Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“A child who works spontaneously and for a long period of time with this material not only strengthens his reasoning powers and his character but acquires higher and clearer cognitions, which increase his mental capacity.”
- Date
- 1917
- English wording
- Arthur Livingston — Translator · from Italian
Meaning of “A child who works spontaneously and for a…”
Montessori connects sustained voluntary work with reasoning, character and intellectual development within her method, emphasizing concentrated engagement rather than passive reception.
Where does it come from?
The Montessori Elementary Material (1917), Arthur Livingston translation, Part IV, Geometry, Chapter I, “Plane Geometry,” beginning on printed page 260 and continuing onto page 261, Project Gutenberg #42869. Montessori links long spontaneous work with the geometric material to reasoning, character and higher cognitions within her method. The passage remains an early-twentieth-century pedagogical/developmental claim and is not presented as a universally established modern cognitive-effect estimate.
