If education were to continue along the old lines of mere transmission of knowledge, the problem would be insoluble and there would be no hope for the world. Alone a scientific inquiry into human personality can lead us to salvation, and we have before us in the child a psychic entity, a social group of immense size, a veritable world power if rightly used. If salvation and help are to come, it is from the child, for the child is the constructor of man, and so of society. The child is endowed with an inner power that can guide as to a more luminous future. Education should no longer be mostly an imparting of knowledge, but must take new path, seeking the release of human potentialities.
Human teachers can only help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master.
These words speak of a fundamentally different understanding of the nature of the child, and furthermore the task of childhood. Montessori is about the development of the human being to its fullest potential, a human being with an awareness of self in relation to society, not solely in vision and ideal, but rather in how to provide the environment that will actually allow for this potential, encourage it, nurture it, protect it, honor it. But as we consider Montessori in this day and age we must recognize that her vision for education was complete and deliberate. There were no aspects of the classroom left to chance or included incidentally. We cannot pick and choose and sample from her directives.