Atmosphere

"The instructions of the teacher consist then merely in a hint, a touch  - enough to give a start to the child. The rest develops itself. the children learn from one another and throw themselves into the work with enthusiasm and delight. This atmosphere of quiet activity develops a fellow-feeling, an attitude of mutual aid, and, most wonderful of all, an intelligent interest on the part of the older children in the progress of their little companions."

Maria Montessori, Dr Montessori's Own Handbook p59

External Activity & Potential

"The role of education is to interest the child profoundly in an external activity to which he will give all his potential. We are concerned here with bringing him liberty and independence while interesting him in an activity through which he will subsequently discover reality. And for him this is the means by which he may free himself of the adult."

Maria Montessori, From Childhood to Adolescence, p 11

Importance of Education

"What makes Montessori education so special is that its objective is to help human beings with the enormous task of inner construction necessary to pass from childhood to full adulthood. Education is an essential aspect of human development. We cannot become fully adult without it. The level of formation the individual personality can reach depends on it."

Mario M. Montessori, Jr. Education for Human Development, p97

Awareness

A child who gathers in the smallest details must look upon us with a certain degree of contempt since he is unaware of the mental syntheses which we are constantly making . He must as a consequence look upon us as being somewhat inefficient, as individuals who do not see well. From a child's viewpoint we are not very exact.

Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, p 69

War

Men will waste their efforts, and their wealth, they will lay themselves open to the destruction of their own achievements and run the risk of famine, simply because they have been ordered to do so.

Maria Montessori, Peace and Education, p 26

Gaining Impressions

A child does not have the same feeling for order that we do. Experience has made us indifferent. But a child is poor and in the process of gaining impressions. He starts from nothing and feels the fatigue of creation.

Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, p 58

Scourge of War

War today is really a scourge which can have no other meaning than that of being an eternal chastisement attached to the moral errors which darken the human mind.

Maria Montessori, Peace and Education, p 26