In our Montessori schools, little children spontaneously reveal aptitudes for doing things that we never taught them and of which we would never have...

In our schools we allow the children to use their spontaneous activity by offering them objects which call for movements appropriate to their stage...

... the child always chooses something hard to do. This is something we would never have thought of.

What if this child knows nothing of the end he will achieve? If he is allowed to use his spontaneous activity in a tranquil environment without...

To the young child we give guides to the world and the possibility to explore it through his own free activity; to the older child we must give not...

The interest that drives spontaneous activity is a truly psychological key.

There is only one basis for observation: the children must be free to express themselves and thus reveal those needs and attitudes which would...

How does he achieve this independence? He does it by means of a continuous activity. How does he become free? By means of constant effort. ...we know...

We habitually serve children; and this is not only an act of servility toward them, but it is dangerous, since it tends to suffocate their useful...

Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them.