An Essential Condition

"In fact, learning is subject to an essential condition: that the pupil agrees to receive the knowledge and is able to pay attention or, in other words, is interested. His psychic activity is the sine qua non for success. Everything that is boring, discouraging and interrupts becomes an obstacle that no logical teaching preparation can overcome. We therefore need to study the conditions necessary  for the unfolding of spontaneous individual activities..."

Maria Montessori, Psychogeometry p 4

Refining Movement

"Of itself movement is something unrefined, but its value increases when one attempts to perfect it. Hands, for example, are then no longer washed simply to make them clean, but in order to be able to wash them perfectly. When hands are washed in this manner, they are not only clean but the child himself becomes more skilled and acquires a certain refinement which sets him above a child with unwashed hands."

Maria Montessori, Discovery of the Child p 87

Freedom & Independence

"No one can be free if he is not independent, therefore, in order to attain this independence, the active manifestations of personal liberty must be guided from earliest infancy. From the time that they are weaned, children are making their way along the risky path of independence."

Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child p 57