Dr. Maria Montessori
(1870-1952)
Dr. Maria Montessori discovered a good deal about the learning process in young children. She observed that children delight in activities that feed their intellectual discovery. A carefully prepared environment nourishes and encourages a child's natural curiosity and development.
The attitudes and confidence developed during these formative years will serve the child throughout his/her lifetime. For a confident child, new activities are not only a challenge, but also a delight. She found a child is most apt to retain a positive attitude toward learning and acquire confidence in a relaxed atmosphere where the child sets his/her own pace, follows his/her own interest, and is free of criticism and competition.
The small child is a lover of work, spontaneously chosen and repeated with profound joy until his/her intellectual discovery is complete. 
The child has a need to learn by doing. At each stage in the child's mental growth, corresponding physical activities help develop and refine their movements. Their natural wish, "Help me do it myself," is to be respected.
The child is allowed a large measure of liberty (not license) that forms the basis of real self-discipline. This higher discipline originates within the child as s/he gains practice making decisions and exercising his/her own will. Discipline should not be imposed from without or be based on rewards or punishments.
Learning becomes its own true reward since the children are freed from competition and rewards or praise, and the sharing of learning naturally follows. Children help and learn from each other; they do not compete. This results in a cooperative social community within the classroom.
The child works from his/her own free choice, without competition and coercion; therefore s/he is freed from danger of stress or strain. There is no pressure to gain approval or any feelings of inferiority, fear of mistakes, with the ridicule or criticism which may follow, or any other negative experiences which may cause mental or emotional disturbances in later years.
The Montessori Method develops the whole personality of the child, not merely the intellectual faculties. The powers of deliberation, initiative, creativity and independent choice are fostered as the child gains skills, confidence, and awareness. The child grows into a mentally, physically and spiritually healthy and happy adult.