Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessoriwas an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. Her educational method is in use today in some public and private schools throughout the world...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionTeacher
Date of Birth31 August 1870
CityMarche, Italy
CountryItaly
passion accomplishment persons
Work is necessary; it can be nothing less than a passion; a person is happy in accomplishment.
children expression vitality
The activity of the child has always been looked upon as an expression of his vitality.
method concentration parts-of-life
Concentration is a part of life. It is not the consequence of a method of education.
independence
He who is served is limited in his independence.
children design erase
Do not erase the designs the child makes in the soft wax of his inner life.
country civilization humanity
Today, however, those things which occupy us in the field of education are the interests of humanity at large and of civilization, and before such great forces we can recognize only one country-the entire world.
mean independent law
... the first thing his education demands is the provision of an environment in which he can develop the powers given him by nature. This does not mean just to amuse him and let him do what he likes. But it does mean that we have to adjust our minds to doing a work of collaboration with nature, to being obedient to one of her laws, the law which decrees that development comes from environmental experience.
children teaching force-and-energy
A child starts from nothing and advances alone. It is the child's reason about which the sensitive periods revolve. The reason provides the initial force and energy, and a child absorbs his first images to assist the reason and act on it.
childhood firsts educator
This then is the first duty of an educator: to stir up life but leave it free to develop.
society steps helping
The greatest step forward in human evolution was made when society began to help the weak and the poor, instead of oppressing and despising them.
children independent independence
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.
children real school
How can we speak of Democracy or Freedom when from the very beginning of life we mould the child to undergo tyranny, to obey a dictator? How can we expect democracy when we have reared slaves? Real freedom begins at the beginning of life, not at the adult stage. These people who have been diminished in their powers, made short-sighted, devitalized by mental fatigue, whose bodies have become distorted, whose wills have been broken by elders who say: "your will must disappear and mine prevail!"-how can we expect them, when school-life is finished, to accept and use the rights of freedom?
teacher children three
There are many things which no teacher can convey to a child of three, but a child of five can do it with ease.
strong children law
It is necessary, then, to give the child the possibility of developing according to the laws of his nature, so that he can become strong, and, having become strong, can do even more than we dared hope for him.