Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.
Meaning of the quote
Maria Montessori, an Italian educator, believes that we should let children try to do things on their own, even if they can succeed. This is because when children feel they can do something, they will be more motivated to try their best and learn. If we help them too much, they may not get the chance to grow and develop their own skills.
About Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator who pioneered a revolutionary educational philosophy known as the Montessori method. She overcame gender barriers to become one of the first women to attend medical school in Italy, and her innovative teaching methods are still widely used in schools around the world today.
More quotes from Maria Montessori
One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
The only language men ever speak perfectly is the one they learn in babyhood, when no one can teach them anything!
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
The first idea the child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
To aid life, leaving it free, however, that is the basic task of the educator.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
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. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual’s total development lags behind?
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
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.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
We teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
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.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
The greatest sign of success for a teacher… is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist.”
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)
If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.
Italian pedagogue and physician (1870-1952)