MARIA MONTESSORI

Dr. Maria Montessori was, in many ways ahead of her time. Born in Italy in 1870 she became the first female physician in Italy upon her graduation from medical school in 1896. She championed the cause of the working woman and also of child labor. She began her medical career working with children with special needs.In 1901 she gave up this work,reenrolled in college and began to study philosophy and psychology in preparation for the work that lay ahead.  In 1906 she began her work with 60 children in a slum house in Rome. This was the first Casa dei Bambini, based in San Lorenzo, Rome. What ultimately became the Montessori Method of Education began in these lowly surroundings. Dr. Montessori based all of her mathods on the scientific observation of the child. She used the materials from working with special needs children and adapted them as necessary to work with this new class.

Every piece of equipment, every lesson in class, the very method Dr. Montessori developed was based on what children do naturally, by themselves.

Dr. Montessori believed that "children teach themselces". This simple but profound truth inspired Montessori's lifelong pursuit of educational reform, teaching and teacher training.

Over the next 46 years Dr. Montessori traveled the world bringing her method to many countries and continents. In that time she was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. She dedicated her life to the cause of all children worldwide and believed that the way to peace was through the child.

Dr. Montessori died in Noordwijk, Holland in 1952, but her work lives on through the many dedicated Montessori teachers and pupils throughout the world.