Her Life

and

Philosophy of Education

Maria Montessori

Born: August 31, 1870 in Chiaravalle (Ancona), Italy

Died: May 6 1952, (aged 81)

in Noordwijk, Netherlands

Nationality: Italian

Education: University of RomeMedical School

Occupation: Physician and educator known for Founder of the Montessori Method of Education

Religion: Catholic

Children: Mario Montessori

Early Years

• Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Italy to Alessandro Montessori and his wife

• At the age of thirteen she attended an all-boy technical school in preparation for becoming an engineer.

• In 1896 she became the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome Medical School, and first female doctors in Italy.

• Work at the University's Psychiatric Clinic and became interested with trying to educate the mentally retarded children.

• Study of the works of Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin in Paris

• In 1896 lecture at the Educational Congress about the training of the disabled.The Italian Minister of Education attended, and appointed her as director of the Scuola Ortofrenica, an institution devoted to the care and education of the mentally retarded.

• The “First Montessori Miracle”, when several of her 8 year old students took the State examinations for reading and writing successfully

• 1907 ‘Casa dei Bambini’, a KG program in a housing project in Rome, which became very famous •

Invited to the USA by Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison,and others,

Dr. Montessori spoke at Carnegie Hall in 1915. She was invited to set upa classroom at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, wherespectators watched twenty-one children, all new to this Montessorimethod, behind a glass wall for four months. The only two gold medalsawarded for education went to this class, and the education of youngchildren was altered forever.

FROM EUROPE TO THE UNITED STATES

India and the Nobel Prize

During World War II

Dr. Montessori was forced into exile from Italy because of her views.

She moved to Spain and lived there until 1936 when the Spanish Civil War broke

out. She then moved to the Netherlands until 1939.

In 1938 she visited Alexandra Remanenco, founder of an orphanage that

became a model institution for pre-school education in Romania.

In 1939 the Theosophical Society invited her to India, where she had so stay till

the end of the war. There she developed her work Education for Peace, and was

twice nominated for the Nobel Peace

1949 she went back to the Netherlands where she lived out the remainder of

her life Her son. Mario headed the AMI (Association Montessori Internationale)

until his death in 1982.

The Montessori Philosophy

Freedom and Love

If survival depended solely on the triumph of the strong, then the species would perish. So, the real reason for survival, the principle factor in the “struggle of existence”, is the love of adults for their young.

Her basic assumption:

Every child has an innate potential and an ability to develop in an environment of love and freedom.

Children are the “other

pole of humanity” with

an essential contribution

to life and community.

Self-construction of the ChildStarting as a “spiritual embryo”, there is a pre-determined pattern of development in the psychological, similar to the biological development.

Conditions for the development are:

1. Understanding can develop through interaction with the environment, including people

2. Freedom

Development comes with movement, there is no split between the intellectual and

the physical.

There is an intense motivation towards his/her own self-construction in a child.

Full development of his/her person is the unique and ultimate goal in life.

The goal of self-development is rather for service to mankind, as well as individual

The hand opens the mind

Sensitive PeriodsSensitive periods are blocks of time when the child is absorbed with one

characteristic of the environment to the exclusion of all others

Sensitive period for the need of order

Sensitive period for the use of hand and tongue

Sensitive period for the development of walking

Sensitive period for tiny things

Sensitive period for social interest

Before 3 years the functions are being created in (a special pre-

conscious state of mind), after 3 years, the functions are developed.

If the child is prevented from following his/her interest of any given sensitive period, the opportunity for a natural conquest is lost forever.

The Natural Psychological Laws

The Law of Work

The Law of Independence

The Power of Attention

The Inner Formation of the Will

The Development of Intelligence

The Development of Imagination and Creativity

The Development of an Emotional and Spiritual Life

Learning EnvironmentThe 2 Essentials of the Montessori Environment are:

1. The Learning Materials and Exercises

2. The Teacher

The 6 components are: FREEDOM

STRUCTURE & ORDER

BEAUTY & ATMOSPHERE

NATURE & REALITY

EQUIPMENT

COMMUNITY LIFE

Montessori Materials

One aspect only From concrete to abstract Indirect preparation

From simple to complex Inbuilt control

Learning CentersPractical Life & daily Life

Sensorial Life

Language

Mathematics

Science

Art& Culture

Role of the Teacher

1. Observer2. Model 3. Facilitator4. Directress

• with an interest in humanity• with ability to see children as

unique individuals • with faith that children can

and will reveal themselves

Fundamental Lesson

Presentation of the

Montessori Materials

Test to find the level of

development in the child

If the child is not ready for

the material, repeat the

presentation at a later time,

do not correct the child.

Three Period Lesson:

1. This is…2. Show me..3. What is this?

When introducing words (nomenclature) with the materials

To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely Free choice is

one of the highest of all the

mental processes.

To give a child liberty is not to abandon him to himself

The essence of independence is to be able to do something

for one’s self

Of

all things

love is the

most potent