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The History of the Montessori

Education
SARAH MEAD SHARE ! Share on Facebook " Share on Twitter

Many parents come to Whitby because they’ve heard about our Montessori program.
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They’ve heard that it inspires students to become passionate, lifelong learners—and that it’s
completely di!erent from a traditional education where a teacher stands at the front of the Whitby School is chock full of
classroom. passionate teachers, sta! and
students. Subscribe to our Passion
A little over 100 years ago, however, an Italian doctor named Maria Montessori changed
for Learning blog and start sharing
education forever when she proposed a revolutionary child-centered education model.
in our excitement.
Today we’d like to share the story of the founding of the Montessori education, and reveal
how Whitby contributed to the rise of Montessori within the United States.
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What is the Montessori Education?

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Unlike the traditional teacher-centered

education, the Montessori education is
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focused on inspiring children to drive their
RSS
own learning. Teachers guide the students
and provide help, while encouraging
students to choose their tasks and decide
how to best approach each challenge. BROWSE TOPICS

Children who attend Montessori schools

learn to value cooperation, stay within the
Passion for Learning
framework of rules and think about how
their actions a!ect others. Students retain
(30)
their creativity and push themselves to News (25)
excel due to their love of learning and their own natural curiosity. Above and beyond
Global Citizenship (22)
standard school subjects, Montessori students are taught how to "t a larger worldview into
their thinking and encouraged to be curious and creative students. Whole Child
Development (21)

Here’s a look at the history of the inquiry-based learning

(15)
Montessori education:
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1907: The Founding Years

At the beginning of the 20th century, Dr. Maria Montessori, Italy's "rst female doctor,
opened the Casa dei Bambini (Children's House) to provide education to low-income
children in Rome. Instead of using traditional teaching methods, Maria Montessori began
testing her own child-centered educational theories in the classroom.

The Casa dei Bambini was unique because it focused on educating each child based on his
or her development stage. Dr. Montessori encouraged children to take ownership of what
they wanted to learn and worked with each child to create a personalized education that
played to that child’s strengths. Children were encouraged to cooperate and work together
to accomplish their goals.

In 1909, Dr. Montessori described her educational process in detail in Il Metodo della
Pedagogia Scienti"ca applicato all’educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini. Titled The
Montessori Education in English, her book captured the attention of educators all over the
world and in the next two decades, Montessori schools sprang up on all six continents.

In 1929, she founded the Association Montessori Internationale to provide teacher

education and guidance to the many Montessori schools opening around the world. Today,
Maria Montessori is known as one of the foremost pioneers of education in the 20th
century.

The Early 1900s: Montessori First Comes to

America
In the United States, The Montessori Education made a big impression. By 1912, Dr.
Montessori was a sought-after speaker on this side of the Atlantic and there were over 100
Montessori schools in the U.S by the end of 1913.

As the Montessori Method gained popularity, however, it also inspired detractors. In 1914,
educational reformer William Heard Kilpatrick, published The Montessori System Examined,
which criticized Maria Montessori for her focus on individualism and using the senses to
help children learn. A student of educational reformer John Dewey, he subscribed to
Dewey’s progressive education theory and called the Montessori method outdated.

As a popular professor at Columbia University’s in#uential Teachers College, Kilpatrick’s

campaign against the Montessori method caused it to fall out of favor with educators. At
the same time, John Dewey was advancing his educational philosophies as a distinguished
professor at Columbia University and as president of the National Kindergarten Association.
As a result, by 1920, there were virtually no Montessori schools left in the U.S.

1958: Nancy McCormick Rambusch and

Whitby Bring Montessori Back to America
Forty years after the
Montessori method was
forgotten in America, it
was revived by parents
who were passionate
about "nding a better way
to educate their children.

Passionate about
educating children, New
York educator Dr. Nancy
McCormick Rambusch
underwent Montessori
teacher training in London. In 1952, she traveled to the Tenth International Montessori
Congress in Paris to learn how she could incorporate its teachings in her own classroom.
Which she was at the conference, she met Mario Montessori and was inspired by him to "nd
a way to revive his mother’s education method in the United States.

After returning home, Dr. Rambusch started teaching the Montessori method to small
groups of children in New York City. Then she was approached by a small group of parents
from nearby Connecticut, who were interested in founding a private school based on the
Montessori education.

On September 29, 1958, the "rst Whitby School was opened in a carriage house just outside
Greenwich, Connecticut. The school’s name was inspired a story from Whitby Abbey in
Yorkshire, England where an Abbess invited a stable boy to join their education program
after she recognized his musical talent.

As other parents learned about Whitby’s unique education, the school rapidly attracted
more students and the "rst o$cial Whitby campus was established in 1960. Whitby’s
success also inspired renewed interest across the United States in the Montessori education.

Letters and people poured into Whitby from across the

United States, demanding insistently that writers and visitors
be given help in starting Montessori schools and teacher
training programs.
- Montessori Comes to America by Phyllis Povell. pg 74

As interest grew in the Montessori education, Dr. Rambusch founded the American
Montessori Society (AMS), where she modeled the ideal classroom after the Whitby
program. The Whitby School also became the "rst certi"ed Montessori teacher training
program in the U.S.

Over the next few decades, the number of Montessori schools in the U.S. soared as
educators and parents learned how this unique teaching method could build children's
con"dence, creativity and love of learning.

The Montessori Education Today

The Montessori education has a long record of success preparing children to take on the
challenges of the future. Many parents choose this type of education because of its long
and proven history and the way it works closely with each child's level of development.
Successful Montessori graduates include Peter Drucker, Julia Child, Je! Bezos, Sean ‘P.Diddy’
Combs, Katherine Graham, Helen Hunt, and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Today, the Montessori classroom is still centered around children and their educational
interests and uses the latest "ndings about child development to ensure that each child's
education is appropriate for their level of development. The American Montessori Society is
the largest organization in the world dedicated to the Montessori method, with more than
1,300 a$liated schools and almost 100 teacher-education programs.

At Whitby School, we continue to teach according to the principles of Maria Montessori and
Whitby/American Montessori Society founder Dr. Nancy McCormick Rambusch. Our
Montessori preschool educates children from 18 months through kindergarten and we
continue the Montessori education for children in Grades 1 and 2 in our private elementary
school (accredited with non-traditional Montessori age groupings.)

If you’re considering a Montessori preschool for your child and would like to learn more
about the Whitby School, we invite you to schedule a tour of our campus.

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Sarah Mead # "

Sarah Mead is the Director of Marketing &

Communications for Whitby School. Sarah's mind is a
stirring pot of thoughts and ideas on content marketing,
blogging, photography, videography, storytelling, social
media, and website optimization. Working at Whitby has
inspired her to reeducate the world about education, and
to spread the passion, wisdom and expertise of the
school’s talented faculty and sta!.

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