MONTESSORI, Maria Montessori, MD, Montessori Method, Montessori schools, Montessori, Italy, India, Nobel Peace Prize

MARIA MONTESSORI, MD

(1870-1952)

Scientific observation has established
that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural
process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired
not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment. The
task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of
cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and
then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only
help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master.
Doing so, they will be witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul
and to the rising of a New Man who will not be a victim of events, but
will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human
society. – Maria Montessori, Education
for a New World

THE WOMAN & HER METHOD

Just who was this woman who
began an educational revolution that changed the way we think about
children more than anyone before or since?

Maria Montessori, born in 1870, was the
first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree. She worked in the
fields of psychiatry, education and anthropology. She believed that
each child is born with a unique potential to be revealed, rather than
as a “blank slate” waiting to be written upon. Her main contributions
to the work of those of us raising and educating children are in these
areas:

• Preparing the most natural and life-supporting
  environments for the child

• Observing the child living freely in
  this environment

• Continually adapting the environment
  in order that the chid may fulfill his or her greatest potential,
  physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

THE EARLY YEARS

Maria Montessori was always a little ahead
of her time. At age thirteen, against the wishes of her father but with
the support of her mother, she began to attend a boys’ technical school.
After seven years of engineering she began premed and, in 1896 became
a physician. In her work at the University of Rome psychiatric clinic
Dr. Montessori developed an interest in the treatment of special needs
children and, for several years, she worked, wrote, and spoke on their
behalf.

In 1907 she was given the opportunity to
study “normal” children, taking charge of fifty poor children of the
dirty, desolate streets of the San Lorenzo slum on the outskirts of
Rome. The news of the unprecedented success of her work in this Casa
dei Bambini “House of Children” soon spread around the world, people
coming from far and wide to see the children for themselves. Dr. Montessori
was as astonished as anyone at the realized potential of these children:

Supposing I said there was a planet
without schools or teachers, study was unknown, and yet the inhabitants
– doing nothing but living and walking about – came to know all things,
to carry in their minds the whole of learning: would you not think I
was romancing? Well, just this, which seems so fanciful as to be nothing
but the invention of a fertile imagination, is a reality. It is
the child’s way of learning. This is the path he follows. He learns
everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so passes
little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the
paths of joy and love.

FROM EUROPE TO THE
UNITED STATES

Invited to the USA by Alexander Graham Bell,
Thomas Edison, and others, Dr. Montessori spoke at Carnegie Hall
in 1915. She was invited to set up a classroom at the Panama-Pacific
Exposition in San Francisco, where spectators watched twenty-one
children, all new to this Montessori method, behind a glass
wall for four months. The only two gold medals awarded for education
went to this class, and the education of young children was altered
forever.

INDIA and THE NOBEL PEACE
PRIZE

During World War II Dr. Montessori was forced
into exile from Italy because of her antifascist views and lived
and worked in India. It was here that she developed her work Education
for Peace, and developed many of the ideas taught in her training courses
today. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

THE ELEMENTARY MONTESSORI
PROGRAM

In Rome Dr. Montessori developed the Montessori
program for the elementary years for the child from 6-12. She began,
as elementary classes do today, with the required curriculum of Italy
of her time. She adapted the traditional teacher-taught subjects in
the arts and science so that the children could use materials to guide
their open-ended research and to follow their individual interests,
working to a much higher level than was previously (and is presently!)
thought possible for children of this age. The elementary child, when
allowed to work independently instead of being taught in groups led
by a teacher, and in classes with a mixed age group of 6-12- year-old
students inspiring and teaching each other, masters academic subjects
usually not taught until middle or high school.

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL AND
HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM

Montessori had many ideas for the child at
this age. For information on this age level see: Montessori
12-18

THE MONTESSORI ASSISTANTS
TO INFANCY PROGRAM

In the 1940’s, inspired by the amazing potential
of children realized in the early years, Dr. Montessori stated that
age three was too late to begin to support the work and development
of children. In 1947 the Montessori Assistants to Infancy program was
begun in Rome. This was a 3-year, full-time program which is still taught
today in several countries. For an overview of Montessori work at this
age, see: Montessori
0-3

TODAY

Since her death an interest in Dr. Montessori’s
methods have continued to spread throughout the world. Her message to
those who emulated her was always to turn one’s attention to the child,
to “follow the child”.  It is because of this basic tenet, and
the observation guidelines left by her, that Dr. Montessori’s ideas
will never become obsolete.

Many people, hearing of the high academic
level reached by students in this system of education, miss the point
and think that Montessori math manipulative (as an example) is all there
is to the Montessori method. It is easy to acquire materials and to
take short courses to learn to use them, but the real value of Montessori
takes long and thorough training for the adult.

The potential of the child is not just mental,
but is revealed only when the complete “Montessori method”
is understood and followed. The child’s choice, practical work, care
of others and the environment, and above all the high levels of concentration
reached when work is respected and not interrupted, reveal a human being
that is superior not only academically, but emotionally and spiritually,
a child who cares deeply about other people and the world, and who works
to discover a unique and individual way to contribute. This is the essence
of real “Montessori” work today.