What am I? What is my role in the universe? Do we live only for ourselves? What is the meaning of our daily struggle? The answer is the program for educating human potential that Maria Montessori proposes in this book, published in 1948, to help teachers understand the needs of children aged 6 to 12. Here, she reveals the secret of her method's success: intelligently stimulating the child's creative imagination to awaken his interest, then germinating in his mind the seeds of science, always related to a central, inspiring idea: the cosmic plan. Everything and everyone recognizes and is united in this plan, serving the great purpose of Life: working together for the common good.While retracing the fascinating story of the evolution of our planet, the appearance of the first humans and the most ancient civilizations, the author underlines the importance of teacher preparation, a central theme in Montessorian thought: teachers, she says, must be at the exclusive service of the whole human being, that is to say, of a man able to freely and responsibly exercise his will and his critical spirit, without prejudice or fear of any kind. This is where the topicality and modernity of Maria Montessori lies.
