Many dedicated teachers, researchers and humanitarians spend their lives searching for a better way to educate children. One of the most known educators was Maria Montessori. While psychologists and philosophers were producing new theories on how best to teach children,  she was the first known to find a system that started with the child - that observed children with deep respect and discovered needs and characteristics different for various ages and common to children all over the world. She then structured a system to meet those needs - to start from the child's natural love of learning and provide materials and lessons that compel the child to manipulate, investigate, imagine and discover.

"...the nurturing of caring, giving individuals with the confidence to be influences for good in the world has to balance the acquiring of academics." - Maria Montessori.

She discovered that in this way:

• that rewards for completed work were not always necessary 

• that discipline problems were rare because the children were actively engaged in what they most wanted to do; 

• that when the key element of interest was present, learning was infinitely more effective than when a child was forced to follow a teacher's interests; 

• that when controls were built into the materials for learning, children could teach themselves and gain great pride in mastery;

• that because of their special relationships, children could teach each other often more effectively than adults could teach them, and learning was a cooperative, social process; 

• most important, she realized that for education to be effective, it had to involve the whole child, emotionally, socially, academically and physically.