Maria Montessori believed the purpose of education is to be an aid to life. It should go far beyond the
mere acquisition of knowledge in various areas of culture.
She believed further that the children on whom this “burden of education” falls have a nature quite
different from that of adults. While adults have reached the norm of the species, children are in a constant
state of metamorphosis, creating for themselves the individuals they are to be. And the environment in
which they evolve will shape them just as surely as their genetic inheritance.
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