Dr. Maria Montessori

On January 6, 1906 Dr. Maria Montessori opened the first Casa de Bambini (Children’s House). The school was located in the outskirts of Rome, in a town called San Lorenzo. The school catered to local children from underprivileged families whose parents were illiterate. She began by preparing a classroom with traditional toys and work material having elements of nature in it – wood, sand, glass, silver and more. Children were free to move throughout the room and choose from among the many items available.

Those items that the children did not respond to were replaced. Through this process of experimentation, she compiled a series of learning materials the children were naturally attracted to, and truly enjoyed. She found that children preferred activities offering challenges – activities that resemble natural and real life experiences.

Thus the combination of Practical Life, Zoology, Geography, History, Math and Language became the Montessori Pedagogy. She was able to teach children aged three, four and five to read and write without the child ever feeling as if they were being taught. The public was fascinated with the results of her findings, but they demanded proof that the children she was teaching (in San Lorenzo) were not gifted. The press wrote about “culture acquired spontaneously” in these children. She taught in different cities and in different countries – all with the same results. Dr. Montessori was so far ahead of her time, her teaching materials from 1906 are the same ones used today in our classroom.

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