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“Play is the Child’s Work” is perhaps Maria Montessori’s best-known aphorism. Unfortunately, this phrase is often misinterpreted to suggest that work and play are identical and that children should be working, not playing. But that is really not what Dr. Montessori had in mind. Montessori wrote, for example, that children might well use their imagination to think about a distant country like America, rather than a fairy tale land. In so doing she recognized that imagination or play was not the same as work. Montessori also appreciated that learning is most effective when play and work are united in a single activity. To appreciate this insight, we need to be clear about the difference between play and work.

Although we tend to think of work and play as in opposition to one another, they are most effective when they are brought together. Therein lies the genius of the Montessori materials.