Sometimes very small children in a proper environment develop a skill and exactness in their work that can only surprise us.
Interpretation
Children can demonstrate remarkable skills when nurtured in the right environment.
This quote by Maria Montessori highlights the incredible potential of young children to thrive and develop skills when they are placed in an appropriate and supportive environment. It emphasizes the importance of the surroundings and the conditions under which children learn and grow, suggesting that even small children can achieve impressive levels of skill and precision in their work if they are guided effectively.
In practice
In an educational conference discussing the importance of early childhood education.
... 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.
The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
We worship education but hate learning. We worship success but hate the successful. We worship fame but hate the famous.
We need to understand that every time an elementary teacher captures the imagination of a child through the arts or music of language this nation gets a little stronger.
The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over: "This is water." "This is water." It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out.
Childrens books change lives. Stories pour into the hearts of children and help make them what they become.
My parents would say to me, 'You can teach yourself anything better than someone else can teach it to you.' That was the whole ethos of my family.
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