The hidden power within children: "an intense motivation to perceive reality"

Children working with Montessori's binomial cube (left) and trinomial cube

"The powers working within children—this was Maria Montessori’s discovery. She discovered a hidden power in children of an intense motivation to perceive reality. 

    "This power begins in infancy with basic sense perception; an infant exerting effort to see things clearly. Then it becomes a toddler’s extraordinary effort to coordinate his movements to perform basic tasks. . . . Later, this power becomes a three-year old revisiting the trinomial cube over and over again across a span of many weeks to achieve mastery. . . . 

    "Throughout these examples we see a strong motivation to perceive, which is a power residing in the soul of every child. And the Montessori materials are inventions which tap into this motivation and unleash this power.“

~ Mike Gustafson from his post 'The Rocket Ship of the Human Spirit.' Hat tip Carrie-Ann Biondi who notes Gustafson’s emboldened point "reminds me of the beautiful opening line of Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Joe Sachs’s trans.): “All humans by nature stretch themselves out toward understanding."