The Absorbent Mind

by Maria Montessori

This sacrifice that the father and mother make is something natural that gives joy. It does not appear as sacrifice.

Thinkers and philosophers in all times have wondered about the marvel of a being who did not exist before and becomes a man or a woman who will have intelligence, thoughts, and who will be able to show the greatness of his soul.

the psychic development of the child, because not only the human body, but also the human psyche is constructed following the same plan. It starts from nothing, or at least from what appears to be nothing, in the same way as the body starts from that primitive cell which appears in no way different from other cells.

There is at first the work of accumulation of material, just as we said there was an accumulation of cells by a multiplication in the case of the body. This is done by what I have called the ‘absorbent mind’ After that come points of sensitivity.

psyche that is developed, but the organs of this psyche.

language, being able to judge distances, or being able to orient oneself in the environment, or being able to stand on two legs and other co-ordinations. Each of these items develops around an interest, but independently one of the other.

Now this point of sensitivity is so acute that it attracts the individual towards a certain set of actions. None of these sensitivities occupies the whole period of development. Each occupies only part of the time; long enough to ensure the construction of a psychic organ. After the organ has been formed, the sensitivity disappears, but during this period there are powers so great that we c...

It is true that humanity did not scientifically know the sensitive periods, but in previous civilizations mothers applied an instinctive treatment of their children which enabled them if not to second the needs of a sensitive period at least not to disturb it too much.

That is why it is as important to study the maternal instinct as it is to study the phases of the natural development of children.

Today, we are face to face with the great practical problem that mothers must co-operate and science must find some way of aiding and protecting the psychic development of the child as it has found a way of protecting the physical development.

science must enlighten the mothers by means of the discoveries made in the field of the psyche of the children so that henceforth mothers can help consciously instead of unconsciously.

Education must come to the rescue and give mothers this knowledge.

anathema to scientists. It is the word ‘miracle,’

Because though it is something that happens continuously, nevertheless it is miraculous and wonder at this miracle is felt just the same.

the intelligence service of collecting impressions from the environment, which is carried out with sense organs, is so marvelous that no modern instrument can approach it. What can for instance approach the marvel of the eye or of the ear?

there are special chemical laboratories in which substances are evolved, placing and holding together other substances that we in our most modern and most powerful laboratories are unable to unite.

one realizes how mystic this dry scientific statement sounds, for this cell is so tiny as to be almost invisible, yet it contains within itself the heredity of all times.

They have already arranged themselves to determine exactly the form of the nose, the color of the eyes etc. of the being that will result from this primitive cell.

But what we see occurring in front of our eyes, shows us that all the details follow a certain invisible plan.

The plan can be seen materially in the embryo, it can be followed in the psychology of children and it can also be recognized in society.

There can therefore be but one means of treating or educating children of this age, i.e., if education is to start from birth, there can be but one method.

Here there is an absolute method which is the same for all. There is a period of incarnation in which every human being acts in the same fashion, i.e., every human being incarnates itself in the same way; all have the same psychic needs and follow the same procedure in order to achieve the construction of man. No matter what type of man results from the work of the child, no matter if it is a genius, or a laborer, a saint or a murderer, each in order to become what he is in the end, must pass through these stages of growth, these phases of incarnation.

There must be there can be only one method of education. The method which helps the natural laws of growth and of development, alike for all.

The only one who can dictate the method is nature itself which has established certain laws, which has infused certain needs into the growing being. It is the aim of satisfying these needs, seconding these laws, which must dictate the method of education; not the more or less brilliant ideas of a philosopher.

We cannot make, for instance, a genius, or a general or an artist. We can only help that individual who is to be a general or a leader to realize his potentialities.

animals have their habits pre-established before birth and the organs are built in such a fashion as best to fulfil these habits and these instincts.

Let us take the cows.

One might ask oneself why this animal has limited itself to feed only on grass which is the most indigestible food that can be found, so much so that in order to digest it the poor animal has had to develop four stomachs.

If you observe the animal, you will see that it crops the grass near the roots, but it never uproots the plant. It seems to know that in order to keep the grass alive, it must be cut near the roots because if the latter are cut, the plant dies, whereas if they are cut like this, they develop under ground. The roots expand and occupy more ground and so the grass travels and spreads instead of dying.

and one also finds the tremendous importance that grass has for other vegetation; because grass ties together the loose grains of sand which otherwise would be carried away by the wind. Not only does it render the ground firm, but it fertilizes it also. No other vegetation could have grown if the grass had not prepared the way first. That is the importance of grass.

necessary for its upkeep, besides cutting: one is manure, the other is rolling i.e., putting a heavy weight upon it.

What a wonderful agriculturist of nature is the cow.

They do not eat merely to satisfy themselves. They eat to fulfil a mission upon the earth, the mission which is prescribed for them by their behavior.

A fundamental study today is to consider the task of each upon this earth. Behavior does not merely fulfil the desire to continue to live. It serves a task which evidently

remains unknown and unconscious to the being, because it does not form part of what one might wish.

The study of nature shows, however, that there is no animal which is as capable as man to adapt itself to any climate or to any place upon this earth.

Whatever abilities man possesses, there must have been a child who conquered them.

This special kind of vital memory, that does not remember consciously, but absorbs images into the very life of the individual has received from the psychologists a special name: they have called it Mneme.

We have an example of this in language. The child does not remember the sounds of language. The child incarnates these sounds and he can pronounce them better than anybody else. He speaks the language according to all its complicated rules and all its exceptions,

because he studies and remembers it by means of ordinary memory, perhaps his memory never takes it consciously. Yet this language forms a p...

The things that together form the personality, sentiments of caste and all sorts of other feelings that make a typical Italian, a typical Englishman, a typical Indian, are constructed during childhood by this mysterious sort of psychic power that psychologists call Mneme.

If one has really a vision of better conditions, of greater enlightenment for people, it is only the child that one can look upon in order to bring about the desired results.

because in the children the construction of humanity takes place.

If we wish to change a generation, if we wish to influence it either towards good, or evil, if we want to reawaken religion or add culture, whatever it is that we may wish to do, we must take the child.

psychic embryo.

The child gives us a new hope and a new vision.

all life is psychic life, and that even as an embryo the child is endowed with a psyche.

Therefore, why should it surprise us when people state that the new-born child is endowed with psychic life? Indeed if it were not so, how could it be alive?

the drama of birth, the fact of a psychic life, of a living being thrown all of a sudden from one environment into another vastly different.

It is the psyche which must construct the human faculties and along with that the movements to correspond to those faculties.