Montessori, Maria

Both during her lifetime and after her death, Maria Montessori (1870–1952) has been regarded as the creator of a pedagogy that is now applied throughout the world. It is more than a hundred years since Montessori established an educational orientation that still attracts new stakeholders in different cultural environments. Within the space of a decade in the early 1900s, she became known in Europe and the United States as a pedagogue who achieved good results with children whose [Page 1105]futures were uncertain for medical or social reasons. Knowing something about the person behind the theoretical and practical design of the teaching facilitates understanding Montessori education. This entry examines Montessori’s childhood and adolescence, academic career, professional activities, and later life. This entry further discusses what inspired ...