Dr Maria Montessori described how she had taken her pupils one day up onto a roof terrace for their lessons. She gave a piece of chalk to one young boy and challenged him to draw a picture of the neighbouring chimney stack. To her amazement, he declared that he could write, and chalked the word ‘hand’ on the rooftop.

The boy to whom Dr Montessori had given chalk had never written before, but crying ‘I can write’ began to do so. The other children gathered around, and several of them also began to write — not letters only, as happens in conventional schooling, noted Montessori, but whole words, just as a baby will suddenly utter a whole word.

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