Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator, famous for the educational method that bears her name.
Maria Montessori was born in 1870, in Chiaravalle, Italy. Her father was a financial manager and her mother was a very well educated woman for her time. Growing up in Rome amongst libraries and museums, Maria had the same thirst for knowledge as her mother. At age 13 she entered an all-boys technical institute to study engineering. Later though, she changed her mind and decided to be a doctor. She completed the medical program at the University of Rome and became one of the Italy’s first female physicians.
Maria’s early medical practice focused on psychiatry. She was studying and carefully observing children with developmental disabilities. There, Maria became interested in education and attended classes in pedagogy to further improve her method.
In 1907 Maria opened her first Montessori school in a poor inner-city district of Rome – Casa de Bambini (Children’s House). Her students were young "troubled" children. They were unruly at first but soon showed interest puzzles, cooking meals and working with materials that Maria prepared for them. After careful observation, Maria designed a special learning environment for these children where they were provided freedom to choose the materials and learn on their own. To the surprise of many, children were thriving in this environment and Maria’s program had a great success and soon attracted attention from other educators, politicians and journalists.
In the following years, Maria was travelling the world sharing her educational philosophy with other teachers.
Maria Montessori died in the Netherlands in 1952, at the age of 81. She left future generations with the educational method that is centered around the children and their natural desire to learn.
Nowadays, there are thousands of Montessori schools around the world and many families are now practicing Montessori at home too. Read our other posts to learn more about how you can prepare your home for raising happy independent children, how to choose age appropriate materials for your Child and a lot more on the topic of Montessori.