About Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori, one of the first women in Italy to graduate with a degree in medicine, began her medical career as a pediatrician. As she observed children in her practice, she identified sensitive periods in their lives when they were ready and able to learn specific concepts. She saw that very young children could not grasp abstract concepts but rather learned by moving from the concrete to the abstract. She also rejected the idea that some children, because of their economic or social status, could not learn. She believed that, given the proper environment and stimulation, these children could achieve on par with their more privileged peers.

From these observations, Dr. Montessori developed a method of teaching that emphasizes hands-on activities, a self-paced curriculum, and a sequential order of progression that allows children to build upon skills they master. In 1907 she opened her first school, which served children from the slums and children previously thought to be uneducable. Her methods proved to be a remarkable success! Dr. Montessori's methods quickly spread throughout the world, with such great thinkers as Alexander Graham Bell, Woodrow Wilson, and Helen Keller bringing these new educational methods to the United States. Almost a century later, contemporary leaders in the field of education, including David Elkind, author of The Hurried Child, continue to praise to the methods pioneered by Dr. Montessori.

Though slow to be embraced in the southern United States, Montessori schools exist throughout the nation and the world, often with long waiting lists. The curriculum they offer encourages students to think for themselves, to develop reasoning skills, to be excited about the world around them and all its opportunities for discovery. For almost a century, Montessori schools have recognized the value of ideas that current educational theory has recently adopted—the value of multi-age classes, the idea that different children learn in different ways, and the effectiveness of multi-sensory manipulatives.

Dr. Montessori lived face to face with fascism and the miseries of war. She responded by integrating peace education into her teaching method. She suggested that if children learned about other people and other cultures, they would be much less likely to be prejudiced toward them or to make war against them. For her efforts Dr. Montessori was nominated repeatedly for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. Montessori died in the Netherlands in 1957.

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About Maria Montessori