Instituto Internacional Montessori - AMI

07/10/2026

HANDLING AN OBJECT AND EXAMINING IT WITH OUR SENSES
…many truths become evident and are generated by things, when observing them again and again, and when handling them again and again. Details and correspondences that passed unobserved for a long time, suddenly become clear, like a revelation, sending a flash of light to the mind. Man only makes discoveries when he has things before him and these findings are only made by the man who knows how to put himself into contact with things. All of a sudden, these things reveal to that mind what they have always contained but what no one had ever seen before. It is therefore extremely important to prepare an object with eloquent mute contents that communicate with the periphery of the mind, creating an interestrelated link with the object.
The eloquence of the mute object will be like a secret revealed to those who expended intellectual energy on it.
The process for achieving this result differs from the usual. It is not about fixing our mind on an idea, but about handling an object and examining it with our senses, moving it continuously and reproducing it with sensitive images (drawings, papers, paper works, etc.). The mind thus comes into contact and lingers on the object through the periphery, taking in everything that the object can give us. The hand touches the evidence and the mind discovers the secret. Page 58 from the book Psychogeometry https://montessori-pierson.com/products/psychogeometry-vol-16 ; https://montessori-pierson.com/products/psicogeometria-vol-16

06/10/2026

FERTILE FIELD TO SOW SEEDS
…you must realise that everything invented, everything which contributes to our physical and moral world, is the fruit of human imagination. We cannot understand or live without imagination. Even if we studied basic things about geography, the poles, for instance, we would have to employ our imagination, for we could not possibly travel to the physical grounds that we cover in our minds. If we had merely the capacity to understand without the power of imagination, we would not realise these simple facts. Again, when we present the universe, only the imagination can help.
It is a great crime on the part of humans to give information to the child in such a way as to deny the imagination and force merely memory to retain ideas, without giving the opportunity to visualise them. Therefore, items of education should be given as fuel to fire the imagination, the creative faculty of the mind. Everything which has been invented had to take shape in some great mind before it existed. Every innovation is the imagination of a human being given a reality. The mind is endowed with a certain intelligence, led by the fire of a vivid imagination, which acts like a fertile field into which we throw seeds, certain to sprout. If this idea is clear in our mind, we shall have a very important guide in our work as teachers.
Our real purpose, our aim, is not to make the child merely understand or to force memorisation. Ours is a higher vision, that of touching the child’s imagination so that the mind is imbued with enthusiasm; we do not wish our pupils to be complacent, or willing or good, or the type of students who listen with attention and try to memorise our words. Like you, we want children who when taught swell with enthusiasm and want to do and know more… From the book Cosmic Education page 134-135. https://montessori-pierson.com/products/cosmic-education

15/09/2026

THE ADOLESCENT MUST NEVER BE TREATED AS A CHILD
The adolescent must never be treated as a child, for that is a stage of life that he has surpassed. It is better to treat an adolescent as if he had greater value than he actually shows than as if he had less and let him feel that his merits and self-respect are disregarded.
Young people must have enough freedom to allow them to act on individual initiative. But in order that individual action should be free and useful at the same time it must be restricted within certain limits and rules that give the necessary guidance. These rules and restrictions must be those of the whole institution, not forced on separate individuals as though they had no sense of responsibility and were incapable of conforming of their own free will to necessary regulations. The rules must be just those that are necessary and sufficient to maintain order and ensure progress.
The organization must be determined because it is necessary to develop the power of self-adjustment to the environment as it is found, and this adaptation results in cooperation and a happy social life that will facilitate individual progress. The environment must make the free choice of occupation easy, and therefore eliminate the waste of time and energy in following vague and uncertain preferences. From all this the result will be not only self-discipline but a proof that self-discipline is an aspect of individual liberty and the chief factor of success in life…
A very important matter is the fundamental order in the succession of occupations during the day, and the times for the “change-over”…But it is necessary to consider not only the active occupations but also the need for solitude and quiet, which are essential for the development of the hidden treasures of the soul. Page 69-70 from the book From Childhood to Adolescence https://montessori-pierson.com/products/from-childhood-to-adolescence-vol-12; https://montessori-pierson.com/products/de-la-infancia-a-la-adolescencia-vol-12 ; https://montessori-pierson.com/products/van-de-kinderjaren-naar-de-adolescentie

14/09/2026

CHILDREN AS A VEHICLE FOR BRINGING CHANGE TO HUMANITY
…Group characteristics remain from one generation to the next because of the children who absorb them. Once there, it is impossible to change them. You can change the conscious mind, but not the subconscious mind. Something remains which you cannot disturb. The work of the child is like heredity, a heredity that is created by each child who constructs a man of his group. The consequence is that if you want to change these deep deposits in man which are against those of another group, you cannot turn to the adult. They can understand, but they can do nothing. Instead you must take humanity during the age of growing, when the subconscious is being built up just by doing something in the environment, not by direct instruction to the intelligence. Place the child so that he can absorb something from the environment which will be part of him forever – so that he can have the chance of understanding afterwards – so that the subconscious and the conscious are not too greatly in conflict – so that in his deep deposits he is not stunted – so that he is not living within the narrow confines of his group, but in a vaster environment. We must prepare a wider environment for childhood if men are ever to understand each other better. Not just to understand each other at a rational level, but so that they can act together following their deep characteristics.
This is the most important aspect of childhood from the psychological side. We must look to the children as a vehicle for bringing change to humanity, which has now become confined by prejudices and habits that cannot be eradicated. You can persuade, but you cannot alter the facts. The facts come from a deeper origin. To understand is not sufficient. We must educate humanity from the beginning for this purpose and put the children in an environment where they are not the prey of prejudices. Page 101 from the book The 1946 London Lectures: https://montessori-pierson.com/products/the-1946-london-lectures-vol-17 ;https://montessori-pierson.com/products/las-conferencias-de-londres-en-1946-vol-17

31/08/2026

EDUCATION AS THE PATH TO PEACE
An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking; it involves the spiritual development of man, the enhancement of his value as an individual, and the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live.
The secret is this: making it possible for man to become the master of the mechanical environment that oppresses him today. Man the producer must become the master of production. Production today has been intensified by science and has become highly organized all over the world. It has therefore become necessary both to enhance human energies scientifically and to organize humanity proportionately. Men can no longer remain ignorant of their own natures and the world in which they live. The real scourge that threatens them today is precisely this sort of ignorance. We must organize our efforts for peace and prepare the way for it scientifically, through education. Education points the way to a new world to conquer: the world of the human spirit. Page 27 from the book Education and peace https://montessori-pierson.com/products/education-and-peace-vol-10 ; https://montessori-pierson.com/products/educacion-y-paz

24/08/2026

19/08/2026

NATURE AS A SOURCE OF WONDER AND REASONING
…While we teach so much in schools about the classification of animals, their functions, their construction, it should also be possible to give some idea of the magnificence of the nature of life. I have given a few examples of how much might be done along these lines by telling stories and giving accounts of what can be seen to happen. It is not a difficult matter and easy to grasp; children are fond of large numbers, and teachers go in search of these statistics. There is no topic that can yield more striking and interesting numbers. We can easily rouse enthusiasm by giving descriptions of how water wears away rocks and how it constructs palaces underground, etc. In fact, there is no subject which is at the same time so real and positive in nature and so satisfying to our imagination, and which leads to a work of reasoning. From the book Cosmic Education page 44. https://montessori-pierson.com/products/cosmic-education

12/08/2026

THE FULL REALISATION OF THE SECRET PATTERN
We may repeat at every moment before the clear evidence of reality that the child is father to the man. All the powers of the adult come from the possibility possessed by his “child-father” to attain the full realisation of the secret pattern that was his. What, however, puts the child in the position of a real worker is that he does not fulfil the pattern of the man to be made only through meditation and rest. No, his work is made up of activity, he creates by continual exercise. And we must clearly understand that he too uses his outer environment for his work, the same environment that the adult uses and transforms. It is through exercise that the child grows; his constructive activity is a real work which flows materially from his outer environment. The child in his experiences exercises himself and moves; he thus learns to coordinate his movements and absorbs from the outer world the emotions that give concreteness to his intelligence. Page 169-170 from the book The Secret of Childhood: https://montessori-pierson.com/products/the-secret-of-childhood-vol-22; https://montessori-pierson.com/products/el-nino-el-secreto-de-la-infancia-vol-4