A short Biography of Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1878. Her father, Alessandro was in the civil service and her mother Renilde was well educated with a passion for reading.

Maria Montessori was determined to enter medical school and become a doctor. This was against the wishes of her father who knew at that time, her goal was unattainable as medical school was an only male formation. Initially Maria Montessori was refused entry by the head of school. She thus enrolled at the University of Rome to study physics, mathematics, and natural sciences. Upon graduation she entered the Faculty of Medicine and graduated in 1896 in Medicine and Surgery as the first female doctor in Italy.

She began to work in various hospitals and at the psychiatric clinic at the University of Rome joining a research program with Giuseppe Montesano with whom she had a child, Mario. Mario Montessori continued her work after her death.

During her work at the psychiatric clinic, she observed the behaviour of children with special needs or ‘mental disorders’ as they were called in those days. As she noticed that they were desperate for sensorial stimulations and activities, she began studying and applying the ground-breaking work of two French physicians Jean-Marc Itard (known for his work with the ‘wild boy of Aveyron’) and his student, Edouard Séguin who had developed techniques and materials to stimulate the sensorial perception and motor skills in support of children with special needs.

For two years, as she worked in the Orthophenic School by day, she taught and observed the children working with the materials developed by Itard and Séguin, now refined by her scientific analysis, Montessori recorded all her findings by night.

Her results were so successful that some of these children were able to pass the elementary school examinations.

With a keen desire to change the deprived conditions of children with special needs coupled with the motive to understand what in the traditional school system was ineffectual and repressive of children’s individual needs, she returned to university to study psychology, philosophy, and pedagogical anthropology.

In 1907, Maria Montessori was asked to work with young children in San Lorenzo, a poor district in Rome, in which as both their parents worked, children were left to tend to themselves. As they were too young to attend school, they created chaos and destroyed the area. Montessori, grasping the idea of working with these children opened her first school, which would become known as Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House).

Many different activities and materials she had created were placed in the children’s environment. A method did not exist yet, but she daily observed and recorded the progress of the children and kept only materials that engaged them. She focused on introducing new materials through short presentations, allowing the children to freely use these materials within clearly defined limits and told the teachers not to interfere with the children unless they asked for help. They were additionally requested never to use rewards and punishments.

Soon she observed that spontaneously children began to work with pleasure, they had a great capacity for concentration and discipline, they developed self-confidence, a love of order and a calmer disposition in their social interactions.

What Maria Montessori came to realize is that children have the power to educate themselves when placed in an environment that corresponds to their intrinsic needs to develop and grow, when allowed to choose activities that interest them and when the materials and activities are carefully designed to support their natural development.

The children in Casa dei Bambini made extraordinary progress and by the autumn of 1908 there were four Casa dei Bambini in Rome and one in Milan. The news of Montessori ‘s new approach to education spread rapidly with people coming from all corners of the earth to see for themselves how these incredible results were achieved. Invitation for Maria Montessori to come and lecture, to open training courses, were so frequently requested that in 1909 she gave her first training course on her new educational approach to around 100 students. She published that same year in Italian (1912 in English) ‘The Montessori Method’ soon afterwards translated into 20 languages.

In one lecture she told her student:

Maria Montessori gave up her medical carrier and dedicated herself fully to diffusing and elaborating her new educational approach. She continued to deliver courses and give lectures in many countries around the world. First in America, Great Britain, throughout Europe and later in life in India now accompanied by her son Mario.

The years between 1916 and 1936 was a period of great expansion in the Montessori educational approach with many training courses held and schools opened worldwide as she expanded her studies to infancy and early years and created a curriculum for children aged 6 to 12. She published extensively numerous books and scientific journals.

In 1924 Maria Montessori founded the Opera Nationale Montessori (ONM) in Rome, Italy. The organization for research, training, publishing of the Montessorian scientific and pedagogical principles and ideas still in operation today as a professional association for the preservation and dissemination of her work and method.

In 1929 the first International Montessori Congress was held in Denmark. That same year Maria Montessori founded the Association Montessori International (AMI) of which Montessori’s youngest granddaughter Renilde, was General Secretary and President until 2005. To this day AMI is the recognized peak body for the application of Montessori’s principles in education, research, teacher training, humanitarian causes and innovation. This is accomplished by the AMI’s adherence to and preservation of authentic Montessori’s principles and practices.

In the years that followed with the rise of Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany and Montessori refusal to permit her schools to be a vehicle for promulgating political ideologies, all her schools in Italy and Germany were closed and she was forced to flee to the United Kingdom to eventually resettle in the Netherlands where AMI’s headquarters are to this day.

In 1949 Montessori received the first of three nominations for the Noble Peace Prize.

In 1951 she attended the ninth international Montessori Congress in London followed by her last training course in Austria.

On the 6th of May 1952 in the Netherlands at the age of 81 Dr Maria Montessori died in the company of her son Mario Montessori.