Montessori Quotes

"Thus we have been drawn into a false and narrow way, from which we must free ourselves, if we are to establishe true and living methods for the training of future generations."  Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, Chapter 1, p.7, Schocken Books, Inc., 1964.

"And, like St. Francis, we have believed that by carrying the hard and barren stones of the experimental laboratory to the old and crumbling walls of the school, we might rebuild it.  We have looked upon the aids offered by the materialistic and mechanical sciences with the same hopefulness with which St. Francis looked upon the squares of granite, which he must carry upon his shoulders." Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, Chapter 1, p.6-7, Schocken Books, Inc., 1964.

"So we, who work toward one great end, are members of one and the same body; and those who come after us will reach the goal only because there were those who believed and laboured before them."  Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, Chapter 1, p.6, Schocken Books, Inc., 1964.

"Every great cause is born from repeated failures and from imperfect achievements."  Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, Chapter 1, p.6, Schocken Books, Inc., 1964.

"To-day, however, those things which occupy us in the field of education are the interests of humanity at large, and of civilisation, and before such great forces we can recognise only one country--the entire world.  And in a cause of such great importance, all those who have given any contribution, even though it be only an attempt not crowned with success, are worthy of the respect of humanity throughout the civilised world." Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, Chapter 1, p.5-6, Schocken Books, Inc., 1964.

"In France, in England, and especially in America, experiments have been made in the elementary schools, based upon a study of anthropology and psychological pedagogy, in the hope of finding in anthropometry and psychometry, the regeneration of the school.  In these attempts it has rarely been the teachers who have carried on the research; the experiments have been, in most cases, in the hands of physicians who have taken more interest in their especial science than in education.  They have usually sought to get from their experiments some contribution to psychology, or anthropology, rather than to attempt to organise their work and their results toward the formation of the long-sought Scientific Pedagogy.  To sum up the situation briefly, anthropology and psychology have never devoted themselves to the question of educating children in the schools, nor have the scientifically trained teachers ever measured up to the standards of genuine scientists. "The truth is that t...

 "The authority of [Giuseppe] Sergi was enough to convince many that, given such knowledge of the individual, the art of educating him would develop naturally.  This, as often happens, led to a confusion of ideas among his followers, arising now from a too literal interpretation, now from an exaggeration, of the master's ideas.  The chief trouble lay in confusing the experimental study of the pupil, with his education.  And since the one was the road leading to the other, which should have grown from it naturally and rationally, they straightway gave the name of Scientific Pedagogy to what was in truth pedagogical anthropology."  Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, Chapter 1, p.3, Schocken Books, Inc., 1964.

"Much has been said in the past decade concerning the tendency of pedagogy, following in the footsteps of medicine, to pass beyond the purely speculative stage and base its conclusions on the positive results of experimentation."  Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, Chapter 1, p.1, Schocken Books, Inc., 1964.