Maria Montessori, an Italian educator, doctor and scientist, was the first woman doctor in Italy and the creator of the revolutionary Montessori Method of Education. This method is based on her scientific observations of young children's behavior and emphasizes independence and considers that children are naturally eager for knowledge and are able to start learning in a sufficiently conducive and well-prepared learning environment. The Montessori Method was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori at the beginning of the 20th century.
It involves child-led activities (called “work”), classrooms with children of different ages and teachers that promote independence among their students. The underlying philosophy can be considered to be derived from the Deployment Theory. Discourages some conventional performance measures, such as grades and tests. In 1907, a momentous event occurred that would forever influence early childhood education for the better.
Maria Montessori opened a child care center for significantly underserved children aged 3 to 7 in a poor area of Rome's urban center. He called his school Casa dei Bambini in Italian after “Casa de los Niños”. Through scientific observation of these children, Dr. Montessori acknowledged that “they responded to the materials with deep concentration, which resulted in a fundamental change in their way of being, moving from ordinary fantasy behavior, inattention and disorder, to a state of profound peace, calm and order within their environment”.The innovative Montessori Method also began to attract the attention of outstanding educators eager to learn it.
In 1915 to demonstrate his method at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco and give an international training course for future Montessori teachers. The American Montessori Society is thriving, as is the Association Montessori Internationale and its member societies around the world.By 1929, Montessori had established an organization to help promote its method, the Association Montessori Internationale, based in Barcelona, Spain. Renilde, her youngest granddaughter, was until 2000 general secretary and then president (until 200) of the Association Montessori Internationale, the organization created by Maria Montessori in 1929 to continue her work.In just over 100 years, the Montessori method has gone from being a small school in Rome to around 5,000 schools in the U. S.
The American Montessori Society is the premier member advocacy organization, research forum and resource collaboration for the global community of Montessori educators.Montessori schools are part of both public and private education systems, and Montessori influence is particularly evident in early childhood education and early childhood special education. The National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector reports that of the 5,000 Montessori schools in the U. S., 1,500 are public schools.The Critical Pamphlet of 1914 The Montessori System Examined by influential education teacher William Heard Kilpatrick limited the spread of Montessori ideas and they languished after 1914.Today, Maria Montessori's revolutionary approach to education continues to be used around the world as an effective way to teach children independence and self-directed learning. The Montessori Method has been proven to be successful in helping children reach their full potential.
