Maria Montessori
Most people are familiar with the name of Maria Montessori. This is as a result of the wide popularity of the Montessori method of education. The name of this method of education was drawn from the name of its founder Maria Montessori. Her full name was Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori.
Maria Montessori’s Birthday
Maria Montessori was born on August 31, 1870, and died on May 6, 1952, in Chiaravalle, Italy. She was an educator and physician. She is best known because of her writing on scientific pedagogy and the Montessori philosophy of education. As we’ve written above, this method of education inherited its name from her.
Maria Montessori’s Education
She joined an elementary school in 1876 at the age of six. At the age of thirteen in 1883 or 1884, she joined a secondary technical school. The school was known as Regia Scuola Tecnica Michelangelo Buonarroti. There she studied Italian, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, accounting, history, geography, and sciences. In 1886 at the age of sixteen, she graduated with good examination results and grades.
In the same year, she continued her education at Regio Istituto Tecnico Leonardo da Vinci, a technical institute. There she studied Italian, mathematics, history, geography, geometric and ornate drawing, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and two foreign languages. She performed very well in the sciences, especially mathematics.
In 1890, she enrolled for a degree course in natural sciences at the University of Rome. She got her degree in 1892. On the strength of this degree and her knowledge of Latin and Italian, the qualified to enter the medical program in the same university in 1893. She graduated in 1896 as a Doctor of Medicine.
Early Career
Maria Montessori started her career working in the psychiatric clinic at the University of Rome. She started by working with and researching on children experiencing some form of disability, illness, or mental retardation.
She also began to write and publish books nationally and internationally as well as travel around the world giving speeches. She became popular as an advocate for the education of mentally challenged children and a defender of women’s rights.
Later on, she worked as an administrator in a school where she observed them and refined her education method. She also enrolled in further studies on the same topic. Based on her research she came up with practices that are the main pillars of the Montessori method of education. You can read about them in our article titled “Montessori School” here.
Maria Montessori’s Son
Mario Montessori, Maria Montessori’s only child was born on the thirty first of March, 1898. She gave birth to him when she was working as a director of the Orthophrenic School of Rome. His father was known as Giuseppe Montesano. He was Maria Montessori’s fellow director at the school. Later on in life, Mario became a great assistant to his mother in her research. He died in 1982.
Montessori education
In January 1907, the first Montessori school, known in Italian as Casa, was opened. The second one was opened in April 1907. Within a short period of time, educators and the population at large started noting the effectiveness of the Montessori method of education. Four and five-year-old children studying in Montessori schools quickly gained proficiency in writing and reading far beyond what was expected for their age.
Due to this, the popularity of this method of education spread across the world. Montessori schools opened in almost every continent in the next three decades. As we speak, this method of education is in use in every continent on earth.