Once a child has been attracted to and has begun to concentrate on a bit of work, the adult respects this choice and concentration and does not interrupt. This is an explanation of a small part of the Montessori philosophy in the school, which, combined with parenting skills, can be adapted to the home, with practice and support. These are given through individual lessons on the use, by the individual child, of the materials. It is not good for children when we, parents and teachers, push them into stages that they are not ready for. But neither is it good for us to hold children back when they are ready to operate independently.
Every unnecessary help is really a hindrance to development.
This is true at any age, from a child who is ready to wean himself from nursing, the young child who wants to pick out her own clothing in the morning, and the teenager who decides to study the electric guitar instead of the viola. On sending my little boy of three to spend his mornings in a Montessori school, I found that he quickly became a more disciplined human being . . . The pedagogical discoveries involved have required genius but the teachers who are to apply them do not require genius. They require only the right sort of training, together with a degree of sympathy and patience, which is by no means unusual. What is astonishing is the great success in finding technical methods of embodying this idea in education.