Concentration is a part of life. It is not the consequence of a method of education.
Interpretation
Concentration is an essential element of life that goes beyond formal education methods.
Maria Montessori emphasizes that concentration is a fundamental aspect of living, suggesting that it should be cultivated naturally rather than solely through educational techniques. Her perspective encourages individuals to recognize the importance of focus and attentiveness in all areas of life, highlighting that these qualities contribute significantly to personal growth and learning.
In practice
During a workshop on personal development, this quote can inspire participants to prioritize their focus.
... the first thing his education demands is the provision of an environment in which he can develop the powers given him by nature. This does not mean just to amuse him and let him do what he likes. But it does mean that we have to adjust our minds to doing a work of collaboration with nature, to being obedient to one of her laws, the law which decrees that development comes from environmental experience.
When we want to infuse new ideas, _x000D_ to modify or better the habits and customs of a people, _x000D_ to breathe new vigor into its national traits, _x000D_ we must use the children as our vehicle; for little can be accomplished with adults.
Noble ideas, great sentiments have always existed and have always been transmitted, but wars have never ceased.
What we need is a world full of miracles, like the miracle of seeing the young child seeking work and independence, and manifesting a wealth of enthusiasm and love.
To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.
It is fortunate, I think, that nature is not bounded by human reason and by laboratory work and experimentation, for by the laws of pure reason and by microscopic investigation, it might easily have been proved, long before this, that children could not be born.
Therefore, teaching, talk and tale, however lucid or fascinating, effect nothing until self-activity be set up; that is, self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child's nature.
Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image, but thee who destroys a good book, kills reason its self.
Mathematics is the art of explanation. If you deny students the opportunity to engage in this activity-- to pose their own problems, to make their own conjectures and discoveries, to be wrong, to be creatively frustrated, to have an inspiration, and to cobble together their own explanations and proofs-- you deny them mathematics itself.
We need literature because we wouldnβt fully know ourselves without it. We need good literature to be fully human.
Usually kids who are talented have the brashness to think they can do anything, but they don't often get the chance to see how close they can come.
The schoolmaster is the person who takes the children off the parents' hands for a consideration. That is to say, he establishes a child prison, engages a number of employee schoolmasters as turnkeys, and covers up the essential cruelty and unnaturalness of the situation by torturing the children if they do not learn, and calling this process, which is within the capacity of any fool or blackguard, by the sacred name of Teaching.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.