Drawn from my three-year immersion for the film Let the Child Be the Guide, my research, and my Montessori teacher training (AMI), this quote is an excerpt from a thematic selection I compiled to remove the primary obstacle to education: our adult prejudices. This post presents one of the themes from this collection, designed to transform, step by step, our gaze upon the child.
“The toy has taken on such importance that people consider it a stimulus for intelligence. Certainly, it is better than nothing, but it is significant that the child quickly tires of a new toy and asks for others. In reality, toys seem useless. They do not allow for concentration and provide no goals. They lead the mind astray in illusion… and yet, toys are the only objects made by adults for children’s use.” — Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood