Montessori Reader

The diet of little children must be rich in fats and sugar: the first for reserve matter and the second for plastic tissue. In fact, sugar is a stimulant to tissues in the process of formation.

Their gentleness is so absolute, so sweet, that we recognise in it the infancy of that humanity which can remain oppresed by every form of yoke, by every injustice; and the child’s love of knowledge is such that it surpasses every other love and makes us think that in very truth humanity must carry within it that passion which pushes the minds of men to the successive conquest of thought, making easier from century to century the yokes of every form of slavery.

Adolescence does not come because the child laughs, or dances, or does gymnastic exercises, or is well nourished; but because he has arrived at that particular physiological state. Life makes itself manifest,–life creates, life gives

Man, disciplined through liberty, begins to desire the true and only prize which will never belittle or disappoint him,–the birth of human power and liberty within that inner life of his from which his activities must spring.

The man who, through his own efforts, is able to perform all the actions necessary for his comfort and development in life, conquers himself, and in doing so multiplies his abilities and perfects himself as an individual.

We must make of the future generation, powerful men, and by that we mean men who are independent and free.

“useless consuming of life,”

We call an individual disciplined when he is master of himself, and can, therefore, regulate his own conduct when it shall be necessary to follow some rule of life.

his training must be such as shall help him to diminish, in a rational manner, the social bonds, which limit his activity.

the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity, as often happens in the case of the old-time discipline. And all this because our aim is to discipline for activity, for work, for good; not for immobility, not for passivity, not for obedience.

the first form of educational intervention must tend to lead the child toward independence.