Dr Maria Montessori - Educationalist

Born August 31, 1870, Chiaravalle, near Ancona, Italy.
Died May 6, 1952, Noordwijk aan Zee, Netherlands.

Maria Montessori  was the first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree. She worked in the fields of psychiatry, education and anthropology.  She believed that every child is born with a unique potential, that needed to be ‘revealed’. This belief is at the heart of the Montessori approach.

At age thirteen, against the wishes of her father but with the support of her mother, she attended a boys' technical school. After seven years studying engineering she began Pre-med studies and, in 1896 became a physician, working with and observing special needs children in a psychiatric clinic.

In 1907 she was given the opportunity to work with 'normal' children and took charge of fifty poor children from streets of the ‘San Lorenzo slum’ on the outskirts of Rome. It was here she began developing a system of education for 3 to 6 year-olds based on freedom of movement, allowing children choice and independence, and she provided specially designed ‘learning materials’ which encouraged them to experiment and explore.

The results were remarkable, in terms of the academic achievements of the children their personal development - her approach of ‘following the child’ coupled with the idea of observing of the children immediately attracted the attention of educators throughout the world.

They realised that Dr Montessori had successfully challenged the traditional idea that children were ‘bank slates on which to be written’. Early childhood education was changed forever.

In 1915 Dr. Montessori spoke about her ideas at Carnegie Hall, New York. She set up a classroom at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, where spectators watched twenty-one children, all new to the Montessori method, behind a glass wall for four months. The only two gold medals awarded for education went to Dr Montessori’s class.

During World War II Dr. Montessori was exiled from Italy because of her antifascist views Living and working in India, she developed her work ‘Education for Peace’, and was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1947 while living once more in Rome Dr. Montessori developed the Montessori program for children aged 6-12.

Interest in Dr. Montessori's methods have continued to spread throughout the world. Her ideas were once considered ground-breaking, but are now understood, proven and widely accepted,  and are used in ‘non-Montessori’ teaching environments.

Maria Montessori’s simple message to those who emulated her was always to "follow the child". It is because of this simple, clear thought - focussing on the child combined with her ‘observation guidelines’ - that Dr. Montessori's ideas continue to provide real and lasting benefits for children to this day.