A truly educated individual continues learning long after the hours and years he spends in classroom because he is motivated from within by natural curiosity and love for knowledge. Dr. Montessori felt therefore, that the gaol of early childhood education should not be to fill the child with facts from a pre-selected course of studies, but rather to cultivate his own natural desire to learn.

In the Montessori classroom this objective is approached in two ways. First, by allowing each child to experience the excitement of leaning by his own choice rather than by being forced and Second, by helping him to perfect all his natural tools for learning so that his ability will be maximum in future learning situations. The Montessori materials have this dual long-range purpose in addition to their immediate purpose of giving specific information to the child.

The use of the materials is based on the child’s unique aptitude for learning which Dr. Montessori identified as the ‘absorbent mind’. In her writings she frequently compared the young mind to a sponge. It literally absorbs information from the environment. The process is particularly evident in the way two year-old learns his/her native language without formal instruction and without the conscious, tedious effort which an adult must make to master a foreign tongue. Acquiring information in this way is a natural and delightful activity for the young child who employs all his/her senses to investigate all his/her interesting surroundings.

Since the child retains this ability to learn by absorbing until he/she is almost seven years old. Dr. Montessori reasoned that child’s experiences could be enriched by a class room where he/she could handle the materials which would demonstrate basic educational information to him/her.