The educational method of María Montessori is known throughout the world, and there are many schools and colleges that follow this methodology, which is increasingly in demand. Montessori was born in Chiaravelle (Ancona, Italy), and from a very young age she was attracted to the study of science. Perhaps the influence of his uncle, Abbot Antonio Stoppani, a geologist, paleontologist and one of the founders of the Civic Museum of Natural Sciences in Milan, had something to do with it.
The fact is that her parents resisted Maria’s insistence on entering the Faculty of Medicine of the University of La Sapienza, in Rome. But she succeeded, and so Maria Montessori became the first Doctor of Medicine from the University of Rome. Soon she became interested in children with intellectual disabilities and realized that their needs went beyond the medical and therapeutic framework, but that pedagogy and psychology could also help them.
In 1904 he published his first work: “ Sui caratteri antropometrici in relazione alla gerarchie intellectuale del fanciulli nelle scuole ” and in 1907 he founded the first “Casa dei Bambini” (children’s house) in Rome. In 1909 his book Manuale della pedagogía scientifica was published in Naples.
The Montessori method
Maria Montessori’s elementary school concept was based on scientific methods and quickly spread throughout Europe and the United States. Its main premise: children are their own teachers and can develop fully in an environment and with the right stimuli . María Montessori developed a specific didactic practice for each sense or sensoriality: taste, touch, sensitivity to temperatures, etc.
His method is also called “Method of Scientific Pedagogy.” The scientific nature of the method is due to the fact that, according to his theory, children learn from observation and experimentation in a caring environment and with selected stimuli, but freely offered. It is based on respect for child life and children’s freedom, where self-education is essential.
Banished by Mussolini’s fascism
Italian fascism banned Montessori pedagogy, and its creator left the country. He spent long periods in Barcelona and the Netherlands, where he died in 1952. His educational method, however, is still alive in numerous institutions and schools around the world. As a curiosity, María Montessori is the only woman whose face has seemed stamped on an Italian banknote.
