Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence.
—Maria Montessori
The Advanced Montessori Method, p. 198.
The Advanced Montessori Method, p. 198.
Maria Montessori was a maverick. An educational maven years ahead of her time, she turned the focus of education to the needs of the child. She taught us to respect children as human beings capable of extraordinary feeling and an immense capacity for learning. Her insight into child development brought about such changes as child-size tables and chairs, tools that fit the hands of growing children, and materials that appeal to the child at the current stage of development and that prepare them to be independent, capable adults.
Montessori didn’t use conventional “approved” methods of educating children.
