The 10 Best Maria Montessori Quotes

Maria Montessori was born on the 31st August 1870 in the town of Chiaravalle, Italy. She was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy.

One of Montessori's many accomplishments was the Montessori method. This is a method of education for young children that stresses the development of a child's own initiative and natural abilities, especially through practical play. This method allowed children to develop at their own pace and provided educators with a new understanding of child development.

The following quotes will show you why her theories on early education still shape the way kids learn today around the globe.

• The most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six.
• The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn.
• The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life.
• To consider the school as a place where instruction is given is one point of view. But, to consider the school as a preparation for life is another. In the latter case, the school must satisfy all the needs of life.
• One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.
• To give a child liberty is not to abandon him to himself.
• We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.
• Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.
• To let the child do as he likes when he has not yet developed any powers of control is to betray the idea of freedom.
• Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.

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