192 Instinct and Intelligence 



Montessori are well devised to promote the de- 

 velopment of the instinctive and the association 

 areas of a child's brain. 1 



The structure and quality of the nervous 

 substance of all classes of Englishmen are de- 

 rived from a common Anglo-Celtic stock, and 

 are therefore amenable to the same kind of 

 training. The difference between the intellec- 

 tual qualities of the children of the manual 

 labouring classes, and their more prosperous 

 neighbours is not in the innate quality of their 

 nervous systems, but depends on the difference 

 in the conditions under which their nervous 

 matter, and that of their immediate progenitors 

 has been reared ; in other words, on the environ- 

 ment in which from infancy to childhood and 

 adult age most of these people have had to 

 live. 



At the age of fourteen years a lad belonging 

 to the labouring classes is obliged to leave 

 school, and endeavour to earn his own living. 

 Not having been trained how to think or to do 

 any useful kind of work, he finds it difficult to 

 get any permanent occupation, and probably 



1 The Montessori Method, by Maria Montessori, M.D., p. >i6. 



