Montessori, Maria

Maria Montessori's unique methods and practices sparked a classroom revolution, and hundreds of Montessori schools are thriving throughout the world today. Montessori (1870–1952) was born August 31, 1870, to Alessandro Montessori and Renilde Stoppani in Chiaravalle, Italy. In 1875, her family moved to Rome, where at the age of 6 she enrolled in public school. In 1883, at the age of 13, Montessori enrolled in technical college.

Montessori graduated from the technical college in 1886 and went to another technical institute, where she graduated in 1890. Afterward, she decided to pursue a career in medicine. At the time, there had never before been an Italian female doctor. Montessori attended the University of Rome in 1890 as a student of mathematics and natural science, and in 1892 she graduated with honors.

In medical school at the University of Rome, Montessori's male colleagues treated her with contempt. It was so unthinkable that a female student would be enrolled in the field of medicine that Montessori was forced to dissect her cadavers alone at night. Despite difficulties, she won the academic admiration of many. In 1896, she graduated as doctor of medicine, with honors. In 1904, she earned her PhD in anthropology from the University of Rome. In 1896, a month after her graduation, she was offered a position as a surgical assistant at the University of Rome's psychiatric ward. In the psychiatric ward, Montessori worked with children who had been named mentally “deficient,” but who were most likely autistic or mentally handicapped. She experimented with these children and after several years found that some of them were able to read and write and pass public standardized tests.

In 1907, she began working with the children of impoverished families in the slums of Rome. With these children she started what would become known as the Casa dei Bambini, or Children's House. Her idea was to implement the methods she used at the psychiatric ward. Montessori was the first educator to incorporate child-sized furniture, toys, and other objects to manipulate in the classroom. She gave the children various tasks to do, such as making lunch, cleaning up, gardening, and caring for pets. Eventually, Montessori found that the children actually preferred work to play. Slowly and successfully, Montessori began to teach the children to read and write by using sensory objects.

Soon she was demonstrating to educators and others her techniques, which became known as the Montessori Method. A very charismatic figure, Montessori continued to travel and lecture, and by 1935, hundreds of Montessori schools opened throughout Europe and the United States. In 1929, she created the Association Montessori International. During World War II, she was forced to leave Italy, to live and work in India. In India, she was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Montessori died in 1952 at the age of 81, but her teachings live on throughout the world today. Teachers incorporate the Montessori Method into their classrooms by encouraging children to work at their own pace and by using sensory materials.