Maria Montessori: Who Was She?

Montessori isn't a tradename or a franchise, even though you might think so, given the popularity of Montessori childcare and early education centres. Instead, this label refers to a philosophy of learning and education that was developed by the Italian Maria Montessori.

In spite of being born into the male-dominated world of Italy in 1870, Maria Montessori refused to accept the traditional submissive and decorative role considered appropriate for "nice ladies". At first, Maria Montessori wanted to be an engineer, and she studied at an all-boys school. However, she later became a doctor - the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome's medical school. Before long, she found her specialist area: she worked in the areas of psychiatry and psychology, and soon became deeply involved in helping to educate children who had been labelled as "uneducable" (we'd call them "special needs" children; she called them "poor little ones"). Maria Montessori's pupils thrived with these methods and soon drew level with their age-group peers.

Maria Montessori then wondered what would happen if she applied her techniques to "normal" children. How would they develop? She believed that children learn by experience and doing rather than by listening, and that the teacher should be there to help the child develop more and more complex skills that are tackled at their (the child's) own pace. The opportunity came for Dr Montessori to apply her theories when a housing development in a lower-income area in Rome needed a new school.

Dr Montessori's first "Children's House" was a huge success, and many other centres where children could learn according to Montessori methods were opened. Around the world, people became interested about her techniques. However, Montessori had to leave her homeland of Italy and go into political exile because she refused to cooperate with the demands of the Fascist dictator Mussolini and use her schools to indoctrinate children and to train them to become soldiers. At first, she lived in the Netherlands, but spent the years of World War II in India, returning to the Netherlands after the war was over.

Dr Montessori based her teaching style on the principle that all children develop at their own pace rather than according to a set one-size-fits-all timetable, which was revolutionary for the study of child development as well as for education. Certainly, children can be grouped in rough three-year age bands, but some children are ready for, say, learning to read earlier than others. Another aspect of education pioneered by Montessori is the use of sensorial materials (classic examples are the moveable alphabet and the sandpaper letters used for learning to read). Today, all teachers (not just Montessori teachers) are told about different learning styles (kinaesthetic, audio and visual), but this was part of Montessori learning from the very beginning. Montessori asserted that children are fully fledged and independent human beings who have the potential to solve problems and learn things for themselves; the role of the teacher is to provide learning opportunities suited to the stage the child is at, which is done by observing the child and seeing what they're ready for.

Maria Montessori died in 1952. During her lifetime, some experts had predicted that her movement and methods would fade out without her personality behind them, but history has proven them wrong: more than 50 years after her death, Maria Montessori's philosophy is still as popular as ever, and many cities and towns have Montessori child care centres and schools.


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