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ASKED QUESTIONS |
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Frequently
Asked Questions about Montessori education:
WHO
WAS MARIA MONTESSORI?
Dr.
Maria Montessori, internationally renowned child educator, was
originally a medical doctor who brought the scientific methods
of observation, experimentation, and research to the study of
children, their development and education. As a doctor, Montessori
came to believe that many of the problems of the children with
whom she was working were educational rather than medical. In
examining education she felt that children were not achieving
their potential because education was not based upon science.
Her first step, then, was to attempt to abandon preconceived
ideas about education and to begin to study children, their
development and the process of learning through scientific methods
of observation and experimentation. In doing so, she made what
she considered to be a number of startling discoveries. Through
her research, she discovered that children possessed different
and higher qualities than those we usually attribute to them
Maria Montessori was an individual ahead of her time. She was
born in 1870 in Ancona, Italy, to an educated but nonaffluent
middle class family. Her desire to help children was so strong,
however, that in 1906 she gave up both her university chair
and her medical practice to work with a group of sixty young
children of working parents in the San Lorenzo district of Rome.
It
was there that she founded the first Casa dei Bambini, or "Children's
House." What ultimately became the Montessori method of
education developed there, based upon Montessori's scientific
observations of these children's almost 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.
Maria
Montessori made her first visit to the United States in 1913,
the same year that Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel
founded the Montessori Educational Association at their Washington,
DC, home. 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. On this second U.S. visit, she also conducted
a teacher training course and addressed the annual conventions
of both the National Education Association and the International
Kindergarten Union.
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. Later, she founded the
Montessori Center in London (1947). She was nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize three times - in 1949, 1950 and 1951.
Montessori
are practices based on the educational philosophy of Dr. Maria
Montessori (1870 - 1952). An Italian educator and reformer,
she originated the Montessori method of education stressing
development of initiative and freedom of the child. Dr. Maria
Montessori helped children everywhere reach their maximum learning
potential, while becoming well balanced individuals.
She
was an astute observer of children and their development. Her
methods of education, designed to stimulate the child's desire
to learn, have been widely adopted by many other educational
philosophers. The Montessori Method of Education aims to develop
a child's concentration, co-ordination, independence, self-discipline,
initiative, persistence in completing tasks, creative self-expression,
orderliness, and desire to learn.
What
are Montessori Methods? 
