Great Throughts Treasury

"It seems as though a new epoch were in preparation, a truly human epoch, and as though the end had almost come of those evolutionary periods which sum up the history of the heroic struggles of humanity; an epoch in which an assured peace will promote the brotherhood of man, while morality and love will take their place as the highest form of human superiority. In such an epoch there will really be superior human beings, there will really be men strong in morality and in sentiment. Perhaps in this way the reign of woman in approaching, when the enigma of her anthropological superiority will be deciphered. Woman was always the custodian of human sentiment, morality and honor, and in these respects man always has yielded women the palm."

"Knowledge can be best given where there is eagerness to learn, so this is the period when the seed of everything can be sown, the child?s mind being like a fertile field, ready to receive what will germinate into culture. But if neglected during this period, or frustrated in its vital needs, the mind of the child becomes artificially dulled, henceforth to resist imparted knowledge. Interest will no longer be there if the seed be sown too late, but at six years of age all items of culture are received enthusiastically, and later these seeds will expand and grow."

"Later on the children themselves will tend to become careless in the exact performance of their movements. Their interest in developing the coordination of the muscles will begin to decline. The mind of the child will press on, he will no longer have the same love that he had before. His mind must move along a determined path which is independent both on his own will and that of his teacher. Later on a sense of duty will make him persevere in doing through voluntary effort that which at a certain period he largely did through love, that is at a time when he had to create within himself new attitudes."

"Learning to speak, therefore, and the power it brings of intelligent converse with others, is a most impressive further step along the path of independence ? Learning to walk is especially significant, not only because it is supremely complex, but because it is done in the first year of life."

"Let us give the child a vision of the whole universe? for all things are part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity."

"Let us learn to recognize the man, sublime in his true reality, let us learn to recognize him in the most delicate child. We have shown by our experiments that he develops through work, freedom and love. Hitherto we have stifled the marvelous potentialities of his nature with silly toys and slavish discipline, and we have ignored his manifestations of spontaneity. From his earliest childhood he lives in order to learn, love and to be productive."

"Let us leave the life free to develop within the limits of the good, and let us observe this inner life developing. This is the whole of our mission."

"Let us picture to ourselves a clever and proficient workman, capable, not only of producing much and perfect work, but of giving advice in his workshop, because of his ability to control and direct the general activity of the environment in which he works. The man who is thus master of his environment will be able to smile before the anger of others, showing that great mastery of himself which comes from consciousness of his ability to do things. We should not, however, be in the least surprised to know that in his home this capable workman scolded his wife if the soup was not to his taste, or not ready at the appointed time. In his home, he is no longer the capable workman; the skilled workman here is the wife, who serves him and prepares his food for him. He is a serene and pleasant man where he is powerful through being efficient, but is domineering where he is served. Perhaps if he should learn how to prepare his soup he might become a perfect man! The man who, through his own efforts, is able to perform all the actions necessary for his comfort and development in life, conquers himself, and in doing so multiplies his abilities and perfects himself as an individual."

"Let us wait, and be always ready to share in both the joys and the difficulties which the child experiences."

"Life in the open air, in the sunshine, and a diet high in nutritional content coming from the produce of neighboring fields improve the physical health, while the calm surroundings, the silence, the wonders of nature satisfy the need of the adolescent mind for reflection and meditation."

"Life is activity at its peak, and it is only through activity that the perfectionments of life can be sought and gained."

"Life makes itself manifest,-life creates, life gives:-and is in its turn held within certain limits and bound by certain laws which are insuperable. The Montessori Method, chapter 4"

"Love is more than the electricity which lightens our darkness, more than the etheric waves that transmit our voices across space, more than any of the energies that man has discovered and learned to use. Of all things love is the most potent. All that men can do with their discoveries depends on the conscience of him who uses them. But this energy of love is given us so that each shall have it in himself.1"

"Making use of his own will in his contact with his environment, he (the child) develops his various facilities and thus becomes in a sense his own creator. We should regard this secret effort of the child as something sacred."

"Man is a sculptor of himself, urged by a mysterious inner force to the attainment of an ideal determined form."

"Many teachers still introduce these exercises of practical life to the children without any true understanding of their purpose or psychological significance. Consequently much of their value is lost through lack of proper technique."

"Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside. Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas."

"My vision of the future is no longer of people taking exams and proceeding from secondary school to University but of passing from one stage of independence to a higher, by means of their own activity and effort of will."

"Nature has not only provided the mother with milk, the child's physical sustenance, but has in addition made her capable of that absolutely altruistic form of love which transforms her soul, and liberates moral powers which the mother herself never knew of or suspected - just as the sweet, nutritious particles of milk were formally unknown to the red blood corpuscles."

"Nature offers an interior guidance, but to develop anything in the field, continuous effort and experience are required."

"Never let the child risk failure until he has a reasonable chance of success."

"No matter what we touch, an atom, or a cell, we cannot explain it without knowledge of the wide universe. What better answer can be given to those seekers for knowledge? It becomes doubtful whether even the universe will suffice. How did it come into being? How will it end? A greater curiosity arises, which can never be satiated; so will last through a lifetime. The laws governing the universe can be made interesting and wonderful to the child, more interesting even than things in themselves, and he begins to ask: What am I? What is the task of man in this wonderful universe? Do we merely live here for ourselves, or is there something more for us to do? Why do we struggle and fight? What is good and evil? Where will it all end?"

"No one can be free unless he is independent. Therefore, the first active manifestations of the child?s individual liberty must be so guided that through this activity he may arrive at independence."

"Not in the service of any political or social creed should the teacher work, but in the service of the complete human being, able to exercise in freedom a self-disciplined will and judgment, unperverted by prejudice and undistorted by fear."

"Not only can imagination travel through infinite space, but also through infinite time; we can go backwards through the epochs, and have the vision of the earth as it was, with the creatures that inhabited it."

"Not only does he create his language, but he shapes the organs that enable him to frame the words. He has to make the physical basis of every moment, all the elements of our intellect, everything the human being is blessed with."

"Not upon the ability of the teacher does education rest, but upon the didactic system. When the control and correction of errors is yielded to the materials, there remains for the teacher nothing but to observe."

"Now the adult himself is part of the child's environment; the adult must adjust himself to the child's needs if he is not to be a hindrance to him and if he is not to substitute himself for the child in the activities essential to growth and development."

"Now the little child who manifests perseverance in his work as the first constructive act of his psychic life, and upon this act builds up internal order, equilibrium, and the growth of personality, demonstrates, almost as in a splendid revelation, the true manner in which man renders himself valuable to the community. The little child who persists in his exercises, concentrated and absorbed, is obviously elaborating the constant man, the man of character, he who will find in himself all human values, crowning that unique fundamental manifestation: persistence in work. Whatever task the child may choose it will be all the same provided he persists in it. For what is valuable is not the work itself, but the work as a means for the construction of the psychic man."

"Once the child can speak, he can express himself and no longer depends on others to guess his needs. He finds himself in touch with human society, for people can only communicate by means of language? Very soon afterward, at one year of age, the child begins to walk? So man develops by stages, and the freedom he enjoys comes from these steps towards independence taken in turn?Truly it is nature which affords the child the opportunity to grow; it is nature which bestows independence upon him and guides him to success in achieving his freedom."

"One day some little spirit awakens; the ego of some child takes possession of some object; attention becomes fixed on the repetition of some one exercise; executive skill perfects itself; the irradiation of the child's countenance indicates that its spirit is being born anew."

"One detail that is commonly misunderstood is the distinction between teaching a child how he should act, but leaving him free in the practical application of this freedom, and that which is followed in other systems of education, namely, of imposing the will and power of an adult upon the child and thus guiding him in all his actions."

"One of the great problems facing men is their failure to realize the fact that a child possesses an active psychic life even when he cannot manifest it."

"One single idea runs through every complex activity, and this single idea must be sought as the key to any general problem. There is also a secret key to the perfecting of the most varied types of movements. And this key is balance."

"One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child."

"One who desires to be a teacher must have an interest in humanity that connects the observer more closely than that which joins the biologist or zoologist to nature."

"One who has drunk at the fountain of spiritual happiness says good-by of his own accord to the satisfactions that come from a higher professional status? What is the greatest sign of success for a teacher thus transformed? It is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist.""

"Only practical work and experience lead the child to maturity."

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

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

"Others, as a result of careful study, have come to the conclusion that the first two years are the most important in the whole span of human life."

"Our aim in education in general is twofold, biological and social. From the biological side we wish to help the natural development of the individual, from the social standpoint it is our aim to prepare the individual for the environment?All education of little children must be governed by this principle ? to help the natural psychic and physical development of the child? The functions to be established by the child fall into two groups: 1) the motor functions by which he is to secure his balance and learn to walk, and to coordinate his movements; 2) the sensory functions through which, receiving sensations from his environment, he lays the foundations of his intelligence by a continual exercise of observation, comparison and judgment. In this way he gradually comes to be acquainted with his environment and to develop his intelligence."

"Our educational aim must be to aid the spontaneous development of the mental, spiritual and physical personality, and not to make of the child a cultured individual in the commonly accepted use of the term."

"Our experience with children in elementary schools has shown us that the age between six and twelve years is a period of life during which the elements of all sciences should be given. It is a period that, psychologically, is especially sensitive and might be called the sensitive period of culture during which the abstract plane of the human mind is organized."

"Our intervention in this marvelous process is indirect; we are here to offer this life, which came into the world by itself, the means necessary for its development, and having done that we must await this development with respect."

"Our little tables and our various types of chairs are all light and easily transported, and we permit the child to select the position which he finds most comfortable. He can make himself comfortable as well as seat himself in his own place. And this freedom is not only an external sign of liberty, but a means of education. If by an awkward movement a child upsets a chair, which falls noisily to the floor, he will have an evident proof of his own incapacity; the same movement had it taken place amid stationary benches would have passed unnoticed by him. Thus the child has some means by which he can correct himself, and having done so he will have before him the actual proof of the power he has gained: the little tables and chairs remain firm and silent each in its own place. It is plainly seen that the child has learned to command his movements."

"Our schools show that children of different ages help one another. There are many things which no teacher can convey to a child of three, but a child of five can do it with ease."

"Peace is a practical principle of human civilization and social organization that is based on the very nature of man. Peace does not enslave him; rather, it exalts him... And because it is based on man?s nature, it a constant, a universal principle that applies to all human beings. This principle must be our guide in building a science of peace and educating men for peace."

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

"Plainly, the environment must be a living one, directed by a higher intelligence, arranged by an adult who is prepared for his mission."