Every original thinker attracts those who are eager to learn and build upon the new discoveries — and “true believers” who want to follow mechanically and turn the new system into a museum piece.
Maria Montessori’s outstanding educational philosophy is designed for independence, creativity, and freedom. Many Montessorians are applying and developing her system in Montessori’s original adventuresome spirit, yet even such a system is not immune from the true-believer type.
Angeline Lillard makes this comment in her excellent book on the evidence for and against Montessori’s philosophy:
“Twenty years ago, I was a Montessori skeptic. I had taken a Montessori teacher training course and was frustrated at not being able to discriminate scientifically supported ideas from mere opinion. I had met Montessori teachers who sometimes came across as more devoted to upholding their heroine than to learning about children” (Montessori, The Science behind the Genius, Oxford 2007).
Examples from other intellectual movements:
Movement in-fighting and schisms: Rickert on the neo-Kantians, Gardner on the Freudians, Rand on Frank Lloyd Wright’s circle, and advice from Aristotle.
And more good advice from Friedrich Nietzsche.