"There is only one specimen of each object, and if a piece is in use when another child wants it, the latter - if he is normalized - will wait for it to be released. Important social qualities derive from this. The child comes to see that he must respect the work of others, not because someone has said he must, but because this is a reality that he meets in his daily experience.
There is only one between many children, so there is nothing for it but to wait . And since this happens every hour of the day for years, the idea of respecting others, and of waiting one's turn, becomes an habitual part of life which always grows more mature. Out of this comes a change, an adaptation, which is nothing if not the birth of social life itself.
Society does not rest on personal wishes, but on a combination of activities which have to be harmonized."
Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind p203
