“A Montessori environment not only encourages initiative but also fosters it. Students do not wait around for the teacher. Students have been taught the general principles and approaches to the material and have been freed to explore and delve into learning. The development of initiative is one of the main differences between being driven to learn and being led, encouraged, and excited to learn.

“The student who begins to use initiative also begins to experience the heady sensation of beginning a project (of choice) and seeing it through to the end. Many of our tasks in life are imposed on us. However, the real passion in life for learning comes when we get to choose our own projects and pour all of our energies into its completion. We are all familiar with how children will work for hours on a project (we are not talking just about school). We see how they pour themselves into a task we may find trivial or even meaningless and how much passion they give to it and how much joy they take from it. They shepherd their project to a joyful completion because it is theirs.”

-Edward Fidellow (Getting Your Money’s Worth: Your Investment in Montessori)