Maria Montessori (1870 -1952)
Italy's First Female Doctor and Educational Pioneer
Born on the day Italy become a unified free nation, Maria Montessori became the first woman in Italy to obtain a medical degree. She founded a school for children with learning difficulties and developed an education system based on spontaneity of expression and freedom from restraint, which exist today in Montessori schools throughout the world.
Family Background
Maria Montessori was born in 1870 and her family moved to Rome when she was five. Her father, Alessandro was successful government official and her independent wealthy mother, Renide Stoppanni, was devoted to the liberation and unity of Italy. Growing up in a sophisticated city exposed her to a good education and provided her with access to its many libraries and museums.
She first began studying engineering at technical college, encouraged by her mother, but opposed by her father and friends who feared it too ‘unladylike’. However, she did not progress with these studies, much to the relief of her father and went on to study medicine. Following her graduation, she was chosen to represent Italy in a Women’s international congress in Berlin and amongst other medical roles, began working in a Children’s Hospital.
Maria Montessori never married but following an affair with a colleague, gave birth to a son, Mario who was born in 1898. She spent the latter years of her life developing schools in Europe and North America and training teachers in the her methods in India and Sri Lanka.
The Montessori Legacy
It was during her first years within medical practice that Maria Montessori realised the need for a different approach to the education of her young patients. Many of the children she met were labelled as unruly and uneducable.
She developed an educational theory based on a blend of ideas from the prominent scholars, anthropologists and physicians of the time. She adopted the following principles in the development of her theory
- To educate the senses before educating the intellect. Montessori believed that if the child was interested enough in the task they would engage in the activity totally.
- Reformed the role of the teacher from the centre of the educational activity to the periphery, where they could observe and interact if necessary.
- Through her observations of children, she believed that they would show her how to educate them.
- The belief that the learning environment is as equally important to the learning and Montessori was the first to provide child size tables and chairs.
Montessori opened her first ‘Casa Dei Bambini’, Children’s House, in the early 1900’s in order to test out these theories. The programme promoted a more genuine, natural experience and children were not normally treated with such respect.
Her deliberations went against much of the educational theories of the time and her methods received the criticism of detachment and an over zealous nature. However, the programme produced many attributes, which exist in education today.
In themselves the focus of Montessori programme for self-directed learning, independence and attitude were not new educational theories, it was the idea that a stimulating environment and sense of responsibility would make a difference.
References
Kramer, R. (1978) Maria Montessori, Oxford: Blackwell
Maria Montessori
|
What do you think about this article?
More in History
Latest Articles