The purpose of this book is to expound and defend the great powers of the child, and to help teachers to a new outlook which will change their task from drudgery to joy, from repression to collaboration with nature...Already, the psychic life in the newborn has aroused great interest, scientists and psychologists having made observations of babies from three hours to five days after birth. The conclusion of these is that the first two years of life are the most important... So here begins a new path, wherein it will not be the professor who teaches the child, but the child who teaches the professor.

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. The Discovery and Development of the Montessori System. 3. Periods and the Nature of the Absorbent Mind. 4. Embryology. 5. Behaviourism. 6. Education from Birth. 7. The Mystery of Language. 8. Movement and its Part in Education. 9. Imitative Action and Cycles of Activity. 10. The Three-Year-Old. 11. Methods Evolved by Observation. 12. The Bugbear of Discipline. 13. What a Montessori Teacher Needs to Be. Index.