Who is Dr Maria Montessori?

Born in Italy, in 1870, Maria Montessori was ahead of her time. She became the first female physician in Italy. Shortly afterwards, she was chosen to represent Italy at two different women's conferences: Berlin, 1896; and London, 1900.

Her clinical observations led her to analyze how children learn. She concluded that children develop from their environment. Shifting her focus from the body to the mind, she returned to the university to study psychology and philosophy.

Her desire to help children was so strong, she gave up both her university chair and her medical practice to work with young children of working parents in Rome, where she founded the first Casa dei Bambini, or Children's House.
What became the Montessori Method of education developed there, based upon scientific observations of children's effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings, as well as their tireless interest in manipulating materials.

Every piece of equipment, every exercise, every method Montessori developed was based on what she observed children to do naturally, by themselves, unassisted by adults.
Children teach themselves. This simple but profound truth inspired Montessori's lifelong pursuit of educational reform, methodology, psychology, teaching, and teacher training--all based on her dedication to furthering the self-creating process of the child.

Dr Montessori made her first visit to the United States in 1913, the same year that Alexander Graham Bell and his wife founded the Montessori Educational Association. Among her other strong American supporters were Thomas Edison and Helen Keller.

In 1915, she attracted world attention with her glass house schoolroom exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. She conducted a teacher-training course and addressed conventions of both the National Education Association and the International Kindergarten Union. The committee that brought her to San Francisco included Margaret Wilson, the daughter of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.

The Spanish government invited her to open a research institute. She then began teacher training in London. She was appointed as a government inspector of schools in her native Italy. She opened the Montessori Training Centre in the Netherlands, and founded a series of teacher training courses in India.

In 1940, when India entered World War II, she and her son, Mario Montessori, were interned as enemy aliens, but she was still permitted to conduct training courses.
She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times--in 1949, 1950, and 1951. Maria Montessori died in Holland, in 1952, but her work lives on.