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 environment we create in school is not an environment for amusement under the pretext of passing time or avoiding fatigue. It is above all an environment in which one works. Without work, there is no development. […] He often suffers not because of an excess of work, but because he is obliged to do work that is not worthy of him. The child’s interest turns toward an effort adapted to his great intellectual power and to the dignity of his person.” — Maria Montessori, International Course 1934