Laurie Wood '00    

     Few women have influenced the way children learn as Maria Montessori has. She made it her life’s work to observe children and see how they learn in their environment. She was a woman of many interests. Her life was devoted to making things better, in the education of children and in many other areas of concern in her time. She was a very determined woman, from the time when she was little, until she was an older woman. She had many humanistic ideals. She was very active in reform movements such as women’s movements, peace efforts, and child labor laws. Montessori was not always praised for her work. Many criticized her methods for lack of discipline. Through all of the criticism she always stood firm in her beliefs. She spent her whole life working to better this world.

     Maria Montessori was born in a providence in Italy called Ancona in 1870. She was born to a nice, middle class family. Her parents were both well educated. As it became time to decide what Maria was going to do with her life, her father was growing more and more nervous about what she was going to do. At the time, her country was very conservative in its attitude towards women. When Maria decided to go the University of Rome to pursue a scientific education, many people shunned her. Her father was particularly unhappy with the decision. Despite her father’s feelings, she went on to attend the University of Rome and became the first woman to enroll in the medical school there. After she graduated from college she began to lecture at the college on anthropology. She also became associated with the psychiatric clinic. (Ryan/Cooper, chapter13) While working in these clinics, she came in contact with many children that were considered retarded. These children were treated very poorly. They were often not even talked to because they were seen as insane.

      In 1901 she was appointed director of a new orthophrenic school that she had been working in at the University of Rome. It was used prior to its new status as an asylum for "deficient and insane" children. As director, she initiated a wave of reform in the school. She made the staff speak to the inmates with high respect. She also taught them to care for themselves. Montessori began to study the education of the mentally retarded children. She began to study two forgotten physicians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin. Seguin is now known as the father of our modern techniques in special education. From these two she took a scientific approach to education, based on observation and experimentation. After many long hours of work with the children, many of the children could pass the sixth grade tests of the Italian Public Schools. Her studies with the mentally retarded children helped her in her suggestion that public schools should be able to get dramatically better results with normal children. (www.montessori.org)

    Because she had this belief that normal children could do much better in school, she tried to get permission to do some work with these children in public schools. She was denied access to public school children by the Italian Ministry of Education. She was very discouraged by this. In 1907 she was presented with the idea to coordinate a series of day cares. These day cares were located in the worst slums in Rome. Montessori’s first school was called Casa del Bambini, or Children’s House. In this school, she began to conduct experiments with the children. She found that the children were drawn to work. She found that three and four year olds took great delight in learning. She is quoted as saying "I studied my children and they taught me how to teach them." Her main strategies were to pay attention to her children, teach children to do, and to teach children to be independent.

    In her experimentation with the children, she used trial and error. She found that little children were capable of long periods of concentration. She also devised a new environment for the children. She made the furniture, tables and chairs, child sized for the children. She also went as far as to have child sized pitchers and other utensils for the children to use. Everything in the classroom fit the children. (www.montessori.org)The school ran on the principle of allowing children freedom within a carefully designed environment and under sensitive guidance of a trained director. Children were allowed freedom in handling toys or ignoring them if they wished. Self-learning was stresses in this environment. (Ryan/Cooper, chapter13) In this environment it would seem that the children were just free to do whatever they wanted. There were definite limits on the children. The children were required to come to school clean and their free play was even structured. Despite these limits, the children were never forced to play or to learn. When the children became interested in a toy or topic, the teachers were instructed to them facilitate the child’s learning.

     In her experiments, Montessori found that at different ages, children learned differently. From the time children were born to the age of three, children absorbed everything in their environment. They were like a sponge. They learn through their senses. Their language and motor skills developed greatly during these years. During this time children should be allowed to explore and absorb all that they can about the world. From ages three to six repetition and the manipulation of objects was most important. Abstract ideas were almost impossible for these aged children to comprehend. Children needed concrete ideas and objects to fully learn. From ages nine to twelve abstract concepts could now be presented. Fewer manipulative could now be used. (www.fvms.com)

     In 1934, Montessori left Italy because of her opposition to Mussolini’s fascism. She went to Spain then she opened a Montessori training center in the Netherlands. In 1947, she opened another training center in London. In 1952 Montessori died. Before her death, in 1929, she founded an association where her work could live on. Montessori was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949, 1950, and in 1951.

     Although somewhat controversial, Montessori schools were reintroduced in the United States in 1960. Today, there are more than 5,000 Montessori schools in this country. Psychologists and educators have come to agree with Montessori that the period of early childhood is critical in determining a person’s intellectual potential. (Ryan/Cooper, chapter 13)

     It is certain that Maria Montessori has made her mark in the field of educating children. Her methods though somewhat controversial, are used widely around the world. Teachers of underprivileged or minority children claim great success with the Montessori method. When she was developing this method, she had support from such famous people as Thomas Edison and Helen Keller. Such famous people as Piaget, Adler, and Eriksson studied under her. Day care in America now has much to do with her findings. Montessori stated, "The world of education is like an island, where people, cut off from the world, are prepared for life by exclusion from it." Montessori strived for quality learning for children. By teaching children to learn on their own and by training teachers to be facilitators, Montessori developed a method that was successful for children. "The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I didn’t exist."" Montessori fully believed this and worked her whole life to make this method known.

Bibliography

Books

Fynne, Robert, 1924. Montessori and Her Inspirers. Longmans, Green and Co., London.

Montessori, Maria, 1914. Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook. Schocken Books, New York.

Ryan/Cooper, 1995. Those Who Can, Teach. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

Standing, E.M., 1967. Montessori Revolution in Education. Schocken Books, New York.

Websites

www.montessori.org 

www.montessori.namta.org

www.womenhistory.about.com