“What we can and must do is undertake the construction of an environment that will provide the proper conditions for his normal development. The child's psychic energy, once awakened, will develop according to its own laws and have an effect on us as well. The mere contact with a human being developing in this way can renew our own energies. The child developing harmoniously and the adult improving himself at his side make a very exciting and attractive picture. This is the treasure we need today—helping the child become independent of us and make his way by himself and receiving in return his gifts of hope and light. In this new picture, the adult will appear not only as the builder of the external world, but, even more importantly, as the protector of the moral and spiritual forces that appear anew in every human being born. —Montessori, Education and Peace”