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Maria
Montessori: |
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The woman who rediscovered childhood . . . Born in Ancona, Italy, in 1870, Maria Montessori
became the first Dr. Montessori's life was a beautiful balance of the spiritual and the scientific. And hers was a life of great achievement. She was the first woman in Italy to become a physician. In 1907 she began working in a housing project in the poorest slums of Rome. Her "wild charges" were fascinated with the puzzles and devices she developed. They spent long periods of time focused and attentive. And to Dr. Montessori's amazement, the three and four year-olds were most delighted learning simple skills like sweeping, folding and pouring. In Montessori's care, the children begged to learn how to read and write. With materials she designed, they quickly learned the concepts of math, history, and natural science. It was not because they were "pushed" academically. Children responded eagerly to her materials and the atmosphere of calm and order. Montessori loved telling about one morning when the teacher arrived late and the children crawled through a window to begin their work. Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk, Holland, in 1952, but her work continues. Today, Dr. Montessori's methods and philosophy are implemented in some 7,000 private and approximately two hundred public Montessori schools in the United States. Montessori schools exist around the world, with the most recent developments in Russia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Romania, South Africa, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
The Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) was established in 1929 to maintain the integrity of her life's work, to ensure that it would be perpetuated after her death and to support Montessori schools and Montessori teacher training. |
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"My vision of the future is
no longer of people taking exams and proceeding on that certification .
. . but of individuals passing from one stage of independence to a
higher (one), by means of their own activity, through their own effort
of will, which constitutes the inner evolution of the individual." |
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woman medical doctor in Italy. She subsequently worked with
children in psychiatric hospitals and with "mentally
deficient" children in the State Orthophrenic Hospital. Then,
in 1906, she accepted the challenge to work with a group of sixty
children of working parents from the San Lorenzo district of Rome.
There she founded her famous Casa dei Bambini (House of the
Children).
The Montessori School at Holy Rosary is firmly
committed to the principles of Dr. Montessori. And like her, we
strive to nurture each child's individuality and love of learning.
