Montessori Rules for the Adult

1. Never touch the child unless invited by him (in some form or the other).
2. Never speak ill of him in his presence or in his absence.
3. Concentrate on developing and strengthening what is good in him. Take meticulous and constant care of the environment. Teach proper use of things and show the place where they kept.
4. The adult is to be active when helping the child to establish relation with his environment and remain outwardly passive but inwardly active when this relation has been established.
5. The adult must respect a child who makes a mistake without correcting it directly. But she must stop any misuses of the environment and any action which endangers the child or the other members of the community.
6. The adult must always be ready to answer the call of the child who stands in need of her and always listen and respond to the child who appeals to the teacher.
7. The adult must respect the child who takes rest or watches others working and not disturb the child; neither call nor force him to other activities.
8. The adult must help those who are in search of activity without finding it.
9. The adult must be untiring in repeating presentations to children who have not yet learned, in helping children who need it, to overcome the imperfections in animating the environment, with care, with purposeful silence, with mild words, and with a loving presence. The teacher must make her presence felt to the child who searches, and hide from the child who has found.
10. The adult must always treat the child with the best of good manners and, in general, offer the child the best the teacher has in herself and at her disposal.