3 quotations linked to The Montessori Method by or associated with Maria Montessori, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Liberty, active discipline, observation, self-regulation, prepared environments, sensory education and independent activity in the Children’s Houses.
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“Discipline must come through liberty.”
The short principle contrasts self-directed active discipline with discipline produced only through externally imposed immobility or coercive classroom control.
Source note: The Montessori Method, “Discipline.” Montessori immediately explains that her concept of active discipline differs from older school methods; the line represents her pedagogical theory, not a context-free rule for every setting.
“The pedagogical method of observation has for its base the liberty of the child; and liberty is activity.”
Montessori links observation-based teaching with room for children to act, treating activity as necessary evidence for understanding development rather than mere classroom disorder.
Source note: The Montessori Method, section “Discipline,” Anne E. George translation. Project Gutenberg #39863. This is historical Montessori pedagogy and should not be presented as a universal modern experimental finding.
“We call an individual disciplined when he is master of himself, and can, therefore, regulate his own conduct when it shall be necessary to follow some rule of life.”
Discipline is framed as developed self-regulation: the learner becomes capable of governing conduct appropriately rather than depending entirely on external restraint.
Source note: The Montessori Method, “Discipline,” Anne E. George translation. Montessori calls this “active discipline” and contrasts it with older coercion to immobility; terminology reflects the educational theory of her period.