“No wonder the room was empty!” An anecdote from Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori never saw herself as a victim.

“We do not say that we want to prepare a school for children, we wish to prepare an environment for life..”

“To concentrate is to be engaged in some exercise that absorbs your total attention.” Maria Montessori

Allow children to use real, delicate items — like glass cups.

Maria Montessori didn’t hold back. 💪❤️

How to not have entitled adults - Raising patient, respectful children - Montessori

Magda Gerber shares some wisdom.

“we are in the presence of individuals who are masters of their own homes.” -Maria Montessori

“The child is, by nature, hungry for words” -Maria Montessori

“Help me to do it alone.” -The child

“Preventing conflicts is the work of politics; establishing peace is the work of education.” Maria Montessori

"success in life depends in every case on self-confidence and the knowledge of one's own capacity" -Maria Montessori

“The world of education is like an island where people, cut off from the world, are prepared for life by exclusion from it.” Maria Montessori

“Let the children be free…”

“Adaptation to the environment is the first necessity.” Maria Montessori

“Children touch everything in the house. A mother will say that a child is naughty and bad when, for example, he wants the ink pot. She will give him toys and forbid him to touch her things. But the child will say, ‘I am not here for toys. My mission is to become a strong man.’” Maria Montessori

"Observing these children — healthy, tranquil, innocent, sensitive, full of love and joy, always ready to help others — I have been forced to reflect upon the amount of human energy wasted because of an ancient error…”

"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 the intelligence.” Maria Montessori, 'Spontaneous Activity in Education'

“How do I get my child to clean up after herself??” Here’s one way.

How Maria Montessori faced adversity.. 💨💪

Many decades ago, the late educator Dr. Maria Montessori offered a small group of children a spontaneous lesson or “game” about silence.

"Rewards and punishments are ... the worst enemies of the natural development of the child. The jockey gives sugar to his horse before the race, but applies spurs and the whip when there is lagging. Still, do any of these methods induce the animal to run as swiftly and as superbly as the horse of the plains?" Maria Montessori, 1915

“If we wish to achieve peace and mutual understanding, we must start at the moment of birth…” Maria Montessori

Sometimes the good intentions of wealthy parents, like expensive toys and on-demand nannies, only handicap the very children they’re trying to make happy.

“When a grownup thinks of work, he thinks of doing something as a means to an end — spending his days in an office for the sake of a salary — but a child’s work is based on doing things for their own sake.” Maria Montessori

“The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence.” Maria Montessori

“Let us say it straight out — the child wants to do everything all by himself.” Maria Montessori

During a lecture in London, 1946, the educator Maria Montessori told the audience that “progress is not linear.” Here’s to embracing both the ups and downs of genuine growth, in children and in ourselves.

“The purpose of education must be to elevate the individual.” Maria Montessori