Montessori, Maria

As a young girl, Maria Montessori (1870–1952) insisted she would never become a teacher, even though it was one of the few professions open to women at the time. Ironically, she later became famous for developing a method of teaching that transformed educational systems around the world. As the first woman physician in modern Italy, and one of the first in Europe, she used her scientific background to study children and to describe developmental processes that influenced several important developmental theorists. While her contributions to education have always been appreciated, she has not always received credit for her theory of development. After a flurry of early interest in her work, her writings were neglected in the United States. In the past few decades, however, there has been renewed interest in her theory and methods.

Maria Montessori was born in the town of Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy, on August 31, 1870. Her father, Alessandro, was a successful government official. Her mother, Renide Stoppani, was well educated and an outspoken supporter for the liberation and unity of Italy. Alessandro's work kept the family continually on the move in Maria's early years. However, when Maria was 5 years old, the family made a permanent move to Rome.

Maria was a self-confident, strong-willed child, with a sense of duty. At the age of 13, with the support of her mother, she attended a technical school for boys in order to study engineering. Her father was against her choice of a profession—he had encouraged her to become a teacher. Although she was close to her father, it was her mother who supported her ambitions (Kramer, 1976). Her attraction to engineering eventually waned, and she became increasingly interested in biology. She decided to become a doctor of medicine, an unheard-of goal for a woman at that time. Despite the obstacles she faced, she succeeded in becoming the first woman medical student in Italy. In 1896, she graduated with a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Rome.

Soon after graduation, she was invited to speak at an international women's congress in Berlin, where her address was well received. Her appearance and style were in striking contrast to many of the other delegates, and her name appeared in several newspapers, giving her some of her first public exposure. On her return to Rome, she began work at the psychiatric clinic in the University of Rome. One of her duties was to select subjects for the clinic from the local asylum. At the time, developmentally disabled children were considered a medical problem and were kept at the asylum along with emotionally disturbed children. The children in the asylum rarely had activities available to them and were given little opportunity for play. The lack of stimulation concerned Montessori, who believed that the children could benefit from special education. In an effort to learn more about the treatment of disabled children, she began to study the work of two early French physicians, Jean-Marc Itard (1775–1838) and his protégé, Edouard Seguin (1812–1880; Standing, 1984).

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