Dr. Maria Montessori
was an Italian educator and Italy’s first female physician. Maria Montessori based her work on direct observation of children and created a program and manipulative materials that complement and follow the natural development of the child. She opened her first Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) in 1906 in Rome, Italy. Today, Montessori schools flourish all over the world, nurturing and educating children from birth through secondary school.
Fundamental to Montessori’s view is a deep respect for the whole child and their potential to learn and develop into a “complete human being,” physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally.
Dr. Montessori’s approach depends on developmentally appropriate learning, designed to accept each child rather than making each individual fit into a preset program. She believed that learning would best take place in multi-age classrooms where children at different stages of development would learn from and teach each other by example. This learning should take place in a collaborative and individualized atmosphere so that each child can grow at their own pace.
Dr. Montessori observed that the best way for children to learn is through hands-on experiences. She developed the ideas of the prepared environment, where the classroom contains a wide variety of carefully designed materials that foster learning in many key areas. The materials do not just impart knowledge, but provide children with stimuli that capture their attention and initiate a process of exploration and concentration.