Maria Montessori was the
first woman to graduate
from the University of
Rome La Sapienza Medical
School, becoming the
first female doctor in
Italy. She was a member
of the University's
Psychiatric Clinic and
became intrigued with trying
to educate the "mentally
retarded" or "unhappy
little ones" and the
"uneducable" in Rome. In 1896,
she gave a lecture at the
Education al Congress in
Torino about the training of the
disabled. The Italian
Minister of Education was
in attendance, and was
sufficiently impressed by
her arguments to
appoint her as director of
the Scuola Ortofrenica, an
institution devoted to
the care and education of the mentally retarded. She
accepted, in order to put her theories to the test. Her first
notable success was to have several of her 8 year old students
apply to take the State examinations for reading and writing. The
"defective" children not only passed, but had above-average scores,
an achievement described as "the first Montessori miracle".
Montessori's response to their success was "if mentally disabled
children could be brought to the level of normal children then
(she) wanted to study the potential of 'normal' children".
“Scientific observation has established that education is
not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process
spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired
not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment.
The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of
motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared
environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human
teachers can only help the great work that is being done, as
servants help the master. Doing so, they will be witnesses to the
unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Man who will
not be a victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to
direct and shape the future of human society”.
Because of her
success with these children, she was asked to start a school for
children in a housing project in Rome, which opened on January 6,
1907, and which she called "Casa dei Bambini" or Children's House.
Children's House was a child care center in an apartment building
in the poor neighborhood of Rome. She was focused on teaching the
students ways to develop their own skills at a pace they set, which
was a principle Montessori called "spontaneous self-development". A
wide variety of special equipment of increasing complexity is used
to help direct the interests of the child and hasten development.
When a child is ready to learn new and more difficult tasks, the
teacher guides the child’s first endeavors in order to avoid
wasted effort and the learning of wrong habits; otherwise the child
learns alone. It has been reported that the Montessori method of
teaching has enabled children to learn to read and write much more
quickly and with greater facility than has otherwise been possible.
The Montessori Method of teaching concentrates on quality rather
than quantity. The success of this school sparked the opening of
many more, and a worldwide interest in Montessori's methods of
education.
Maria Montessori
died in the Netherlands in 1952, after a lifetime devoted to the
study of child development. Her early work centered on
women’s rights and social reform and evolved to encompass a
totally innovative approach to education. Her success in Italy led
to international recognition, and for over 40 years she travelled
all over the world, lecturing, writing and establishing training
programs. In later years, ‘Educate for Peace’ became a
guiding principle, which underpinned her work.
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