SOURCE: A review of The Secret of Childhood, in The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XLVI, No. 1, July, 1940, pp. 117-18.

In the following essay, Sherman reviews Montessori's The Secret of Childhood, noting that the book presents “many good, common-sense deductions and suggestions” and is recommended reading for parents but may be rather simplistic for educators and theorists.

This book [The Secret of Childhood] presents an extremely well-written, clear description of those educational problems of the young child which have always been of interest to Miss Montessori. Although the material is not new and might well have been written years ago, the book contains many good, common-sense deductions and suggestions. The author continually emphasizes the need for the consideration of children as individuals who have definite psychological functions which can be studied only by sympathetic observers. She makes an interesting point when she states that most adults study children...