"Respect all the reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages
and try to understand them."

~Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work

Maria Montessori was born in the town of Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy, in the year 1870. She was a pioneer in advancing women’s rights when she became the first female physician in Italy. She graduated from University of Rome Medical School in 1896.

Through her work with children in her medical practice, she had the opportunity to make many observations and analyze how children learned. She brought in sensory-rich materials and ensured that children had hands-on opportunities to work in their environments. Within two years, children who were thought to be uneducable were passing Italy’s standardized public school tests. Her realization that the children created themselves from the experiences they had in their environment led her to pursue further education in psychology and philosophy. In 1904, she was made a professor of anthropology at the University of Rome.

Her desire to help children and determine how her teaching methods would affect “normal” children led her to accept a position working with 50 to 60 children of working parents in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. Here she founded the first Casa dei Bambini, or Children’s House, in 1907. This “house” and others that followed were designed with the children in mind. Materials were on shelves that were built at child height. Tables and chairs were proportioned for children. All was designed to provide a good environment for children to live and learn.

This was an ideal opportunity also to observe children. She made observations based upon her understanding of children’s cognitive development and physical growth and from this developed a educational framework that respected the needs of the “whole child.” Dr. Montessori realized that children had an almost effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings. They also seemed to be tireless in their willingness to work with, or manipulate, the materials she provided. Her success with these children, many of whom were reading at 4 or 5, brought attention from around the world. Educators from many countries traveled to San Lorenzo to see for themselves how these children were learning. When asked who taught them, the children responded, “No one. I taught myself.”

Her greatest discovery of the child, that “Children teach themselves,” motivated her life’s work of educational reform not only in Italy but throughout the world. In 1913, she made her first trip to the United States. Invited by Alexander Graham Bell who founded the Montessori Education Association, Dr. Montessori gave a speech at Carnegie Hall. She also found support from Thomas Edison and Helen Keller.

In 1915, she was asked to “exhibit” her classroom at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. They created a classroom incased by glass walls in which children worked and through which the visitors could observe. There were twenty-one children in the class for four months, all new to Montessori. Every day the seats were full and at noon there was standing room only as these pre-school children served each other lunch and cleaned up after themselves. This classroom won both gold medals awarded for education. During this trip, she led a teacher training course and also spoke at the National Education Association convention.

Over the next forty years. Dr. Montessori traveled extensively lecturing on educational reform and advancing this new method of teaching. She established a research institute in Spain, began teacher training courses in England and established training centers in the Netherlands and India. She devoted her time as well to helping to develop schools in Europe, America, and Asia.

She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949, 1950, 1951.

Dr. Maria Montessori died in Holland in 1952.
Her work was carried on by her son Mario Montessori until his death in 1982.

Currently Montessori training and initiatives are set by Montessori organizations recognized worldwide such as AMI, AMS, ICM, MACTE and NAMTA.