Montessori's 10 Commandments

The Montessori Foundation has published a list of Dr. Montessori's 10 Commandments to educators who wish to follow her approach. This is a great guideline for new teachers or for experienced teachers who need a review:

1) Never touch a child unless invited by him (in some form or another).
2) Never speak ill of a child, either in his presence or in his absence.
3)Concentrate on strengthening and helping the development of what is good in a child so that its presence may leave less and less space for the bad.
4) Be active in preparing the environment: take meticulous and constant care of it to help the children to establish constructive relationships with it. Show the children where everything belongs and demonstrate the use of the materials.
5) Be ever ready to answer the call of a child who needs your assistance. Listen and respond to his appeals.
6) Respect children when they make mistakes. As soon as they can, allow them to discover their error and correct it by themselves. Stop firmly any misuse of the environment and any action which endangers a child, his development, or others.
7) Respect the child who takes rest or watches others or ponders over what he himself has done or will do. Neither call him nor force him to other forms of activity.
8) Help those who are in search of activity and cannot find it.
9) Be untiring in repeating presentations to the child who has refused them earlier; in helping the child acquire what is not yet his own and overcome imperfections. Make your ready presence felt to the child who searches- and hide from the child who has found.
10) Ever treat the child with the best of good manners and offer him the best you have yourself at your disposal.