Maria Montessori Quotes

Don't try to 'fix' the child's boredom - rather, let the child find his or her inner resources.

When a child is given a little leeway, he will at once shout, "I want to do it!" But in our schools, which have an environment adapted to children's needs, they say, "Help me to do it alone." And these words reveal their inner needs.

The development of a child is guaranteed in his curiosity to discover the cause behind each and every incident.

It's all background experience and listening and exposure. That's why it's so important for people today and during any time to expose your children to lots of different kinds of things.

How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone. That is the whole beginning.

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.

For me, I want my kids to find their way. If they're interested in something, I want them to try it out.

It is so important to allow children to bloom and to be driven by their curiosity.

It is important for children to learn, whether they want to pursue music or any other field.

The adult ought never to mold the child after himself, but should leave him alone and work always from the deepest comprehension of the child himself.

To give a child liberty is not to abandon him to himself.

From the very beginning of his education, the child should experience the joy of discovery.

What a child can do today with assistance, she will be able to do by herself tomorrow.

What I have learned from my own experience is that the most important ingredients in a child's education are curiosity, interest, imagination, and a sense of the adventure of life.

There is one thing you and I as parents cannot do, not do we want to do if we really think about it, and that's control our children's will--that spirit that lets them be themselves apart from you and me. They are not ours to possess, control, manipulate, or even to make mind.

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.

. . . if we have children. When they are just born we do everything for them. We are omnipotent, they are completely dependent on us, but then when they grow up you must take back your influence on them, to give them freedom.

I think the best thing a parent can do, when raising a child, is simply get out of their way.

Curiosity is unknown. All adults were once kids and once curious, but as adults you don't remember that and you see curiosity when it's expressed in children as a pathway to household disaster. They're simply exploring their environment, manifesting their curiosity. So what you need to do is create an environment where curiosity is rewarded rather than punished, or thwarted.

It is easy to substitute our will for that of the child by means of suggestion or coercion; but when we have done this we have robbed him of his greatest right, the right to construct his own personality.

The objects in our system are instead a help to the child himself, he chooses what he wants for his own use, and works with it according to his own needs, tendencies and special interests. In this way, the objects become a means of growth.

Children need parents who will let them grow up to be themselves, but parents often have personal agendas they try to impose on their children.

children once settled and confident can mostly be left, it seems, to manage their difficulties without us. Only what we must do, always and unalterably, is hold their hand firmly in general goodwill, then they themselves seem to deal with their own particular troubles far better than we can.

...the more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves. If you never let them take any risks, then I believe they become very prone to injury. Boys should be allowed to climb tall trees and walk along the tops of high walls and dive into the sea from high rocks... The same with girls. I like the type of child who takes risks. Better by far than the one who never does so.

If a child finds no stimuli for the activities which would contribute to his development, he is attracted simply to 'things' and desires to posses them.