Montessori educators follow Montessori's lead and use the word "work" to describe the child's concentrated attention with a hands-on material. But this word may lead to communication problems with parents and those in the non-Montessori world: educators, administrators, accreditors, and so on. These communication problems are just the tip of the iceberg in understanding Montessori's ideas on work and how these ideas and practices fit with the concept of work in society. In this article, the author investigates what researchers and writers have said about the attitudes of children and youth toward work. He also describes how this relates to what Montessori says about work and what happens in Montessori classrooms.