Montessori had developed a rather unusual understanding of the formation of a child's education and development. In the Absorbent Mind stage every child goes through 4 sensitive periods. Montessori sees education as a help to the unfolding of the child's inborn psychic powers. Montessori's explanation of the child's immediate postnatal development is as a "spiritual embryo." Montessori envisions as the steward of the child's emergent spirit a parent or teacher with faith that children, if allowed, will discover their true selves. 6 pgs, bibliography lists 3. sources.