Happy Child Happy World

I am currently reading E.M.Standing's biography of Maria Montessori, which should be read by anyone interested in the method (second only to those written by Maria herself). Standing insists that the problem with early education is the terrible relationship between the adult and the child and that the solution exits in the healing of this relationship.
No matter how well built a school is, their low windows and shelves, or how awash with extracurricular activities, the strength of a school is in the happiness of the child and the calm of the teacher.
I know a little school with handmade cards and counters, the bead stair and the like, the hall is drafty and badly lit, but the bond between the teachers and the children is obvious. It is the only school I've visited thus far where a child was generous without restraint and without coercion. One child spent a good part of this morning on a detailed drawing only to give to me, a stranger, before I left.