"The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child's own natural desire to learn."
"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."
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Source: The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori, Part II, (p. 121), 1949.
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"Do not tell them how to do it. Show them how to do it and do not say a word. If you tell them, they will watch your lips move. If you show them, they will want to do it themselves."
"The education of even a small child, therefore, does not aim at preparing him for school, but for life."
"Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning."
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"To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely."