Montessori on Prizes in School or at Home?

I wanted to share this great quote with everyone because the topic of prizes in school and at home comes up frequently.

This quote is from Dr. Maria Montessori herself in her 1912 book, The Montessori Method, and it applies brilliantly to the situation today:

"In the same way we give prizes to school children. And ... the fear of not achieving promotion, withholds the clerk from running away, and binds him to his monotonous work, even as the fear of not passing into the next class drives the pupil to his book. The reproof of the superior is in every way similar to the scolding of the teacher. The correction of badly executed clerical work is equivalent to the bad mark placed by the teacher upon the scholar's poor composition. The parallel is almost perfect."

Remember that telling your child "please" or "thank you" or "I love you" is not praise or a prize! We encourage these three simple phrases!