MARIA MONTESSORI

August 31, 1870 May 6,

1952

CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
Maria Montessori was born into an upper middle class family in
Chiaravalle, Italy on August 31,1870. In Italy, at that time, girls
basically had two career options, a teacher or a nun. Her father,
Alessandro, worked as a financial manager for a state-owned
industry. Her mother, Renilde Stoppani was very well educated and
an avid reader, which was unusual for women in this time. Maria
must of taken her love for learning after her mother because at the
age of 13, without the consent of her father but with the support of
her mother, she enrolled in an all-boy technical school to prepare
her for a career in engineering.

FAMILY LIFE
At the turn of the century Maria Montessori, a thirty-year-old medical doctor,
mothered her only child Mario Montessori outside of marriage to Giuseppe
Montesano .

EDUCATION
The Montessori family moved to Rome in 1875, and the following
year the young Maria enrolled in the local state school on the Via di
San Nicolo da Tolentino. As her education progressed, she began to
break through the barriers which constrained womens careers. From
1886 to 1890 she continued her studies at the Regio Instituto Tecnico
Leonardo da Vinci, which she entered with the intention of becoming
an engineer. This was unusual at the time as most girls who pursued
secondary education studied the classics rather than going to
technical school.
Upon her graduation, Montessoris parents encouraged her to
take up a career in teaching, one of the few occupations open to
women at the time, but she was determined to enter medical school
and become a doctor. Her father opposed this coursemedical school
was then an all-male preserveand initially Maria was refused entry
by the head of school. She was undeterred, apparently ending the
unsuccessful interview with the professor by saying, I know I shall
become a doctor

WHO INFLUENCED HER

Maria Montessori was profoundly influenced by Fredrich Froebel, the inventor of
kindergarten, and by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who believed that children
learned through activity. She also drew inspiration from Itard, Seguin and
Rousseau. She enhanced their approaches by adding her own deeply felt belief
that we must follow the child. One does not teach children, but rather creates a
nurturing climate in which children can teach themselves through creative activity
and exploration. Montessori was so convinced that these mentally deficient
children could be helped that she travelled to London and Paris to study the work
of two pioneers in this area, Jean Itard and Eduoard Seguin. She was subsequently
greatly influenced by their ideas and methods. Edouard Seguin (Montessori: The
Discovery of the Child), was a student under Itard and he later founded his own
school for deficients in Paris.Seguin describes his method as physiological as he
began by educating the muscular system and the senses. Starting by teaching
children with learning difficulties how to walk, he guided their learning through a
series of increasingly complex activities.

THE MONTESSORI METHOD

Maria believed that children went through a series of
sensitive periods with creative moments when they all
of a sudden get the urge to learn. This time should be used
well because this is when they have the greatest ability to
learn. They should not be held back by forced curriculum
(plans of study) or classes. Work, she believed, is its own
reward to the child, and there is no necessity for other
rewards. Self-discipline (controlling oneself) emerges out of
the freedom of the learning environment.
The Montessori method of teaching is the biggest thing that
Maria Montessori has contributed to early childhood. Maria
Montessori was more than just a woman seeking how to
better educate young children. She was someone who had a
real mission in life, someone who dedicated herself to
understanding how and why children learn.

METHOD CONT.
Her method represents a scientific approach to education. The
secret of childhood resides in the fact that through their
spontaneous activity, children labor to "make themselves into men"
[Montessori, 1964]. Mental development, similar to physical growth,
is the result of a natural, internally regulated force. Liberty is the
imperative ingredient that enables education to assist the
"unfolding of a child's life" [Montessori, 1964].Order, most
especially within the child, but also in the child's environment, is
prerequisite to the child becoming an independent, autonomous,
and rational individual. (Goffin, 1994, p. 49)

RESOURCES
http://
novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his135/events/montessor
i52/montessori52.html
http://
amshq.org/Montessori-Education/History-of-Montessori-E
ducation/Biography-of-Maria-Montessori
https://montessori.org.au/montessori/biography.htm
http://privateschool.about.com/od/primarygrades/a/What
-Is-A-Montessori-School.htm
http://www.montessori.org.uk/magazine-and-jobs/library
_and_study_resources/teacher-training-study-resources/
maria_montessori_1870_-_1952
http://www.education.com/reference/article/maria-montes
sori/

THE END