The Child in the Family
Maria Montessori discusses some of her basic principles of education and shows why it is so important for adults to ‘follow attentively all the spiritual expressions of a child'. She stresses the importance of adult respect and support for ‘all reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages' and emphasizes the value of understanding rather than interfering with such activity. Adults should help children to become independent while at the same time fully appreciating how sensitive children are to external influences.