Maria Montessori celebrated more than 80 birthdays, but surely one of the best birthday gifts must have been a speech from a student on her 45th birthday, which happened on the closing day of a training course.

"I have gained a deeper respect for the child than ever before. I must also express something beyond simple appreciation—an admiration for the utter dedication of Dr. Montessori and the vision guiding her work. Without flattery, it is a revelation of genius joined to unremitting devotion to an idea. This is a lesson we can all learn. I feel I have learned it myself, and to me one of the greatest strengths of the Montessori System is that it opens the path of genius to the child."