the future. ~ Maria Montessori

If salvation and help are to come, it is through the child ; for the child is the constructor of man. ~ Maria Montessori

If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future. ~ Maria Montessori

We must, therefore, quit our roles as jailers and instead take care to prepare an environment in which we do as little as possible to exhaust the child with our surveillance and instruction ~ Maria Montessori

If the idea of the universe is presented to the child in the right way, it will do more for him than just arouse his interest, for it will create in him admiration and wonder, a feeling loftier than any interest and more satisfying. ~ Maria Montessori

A vital force is active in every individual and leads it towards its own evolution. ~ Maria Montessori

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

Little children, from the moment they are weaned, are making their way toward independence. ~ Maria Montessori

The child's parents are not his makers but his guardians. ~ Maria Montessori

If I am going up a ladder, and a dog begins to bite at my ankles, I can do one of two things - either turn round and kick out at the it, or simply go on up the ladder. I prefer to go up the ladder! ~ Maria Montessori

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

The child's true constructive energy, a dynamic power, has remained unnoticed for thousands of years. Just as men have trodden the earth, and later tilled its surface, without thought for the immense wealth hidden in its depths, so the men of our day make progress after progress in civilized life, without noticing the treasures that lie hidden in the psychic world of infancy. ~ Maria Montessori

Montessori Schools. Dr. Maria Montessori developed the Montessori method of teaching in the early 1900s after observing children's natural curiosity and innate desire to learn. ~ Daniel H. Pink

What the hand does the mind remembers. ~ Maria Montessori

Needless help is an actual hindrance to the development of natural forces. ~ Maria Montessori

If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men. ~ Maria Montessori

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. ~ Maria Montessori

Watch the unending activity of the flowing stream or the growing tree. See the breakers of the ocean, the unceasing movements of the earth, the planets, the sun and the stars. All creation is life, movement, work. ~ Maria Montessori

Only when the child is able to identify its own center with the center of the universe does education really begin. ~ Maria Montessori

Freedom without organization of work would be useless. The child left free without means of work would go to waste, just as a new-born baby, if left free without nourishment, would die of starvation.The organization of the work, therefore, is the cornerstone of this new structure of goodness [in education], but even that organization would be in vain without the liberty to make use of it. ~ Maria Montessori

Indeed, children's intrinsic motivation in school has been shown to decline every year over the course of traditional schooling. ~ Angeline Stoll Lillard

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. ~ Maria Montessori