A woman who ironically didn’t want to be a teacher at all developed the Montessori Method. Her name was Maria Montessori and she lived in Italy in the late 1800s. 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. After 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.
Maria Montessori's First Work
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, with puzzles or games or anything else. 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.
Schools She Established
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 and generally causing trouble. 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 similar 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, and this book is still available today. After the Montessori Method started to spread over Europe, Maria decided to spend the rest of her life dedicated to training teacher.
Maria Montessori Comes to America
In 1911, Alexander Graham Bell - the 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.
