Maria Montessori’s Guidelines

            
 Listed below are Dr. Montessori’s guidelines for the treatment of the child by the directress in school. You will find them useful in your own relationship with your child.

1.                   Never touch the child unless invited by him (in some form or the other.)

2.                   Never speak ill of him in his presence or in his absence.

3.                   Concentrate on developing and strengthening what is good in him. Take meticulous and constant care of the environment. Teach proper use of things and show the place where they are kept.

4.                   The adult is to be active when helping the child to establish relation with the environment, and remain outwardly passive but inwardly active when this relation has been established.

5.                   The adult must always be ready to answer the call of the child who stands in need of him and always listen and respond to the child who appeals to him.

6.                   The adult must respect the child who makes a mistake without correcting directly. But he must stop any misuses of the environment and any action which endangers the child or the other members of the community.

7.                   The adult must respect the child who takes rest or watches others working and not disturb him, neither call nor force him to other forms of activity.

8.                   The adult must help those who are in search of activity without finding it.

9.                   The adult must, therefore be untiring in repeating presentations to the child who refused them earlier, in teaching the child who has not yet learned, in helping the child who needs it, to overcome the imperfections in animating the environment, with her care, with her purposeful silence, with her mild words, and her loving presence. She must make her presence felt to the child who searches and hide from the child who has found.

10.               The adult must always treat the child with the best of good manners and in general, offer him the best she has in herself and at her disposal.