Maria montessori

And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.

If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.

We cannot create observers by saying "observe," but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and these means are procured through education of the senses

[In her 1946 book,] Education in a New World, ... education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.

We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child's spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself. That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.