Independence is a core tenet of Montessori education. Montessori observed that children have an intrinsic desire to do things for themselves, from dressing independently to preparing food. A child's successive conquests of independence begin in the first plane as functional independence—for example, in movement, care of self, communication, care of the environment, and growing self-efficacy—and expands in later planes toward intellectual independence, emotional independence, and economic independence. Independence is requisite for freedom from within, which develops when liberty is given to the child (freedom within limits), as the development of independence empowers the child to act upon a freely-made choice. Thus, independence, the capacity to act independently, is integral to freedom from within. The child's conquests of independence help them to cultivate inner freedom, as an internal state, that is, freedom to make reasoned choices and act upon them. Montessori states, in Education and Peace, that "The only true freedom for an individual is to have the opportunity to act independently."