...the tiny child's absorbent mind finds all its nutriment in its surroundings. Here it has to locate itself, and build itself up from what it takes...

Growth and psychic development are therefore guided by: the absorbent mind, the nebulae and the sensitive periods with their respective mechanisms. It...

It begins with a knowledge of his surroundings. How does the child assimilate his environment? He does it solely in virtue of one of those...

...all the changes in man’s environment are brought about by his hands.

If we are to walk, we must have ground to walk on; after we have learnt to walk, we may learn to jump, dance, etc., but we will still need the ground...

The work of education is divided between the teacher and the environment.

The child can only develop fully by means of experience in his environment. We call such experience ‘work’.

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...

The first aim of the prepared environment is, as far as it is possible, to render the growing child independent of the adult.

So, from the age of three till six, being able to now to tackle his environment deliberately and consciously, he begins a period of real...