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”Our children have greatness within them. When we seek true principles, we can draw out their greatness and help them become who they were meant to become.” ~Audrey Rindlisbacher
Maria Montessori felt this way too. She once observed:
“I watched them, seeking to understand the secret of these souls, of whose greatness I had been so ignorant.”
Have you ever looked at your child and seen greatness, yet not known how to unleash it?
Maria Montessori may have some answers for you. Through many years of study and practice working with normal as well as mentally handicapped children, Maria discovered simple principles of education that lead to a genuine desire to learn and become self-disciplined. This podcast outlines these specific principles, giving you the first tools you need to begin unlocking the greatness in your children.
Listener’s Guide:
Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast.
2:51 Maria Montessori’s story
6:48 A first principle of education: The liberty of the child
12.40 How to honor the liberty of your child at home within set bounds
14:33 Why the preparation of the teacher is key
20:16 Why trust in the child’s intuitive self-knowledge
24:17 Classroom examples about spontaneous self-discipline
29:20 Teaching the importance of silence
Quotes from this episode:
“The extraordinary rapidity with which this system of education has been adopted for children of every race and every social condition has provided us with an abundance of experimental data and enabled us to identify common features and universal tendencies and thus to determine the natural laws upon which the education of children should be based.” ~Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, 140.
“The fundamental principle of scientific pedagogy must be, indeed, the liberty of the pupil—such liberty as shall permit a development of individual, spontaneous manifestations of the child’s nature.” ~Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, 42.
“The new education has as its primary aim the discovery and freeing of the child.” ~Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, 110.
“[The teacher must] prepare himself interiorly by systematically studying himself so that he can tear out his most deeply rooted defects, those in fact which impede his relations with children.” ~Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, 149.
“…there is here a question of a deeper calm, an empty, or better, unencumbered state that is a source of inner clarity. This calm consists in a spiritual humility and intellectual purity necessary for the understanding of a child, and which, as a consequence, must be found in a teacher.” ~Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, 137.
“This new system of education has been widely discussed, particularly with respect to the reversed roles of child and adult—the teacher without a desk, without authority, and almost without teaching, and the child, the center of activity, free to move about as he wills and to choose is own occupations.” ~Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, 111.
“The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer.” ~Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, 79.
“A child’s psychic life should develop naturally and reveal its inner secret. Unless this principle is maintained, all later attempts at education will only lead one more deeply into an endless maze.” ~Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, 110.
“Discipline must come through liberty.” ~Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method, 78.
“When a normal child is attracted by an object he fixes his whole attention intently upon it and continues to work without a break in a remarkable state of concentration. After the child has finished his work, he appears satisfied, rested, and happy.” ~Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, 114.
Audrey’s Master’s essay on Montessori’s Educational Principles:
Books from this episode:
