Site Search

The Second Plane of Education - Maria Montessori, London, 1939 The passage from the first to the second plane can best be expressed by saying that the child passes from a material, sensorial plane to an abstract one. The first being essentially motor and sensorial; the second essentially moral and intellectual. The important thing in the first plane is to find the relations between objects and to observe, by means of the conscious keys given to the senses, the exterior world; while in the second plane there are parallel keys to what happens in another field. It is the beginning of an orientation to the moral field, because it is then that children begin to judge the actions of other people. One of the characteristics of this age is the child's preoccupation with his own actions and the desire to know if they are approved of or not. Consequently the problem of good and evil arises in his mind. This is all part of a special sensibility of the conscience of the child of this age and is quite natural. I cannot dwell upon this topic, but I would like you to bear in mind that this age, being between 7 and 12, is of the utmost importance for the moral education of children. It is as if an elaboration took place in the soul of the child, which on the part of the adult requires refined treatment and also some knowledge of this psychological change. ​ We saw that in the first plane the teacher needed to have great tact in not interfering with the activity of the children, which at that time was particularly motor and sensorial. In the second period this refinement of treatment must be extended to the moral life of the children, for this is the problem of this age. This may sound surprising since many think the question of morality comes at a much later age. One might think it never comes , because one ignores the period in which nature gives this moral elaboration to formation of man's soul. If this development has not been helped during the period of sensitivity when this moral construction takes place, then at a later stage, situations will arise, difficult to deal with, which will require social adaptations to be enforced from the outside. ​ To make this clear let me give you an example. Let us take, for instance, something which is deeply rooted in the moral conception of human society: justice. This, the feeling of justice, is born in the soul of the child at this epoch together with the understanding of the link between actions and the needs of the children around him. This sense of justice is not inborn but becomes rooted in the human spirit and its evolution may be studied by following the development of the child. If this has not been done then a very different idea of justice arises. ​ The justice found in the home and school may be considered as 'distributive justice'; all things should be alike for everyone. The good things that certain children have in one class should be shared by all of the children. If punishment is given it must be uniform for all no matter who they are. Injustice is felt when one person receives different treatment from another, and this brings in the individual a conception of 'right'. What is this 'right' if not an affirmation of the individuality but in an egotistical and isolated sense? This development in the ordinary schools is not connected to inner development but to exterior things and this is quite different. Justice through exterior things and justice which arises from the soul of man are two different things, and the one which is not considered in the school is the second or inner education. And the 'distributive justice' which comes from exterior things demolishes the natural human sentiment which comes forth from the soul. ​ This question of morality is very obscure just because naturally it is attached to exterior rules instead of inner feelings. As we have said, this moral question is one of the things which arises between 7 and 12. It is very complex and will need great development, so that we should talk about this question at the end rather than at the beginning. But I state it now because I wanted you to realize the importance of this fact. ​ At this period there is also another phenomenon: a great intellectual development, perhaps because the children pass from a material to an abstract phase. ​ There are the three points which serve to guide us: the child's need to get out of (1) the traditional impositions set by the narrow circle of family and the school; (2) the great intellectual development; (3) the building up of the moral constitution in the human soul. Getting out of the narrow circle means the need of a social experience which will enable the child to exercise and form the moral sensibility, and attached to this there is all the development of culture. ​ Upon this framework we can begin to trace certain particulars of education, and by observation one can find a correspondence between the different things that we took into consideration in the first period. There were exercises of practical life which led the child to go beyond the limits believed possible for children of that age. There were exercises for the coordination of movement which was brought to a refinement extraordinary for that age. These two things together brought independence to the child. ​ In the second period it is not enough merely to continue these exercises because now the child is already independent and all the actions for perfection of movement are no longer necessary because the coordination now exists. What would happen if we did go on developing these things? The child would merely become more and more perfect in - laying the table, for instance; or would become so perfect in their social behavior that they would become like people at court. ​ But let us suppose that this same social behavior is brought into another field; that is, to help people who are suffering. This is also social relationship between people but it is something different from knowing how to greet one another gracefully. If, in the first period it was of great importance not to bump into a person; in this other field it might be of great importance not to offend people. If in the first period it was a great tragedy for a child to drop and break something, so that the others tried to help and console him, in this second period there is the fact that the child has understood what is good, but even in trying to do good he is not successful - he has the sentiment within him that he has done something which is not good. This shows the relation between the two periods. ​ Yesterday I said that the Boy Scout movement was important at this age because it allows a wider field of social relations and at the time it sets out definite moral principles. It is this field that attracts the children; tat they are gathered together around certain moral principles that are shared. One is to help the weak. Another is that all those belonging to this association pledge themselves not to do certain things. This brings a certain sentiment of moral responsibility and at the same time a sense of dignity, and this is what attracts the children of this age. At the same time it is a starting point to certain moral behavior which, on account of the effort it requires, is considered to be superior to the possibilities of this age.

The Child's Place in Society - Maria Montessori, 24th Annual Conference of Educational Associations, 1936 I know that in this country the child is held in high esteem and is better cared for than in other countries. It would be difficult to find any point to which attention has not already been drawn. I am not here to talk to you on the subject of technique. I am one who is proud to admit that I have been led onwards and upwards by the child himself: he has always appeared to me as a guiding star. We are here tonight to consider him from quite another point of view, and then to determine his place in society. I come rather to try to explain the great majesty of the child and the supreme hope that comes to us from him. ​ Let us for a moment consider him from a more practical point of view, i.e., the child as a living being in the midst of life. I have always considered him thus, an individual who has vital needs which must be considered and those vital needs include a close study of his environment. ​ This is the basis of the whole biological conception. ​ In the biological conception the aim to be reached is an environment in which exists the most favorable means necessary to the life of the individual, but this conception is limited and seems to be a scientific and egotistical point of view. In fact we may ask ourselves, 'Why does the individual live?' Sciences which deal with life cover a larger section and consider the matter from a wider point of view. We all know the conception that Geology holds today. ​ Life does not merely allow beings to enjoy their environment; living beings do not just derive benefits for their own advantage from the environment; in the geological conception we have a clear demonstration that they contribute to the construction of the environment itself. The individual is an indispensable element in that which makes the existence of the universe possible; he contributes to the maintenance of the universe by his work and activity, and this is the purpose of his life. By work i mean the cooperation of all vital activities which, when combined, produce harmony and order in the universe. Geologists consider this a cosmic energy. For instance is it not true that the coral reefs are built up by the coral insects? These require a certain amount of heat and water continually renewed, a certain pressure as a condition of their existence, but they produce by their work a mass of hard substance which serves to protect them, but it is larger and out of all proportion to their needs; in fact they build islands and continents. The same can be said of shell fish, and in almost every expression of life there is a motive which is greater and deeper than the needs of the individual. If we say motives represent a cosmic work then we must admit that man also takes his part in cosmic construction. ​ Certainly man is essentially in his nature a worker; the earliest traces of the appearances of man on earth are not skeletons but those of his hewing. There must be in man a powerful urge which compels him to accomplish a lofty work which is not that of merely keeping alive; and this fundamental urge is the center of his life, and there is a need in man to investigate and thus acquire knowledge of all around him to a much greater extent than would satisfy his vital needs. ​ From this we see that the aim is not to reach a balance between man's needs and his environment; on the contrary, the fact that strikes with almost overwhelming force is the disproportion between the two as we already see in our shell fish simile. It is through reasoning that one arrives at this conclusion that in man there exists this strong urge toward work, but we also have tangible proof of the fact in the psychology of the child. If our Montessori work has been of value, it is because it has revealed to us 'Man As The Worker'. We had to prepare a favorable environment, full of all necessary means for his living and then leave him free to act in it. It is interesting to note that the child did not use his liberty merely to experience enjoyment from the environment, neither did he behave as one who hated restrictions, but he manifested himself as one fascinated, attracted to concentrated work. When he found himself in a suitable environment he burst forth into work, as a spring of water suddenly released. He repulsed many of the conditions that stood for individual satisfaction; he discarded all aids and did not seek for rest, but asked for more and more work. He took from the environment for himself only that which was purely necessary for his existence, and he merged himself in the fascination of a work of his own selection, without rest, moved by his own urge. Through this phenomenon there came a complete transformation of the child, a new kind of child was revealed - one full of joy and at the same time orderly and calm, thus providing happier social relations with all his companions irrespective of their age. Not only was this beneficial to his mentality, but also to his physical health. It was as if another nature had arisen and come to the surface. ​ We saw then that it was through 'work' that the normality of man revealed itself to us. It is not an environment which merely offers an individual satisfaction which is necessary, nor one satisfying all the exigencies of physical hygiene, nor one that offers play or dissipations, nor one that entertains the mind in brilliant fantasy, nor one that seduces by the warmth of affection - all this is not sufficient; in order to call forth from the deep 'normality' work is necessary. ​ This 'work' goes beyond all needs of the child himself, and it reminds us of these other creatures we have already mentioned whose 'work' exceed their needs. This need for a similar reorientation with regard to 'work' has been pointed out to us by the child, so he has indeed taught us some fundamental secret which concerns humanity. Through him we have been able to decipher something clearly written in the soul of man which had not been seen before. It is then clear that the child - the creature from which we have sprung - contains intact the directive principles of human life which we have lost. ​ Were the child our teacher he would say that we were mistaken in believing that we do everything for our own satisfaction. We really do it impelled by that inner urge which goes beyond our individual needs because we have a cosmic finality to which we must contribute. ​ Instead, man has made himself the center and aim of his work, he has considered it done for his personal satisfaction and from this conception arises the tragic conflict of human existence. ​ In this profound error, this giving exclusively egotistical aims to the enormous environment which he has built up, man has forgotten the child, he has omitted to build an environment suitable to its needs, and has forgotten to establish conditions of freedom for the child. ​ We have worked for our own liberation and yet we have forgotten to liberate the child; we have forgotten to frame laws for him, he is the forgotten citizen. The child must also have an environment of his own, acquire his own freedom - this is the foundation of all social questions. We must consider the child from a loftier point of view and to do this we need not remain in the field of ideals only; on the contrary we must consider the child as he really is - as the active builder and not only the germ of man. He is as it were a worker in a mighty construction, that being the cosmic mission entrusted to him - the construction of humanity itself. ​ He is working under the guidance of an interior directive and it is the adult which is to him this aid of his work. Therefore we say 'The Child is the Father of Man'. Hence we see the importance of the child and not only his weakness; he is indeed a force, a source of life on which we depend. ​ He might be compared to a spring of ever clear water renewing continuously the enormous flux of humanity. We should do well to remember our own need of refreshment occasionally! Why is human life so short? And why so enormous the 'work' which continues to evolve throughout the centuries? 'Work' requires new life, life which is always fresh and which keeps intact in itself the impression of creation. ​ Man cannot have a greater interest in the care of his own origin than that of his own constructor and of his successor who will carry on the 'work' he leaves behind him. So it is to the child we owe the continuation of humanity and from him we must look for the rebirth of our lost normality.

John Taylor Gatto From Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling: I've come to believe that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us. I didn't want to accept that notion -- far from it -- my own training in two elite universities taught me that intelligence and talent distributed themselves economically over a bell curve and that human destiny, because of those mathematical, seemingly irrefutable, scientific facts, was as rigorously determined as John Calvin contended. The trouble was that the unlikeliest kids kept demonstrating to me at random moments so many of the hallmarks of human excellence--insight, wisdom, justice, resourcefulness, courage, originality--that I became confused. They didn't do this often enough to make my teaching easy, but they did it often enough that I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior. Bit by bit I began to devise guerrilla exercises to allow the kids I taught--as many as I was able--the raw material people have always used to educate themselves: privacy, choice, freedom from surveillance, and as broad a range of situations and human associations as my limited power and resources could manage. In simpler terms, I tried to manuever them into positions where they would have a chance to be their own teachers and to make themselves the major text of their own education.

NAZIONE UNICA - Maria Montessori, lecture excerpts (Copenhagen 1937, San Remo 1949) In the last years technical and scientific progress has brought about profound changes in environments and living conditions. The obstacles, made by mountains or by wide expanses of oceans and seas which separated nations in time and space no longer exist. Today the rapidity of means of communication has notably reduced, if not wiped-out, the validity of these defenses. The possibility of exchanging the raw materials, merchandise, and various products of our civilization has been simplified. ​ The continuous mutual dependence for the things from which we live and which we need excludes any possibility of living for oneself alone. No one can deny that if we have food to nourish us, clothes to cover us, and houses to give us shelter, it is because other people procure all these things for us by their labor. Hence it is men who keep other men alive; each lives because of the life of the other and each contributes to the life of all. Certainly this is not inspired by a spirit of sacrifice - but it is done. Man depends entirely upon man. ​ From all sides we get proof that the whole of humanity is really united today, both economically, materially, and intellectually; so united that it can be considered to form one nation. ​ All the countries on earth are joined by every sort of relationship; they are so dependent on one another that they do form one whole. Even modern wars have shown this: the victors today are not made richer by their victory; on the contrary, the vanquished become an extra liability for them. ​ Why then, the continued claim that men must be educated to the idea of creating one universal nation? This union already exists in the world! What should be done, therefore, is to make men aware of this reality and replace the idea of the need to bring union among men, with the positiveness of real and profound existence of these bonds of interdependence and social solidarity between the peoples of the world. It is a question, then, of substantially changing the outlook on these relations and of influencing men's conscience to acquire new ideals, those of fighting against indifference and incomprehension and of assuming a feeling of gratitude towards humanity who work for us. ​ Today this preparation is missing. The communion and the union already existing among all men is therefore not something directly willed. It has come by chance as a consequence of discoveries and inventions and the multiplication of machines, so that while all the interests of men have gradually united, great lacunes have been left in the physical fields: errors that separate men from men which education must correct. ​ Man, who today is being dragged by these errors must become the master of the time in which he lives. It is evident that if men were prepared for the conditions of life of their present instead of being dragged by events they could direct them. When will this occur, instead of being frightened as today, humanity will become strong, brave and able to organize itself for the full attainment of its goals. ​ There are two realities of which mankind could take advantage for a conscious organization: humanity already united, and the new child. The new child we can have by beginning to educate at the point when men are not yet anything; when, spiritually, they are naught, when different languages and contrasting ideas are not yet formed, when they are not yet deaf to each other. At the point where there are infinite latent possibilities - both to separate and to unite the men of the future. ​ These must be translated to the child not as merely knowledge but by making them available in the environment in a form accessible to the very refined avid and rigidly specialized sensitivities of infancy, so that the child can absorb and 'incarnate' them, as he does language. In this way children will not learn them but make them an integral part of their character. ​ In this way the children we saw revealing themselves in our schools will lead us to a better humanity. They will be the new race of man which will show us the new world.

Montessori Resources Interested in being included on our list of resources? Email info@moteaco.org or use our contact form to get in touch . ​ American Montessori Society Angela Tamblay Caldo's free Montessori materials files , ready for laser cutting or CNC printing. Association Montessori Internationale Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education North American Montessori Teachers Association

Two Questions Answered - Maria Montessori, 1924 Q: If the children in a Montessori school work individually rather than collectively, how will they be able to prepare themselves for social life? ​ A: Social life does not consist of a group of individuals remaining close together, side by side, nor in their advancing en masse under the command of a captain like a regiment on the march, nor like an ordinary class of school children. The social life of man is founded upon work, harmoniously organized and upon social virtues -- and these are the attitudes which develop to an exceptional degree amongst our children. Constancy in their work, patience when having to wait, the power of adapting themselves to the innumerable circumstances which present themselves in their daily contact with each other, reciprocal helpfulness and so on, are all exercises which represent a real and practical social life and which we see, for the first time, being organized amongst the children in a school. In fact, whereas schools used to be equipped only so as to accommodate children, seated passively side by side, who were expected to receive from the teacher (we might almost say in a parasitic manner), our schools, on the contrary, have an equipment which is adapted to all those forms of work which are necessary in an active and independent little community. The individual work in which the child is able to isolate himself and to concentrate, serves to protect his individuality and the nearer man gets to perfection, the better he is able to associate harmoniously with others. A strong social movement cannot exist without prepared individuals, just as the members of an orchestra cannot play together harmoniously unless each individual has been thoroughly trained by repeated exercise when alone. Q: In Montessori schools the work is chosen by the pupil himself who seeks the most interesting occupation and, therefore, the one which is most agreeable to him. How can such a preparation fit him to take his place in social life where duty imposes tasks not always pleasant, in fact often quite contrary to the personal taste? A: He who struggles, overcoming difficulties though his task may not be a pleasant one, or, in other words, he who sacrifices himself must, above all, be strong. This question, therefore, presupposes a condition which is of fundamental importance: 'sine qua non' -- to be strong. The spontaneous exercises which the little children do in our schools, choosing the work which they like and remaining absorbed in it for a long time, in an atmosphere of calm, fortify them, and in this way they are, although indirectly, preparing themselves for the unpleasant eventualities of their future social life. In the same way, the child who is nourished during the first year of his life on milk alone is thus preparing to be able to eat different kinds of food later on. If infants nourishment has been such to permit a healthy and robust physical development, then the grown man will be strong enough to digest heavy food, but not if he has been fed on heavy and unsuitable food as a child. ​ He who has acquired perfect equilibrium of his body can bend to the right and to the left, and take difficult steps without falling. The acquisition of equilibrium, therefore, is a necessary preparation for difficult movements. The same is true with regard to the psychic life. The child who does spontaneous exercises which lead to a healthy mental equilibrium will be able to adapt himself without losing his own individuality. Is it through illness and disease that we prepare ourselves to be strong? Did heroes prepare themselves gradually for acts of heroism from childhood on? No -- their life is one great incognito as regards the future. That which must be prepared through the present is strength, equilibrium, and health. Those children who have gained inner strength in their work, and by exercising themselves, as men will be better able than we to adapt themselves to an effort which they do not find pleasant.

Immediate Environment - Maria Montessori, 1925 An environment that is incorrect presents a great difficulty to the child. The harmony is lacking for him which we have created in the environment for ourselves. This lack of harmony is no doubt a great obstacle to the development of the child and we have no spoken of it so far. Almost nothing is prepared in the the child's environment to enable him to exercise himself -- it is the adult who carries out all that is necessary in the way of exercise. The fact that the child has nothing prepared for him and it is the adult who works for him might seem to us at first sight as a kind of compensation to the child, but on the contrary it is a double obstacle because the child himself needs the exercise and in consequence must doubly fatigue himself by (1) seeking out in the environment the things which have not been prepared for him, and (2) the other fatigue which is imposed upon him is this opposition to the adult who is trying to act instead of him. ​ If we can improve the condition of life, this improvement is a much more important fact than the mere making of a school. This is a conception which regards not only the school but the whole existence of the child, the family is also interested in this, because the child in finding this harmony between himself and his environment can exercise himself and in doing so develop himself. It must be proportionate to the child but I do not mean that it need all be of the same shape. There is no reason why furniture should be exactly alike. Why should all tables be square, or rectangular, or round? There is no reason at all why they should all be the same shape. They can be of all different shapes and sizes so long as they are proportionate to the child's strength. The same applies to the chairs, they need not all be exactly the same ugly shape, one could have pretty little arm chairs, little stools, little benches, and chairs of various shapes. ​ There should be nothing out of his reach. It is of course absolutely different from the view which states that everything should be hung so high up that it is out of the reach of the child so that only the teacher can reach it. In putting up clothes-pegs we must put them at such a height that the child himself can hang up or take down his own clothes. The same observation applies to the hanging of the pictures at such a height that the child can look at them, just as in our own rooms we hang our pictures at the right height for looking at them. As you know in our own homes we may have wall decorations above the level of the eye but pictures will always be hung at a more comfortable and lower level. We are not always accustomed in our own houses to look at paintings on the ceilings and yet for children we are accustomed to hanging the pictures so high that they cannot look at them without stretching their necks. They should be hung so low that the child can with his own hands take them down from the wall. ​ The windows must not merely be arranged for motives of health such as ventilation and light, but for the child's spiritual needs, so that he can look out of them when he wants to. We ourselves would not like to live in a house where the windows are so high up that we cannot look out, we should call that house a prison. You may say that there would be a danger of the child's falling out of the window -- always with this preoccupation with the child's body. This is quite a reasonable preoccupation for the child's safety, but at the same time is it likely for the child to throw himself out of the window if he has sufficiently interesting things to do within the room? These windows should preferably look out onto a garden or verandah, because when the children are faced with certain difficulties in their lives they may be able to get out of doors and feel free. Characteristic of a smaller classroom would be little windows at which the child of three might sit with a chair when he wished to --windows with little curtains of various colors that the child might be able to draw back or open himself. We might have a schoolroom of a rectangular shape in which cozy corners could be enclosed, so that the room takes on an octagonal shape. In these cozy corners special things could be arranged to satisfy the children's needs, for instance when a child wishes to isolate himself, which he often wants to do, he could go into one of these cozy corners. In one corner there could be a little tap with running water at which he can get water to fill the vases for flowers.

Not Maria Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1908 - 1984) Sylvia Ashton-Warner was born and educated in New Zealand. She developed a revolutionary teaching method while working with Maori children in British-run schools. Ashton-Warner created a classroom culture where individual words were valuable possessions, empowering students who had been chafing under an inelegant, traditional, rote method of learning. Her book Teacher is really about love , though, if you ask me Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a Hungarian-American psychologist. His seminal work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience , outlines his theory that people are happiest when they are in a state of flow—a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. R Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983) Richard Buckminster Fuller was an American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, and futurist who wrote a wonderful forward for Education for Human Development , by Mario Montessori. John Taylor Gatto (1935 - 2018) John Taylor Gatto was voted New York State teacher of the year in 1991. He worked for 26 years as a New York City school teacher. A friend on the MONTESSORI-L discussion list mentioned him and I found a copy of one of his speeches online . It makes for powerful reading. Also: an excerpt from Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling John Caldwell Holt (1923 - 1985) John Holt's book How Children Fail was first published in the mid 1960's, sparking an educational reform movement that continues to this day. I found this to be a stunning, thought-provoking book. Here's an excerpt . Jonathan Kozol Jonathan Kozol's words strike home, whether you teach in public schools or not. His books represent a clarion call to every educator and parent: Death at an Early Age , Savage Inequalities , On Being a Teacher Chris Mercogliano and the Albany Free School Making It Up as We Go Along is the story of the Albany Free School, a school based on freedom, community, democratic principles, and authentic partnerships between teachers, students, and parents. A. S. Neill (1883 - 1973) Alexander Sutherland Neill was a Scottish educator and author known for his school, Summerhill , and its philosophy of freedom from adult coercion and its community self-governance. His book, Summerhill , is a fascinating read. Christopher Phillips Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy had a significant influence on my teaching, especially in the modeling of self-governance for the students. Lenore Skenazy Lenore Skenazy is president of Let Grow , a non-profit promoting childhood independence and resilience, and founder of the Free-Range Kids movement. Free-Range Kids was an eye-opener, especially after I had children of my own.

Timeline of Writing A smaller, hand-drawn original representation of this timeline. Scroll to view entire image. Click image to magnify. Full-size image is 38 inches by 8 inches. Right-click to download & save. Click to view & download as a PDF .

Extras Links to Montessori Resources Contact info@moteaco.org if you'd like to be on this list. Montessori quotes (unsourced) I made this list as a new teacher, jotting down quotes that caught my eye from day to day. Montessori quotes (attributed) I made this list later when a colleague reminded me that attributed quotes are a bit more useful. Montessori Mouse A set of cartoons I made based on classroom events and parent stories. Moteaco & The Internet Archive A look back at various Moteaco projects over the years. Influences Who Are Not Maria I was reading all over the place while I was teaching - these were some of my influences. My Thanks People who encouraged me to teach and supported me along the way.

An Everliving Message - Maria Montessori, India 1940 Dear Indian friends and unforgettable pupils, I beseech you, do not go around speaking of an educational method that has convinced you, nor of having studied the way to make culture for children easy, universal, and attractive. Do not go around saying “we have learned the way to instruct the new Indian generations to bring them quickly to a loftier level of culture.” Do not say these things – or if you do, point to them as a means for attaining a more universal aim for it goes far beyond India, it involves the whole world. For the real aim is to renew humanity while at the same time helping your beloved people, so sensitive to the new times. Therefore, speak to everyone of the child and of his secret; unveil the truth; reveal the powers of this “spiritual embryo” of the human soul; proclaim him for what he is; the father of man, the builder of humanity, the creative and transforming energy which can act on the hearts of men and can offer new elements for the solution of social problems. It is he, the child you must illustrate, for his image is still unknown to the heart of man: a mysterious and impenetrable darkness has hidden it. How touching is the figure of the child full of love; how impressive the realization that just when he is in his first two or three years of life, he is fashioning the man adapted to his time! Future peace depends on this task and remember well that the peace brought about by the child does not consist of bringing to a mutual understanding adult men who are ever in rivalry, but of building a new society in which the individualities are protected during that original period in which they are constructing themselves. And this is the sort of peace that only the child can provide. What I have told you of what can be done with an education based on the powers of the child is true, but it is necessary first that human consciousness be prepared to receive this truth. Now therefore go forth and begin your tasks, dear ones, and keep in mind that your task must be more than of being apostles of a truth than of a method of education, of being fighters rather than teachers. Go forth humble and nonviolent, with a luminous faith in your heart. Go forth and preach all over India so as to prepare the way for the Kingdom of the Child.

General Considerations - Maria Montessori, 1934 Until now the teaching methods used in elementary schools aimed at imparting knowledge using this for a direct approach to the mind of the child based on certain psychological considerations. The mind of the child was considered independently of any previous knowledge which had not been acquired at school, and therefore as if the mind were completely empty. Now it is, of course, true that empirical knowledge, such as may be acquired in a casual and unmethodical way, has not much value in the formation of a cultured… that is, a logically cultured mind. This holds good in all forms of a culture. We well know, for instance, that a piano teacher will think it a great pity that a pupil should have started playing untaught, so that his first lesson consists of getting rid of faults. After that he will proceed in a logical way. The same thing takes place in a different sphere, such as geometry or arithmetic. Teachers will begin with lines or angles in the one case, with numbers in the other. And they ask themselves first, which is the easiest thing to understand, for it is with that their teaching will start. I remember the discussions of certain eminent professors in a congress of mathematics who were trying to decide whether the easier thing was to count numbers as they came – cardinal – or in their reciprocal relationship – ordinal. When these teachers had arrived through logical discussion at the right way of proceeding in the imparting of knowledge only the actual teaching remained; they had to get the easiest thing understood, stringing on to it in succession the rest in order of difficulty, passing from the known to the unknown. Later discussion relates specially to the teaching of geometry and arithmetic, where we have to do abstractions. The mind here has to start with real things and then continue in a purely logical field. Very good. But lines and numbers, the initial difficulties, are themselves abstract and symbolical. This being a difficulty for the child’s comprehension, we have recourse in the first elementary classes such that material representations may offer to the senses a) quantities in their relation to numbers, and b) complete forms in their relation to geometry. The chief concern of teachers is, of course, this: to get the child’s mind to pass on rapidly to abstractions; otherwise, the whole point of teaching would have been missed, which is, above all, the leading of the mind of the learner up into the realms of abstract thought. The path to follow rests entirely with the teacher. He is the arbitrator as to what is easy, what is difficult, and what is to be taught, and how. And when he has passed from the easy and concrete to abstract combinations of numbers and signs, he is persuaded that he has penetrated the child’s intelligence and made himself its guide. But how often the teacher deceives himself, for it is the rarest of things that he should be able to enter into the mind of a child. What happens most frequently is that the efforts of the teacher are rendered futile by the fact of his not managing to enlist the interest of the learner. The abstraction the child is supposed to have achieved is nearly always the forced response of a purely mnemonic faculty, elicited by torture. “Difficulty” “obstacle” “stumbling block”… these words really testify to a most pitiable failure occurring upon the very first steps of the ascent of culture… the teaching of elementary mathematics. It is by no such study of difficulties in their logical succession that the aggregate of of problems which present themselves to educators are capable of solution. The act of learning depends upon one condition… and it is an essential one… the learner’s desire to learn and his attention… in short, his interest. The indispensable condition for success is that his mind should be at work; all that bores, discourages, interrupts this psychic activity builds a barrier that no mere logical perfection of the teaching art can ever surmount. It is the ascertaining of what are the necessary conditions for the development of the learner’s spontaneous activities that we must aim at; the art of awakening enthusiasm, of evoking joy in work. The real psychological key here is just interest… interest the impeller to spontaneous activity. To illustrate the fact that comprehension… even the clearest possible understanding… may exist without any practical result ensuing, I will tell a story told me by a child. A foreigner who was but slightly acquainted with the language of the country was accosted by a beggar. The foreigner who was rich but miserly, listened to the beggar’s efforts to make himself understood and it was a long time before he could grasp his meaning. When he did, he was silent for a while, and then said: “I understand, I understand, but I give nothing.” The efforts made by the petitioner had had no practical result; in spite of the admirable clearness and persistence of his exposition he failed. In the matter between teacher and taught we have something similar. Ineffective and fleeting is all that the child merely understands. He may understand a quantity of things; his head may be stuffed to bursting with a chaotic mass of things he has understood; and yet, nothing may have happened to stir his active ego into life, nothing been done to free the constructive energies of interest and enthusiasm. Nothing can be assimilated without effort, we grant; but at the heart of effort, effort bearing its fruit in work, in study, in learning… lies interest. I will not here recur the discussions so forth called forth about interest and effort; they have been classed as contradictory aspects of the same thing, and many have said in education we have to choose between the two. In their view interest refers to what we like doing, and effort to what we dislike. But effort is the bringing into action of the individual’s entire energy, and this happens only where interest is felt. Man is no machine… he acts inspired by interests… generosity…enthusiasm; and he will then throw himself with all his life, strength, and activity into this effort… even if it is irksome. An education which succeeds in evoking interest… interest leading to a choice of some action, and the carrying out of it with the whole energy of the user, all his constructive enthusiasm… such an education has awakened a man to life. He has come into contact with that “breath of life” of which the bible speaks… the transforming breath which makes a living man out of a thing of clay. Undreamt of forces reveal themselves very often in one whose interest has been evoked. The child spurred on by interest will display powers latent till then, or never guessed at. It is by this new aspect of childhood as affected by interest which is perforce making a change in the old psychology; a far more living sphere of action is being laid open to educational methods. Not that the old ideas are fallacious; they were quite consistent with the preconceived ideas of the adult. But new principles are bound to arise in education when the child comes to be considered the axis around which all has to turn, and when it is his choice which is to guide us rather than processes of reasoning logically pursued by professors.