Guest author Jeanette Norman

The Montessori Method of teaching has been making a strong comeback over the past decade. More and more schools in the United States are Montessori or implementing some of the teaching methods.

A woman who ironically didn’t want to be a teacher at all at first developed the Montessori Method. Her name was Maria Montessori and she lived in Italy in the late 1800’s. When first beginning her college studies, Maria wanted to be an engineer. She graduated with honors from a technical school in Rome. Upon graduation, she decided she would be a doctor. There were no female doctors at the time and she was not accepted into med school because of her gender but she took the pre-med curriculum. She did extremely well but despite her good grades in school, she was still denied entrance into med school. A year of letter writing and much persistence, she became the first female med student at the University of Rome in 1892. In 1895, she graduated from med school making her the first female medical doctor from University of Rome.

Her first work as a doctor was with children who were labeled as having emotional problems and labeled mentally retarded. She observed that these children were not given an opportunity to stimulate their minds. No puzzles, games, anything. She began studying the works of Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard and Edouard Seguin who theorized these children need education appropriate to them not medical treatment. Maria wrote articles about their teachings for Italian newspapers and magazines. When Rome authorities decided to teach mentally retarded children in a special school based on the theories of Itard and Seguin, Maria was called up to be the co-director of the school.

Maria headed one of the first known day care centers called Casa dei Bambini (The Children’s House). In a slum of Rome called San Lorenzo, authorities tried an experiment where they were going to build housing for poor citizens. The children who weren’t old enough to go to school would go wild tearing up the neighborhood by breaking windows, scattering garbage can contents all over the streets and sidewalk, etc. Housing officials asked Maria if she would take these pre-school-aged children and supervisor them in a classroom setting. She saw this as a great opportunity to try her theories.

In 1908, another school was opened in Rome. Maria trained the teachers to teach the children based on her theories. Her way of teaching started becoming well known so she began writing a book to put her theories into more detail. This book gave birth to what today we call The Montessori Method. (This book is still available today. Although some of her theories may seem out there, you have to remember the time period in which they were written. Please see my book list at the end of this article for this book.) After the Montessori Method started to spread over Europe, Maria decided to spend the rest of her life dedicated to training teacher.

In 1911, Alexander Graham Bell (inventor of the telephone) read an article in McClure magazine about the Montessori Method and offered to help Maria come to New York. Maria made her to American in 1913 and she gave lectures all over the country. Maria was asked to help establish a Montessori Institute but refused due to personal issues in her life.

Maria passed away at the age of 81 in 1951.

Maria wrote so many great books. While I was receiving my training to my CDA, I read the books below and found them of great use.










Useful Links:

THE INTERNATIONAL MONTESSORI INDEX

Montessori Foundation and the International Montessori Council

The Philosophy & Practice of the Montessori Method of Education