My Chosen Modern Thinker: I am Maria Montessori

My life is a story of remarkable perseverance and achievement. My name is Maria

Montessori, born at Chiaravalle in the province of Ancona on 31st of August in the year 1870 –
the year in which Italy first became a united nation. My father, Alessandro Montessori, was
descended from a noble family from Bologna. He was a typical conservative of the old school, a
military man, who in his time had been commended for bravery in action. He was dignified and
soldierly in his bearing, and well known for his punctilious politeness.
My mother, Renilde Stoppani, niece of the illustrious Antonio Stoppani, the great
philosopher-scientist-priest to whom the University of Milan erected a monument at his death.
My mother was a lady of singular piety and charm, whom I resembled my appearance and
temperament.
My childhood was spent in Ancona, where I attended the usual state day-school. As a
young child it would seem that I don’t have any scholastic ambitions. When I was about twelve
years old my parents moved to Rome so as to be able to give their only child a better education
than Ancona could offer. At the age of fourteen, I became very interested in Mathematics. My
parents suggested that I should take up teaching, which was practically the only career open to
women at that time. But this I categorically refused even to consider. Since I had an aptitude for
Mathematics, and was very fond of it, I decided to take up the career pf engineering. Even at the
present day that would be rather an unusual career for a woman. As the high-class seminaries for
young ladies did not cater for such an unusual ambition, I attended classes at a technical school
for boys. After a while, my tastes again changing, I felt more strongly the attractions of Biology.
I came to the final decision that what I really wanted was to study medicine.
Unfortunately this was a case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. A young lady
to attend a medical school? The thing was unheard of, preposterous, and impossible. I was very
determined cared not a whit; but snapping my fingers at all of them, managed to obtained an
interview with Dr. Bacelli, head of the Board of Education. When he informed me in quite
definite terms that it would be impossible for me to carry out my desire, I thanked him politely,
shook hands cordially, and quietly remarked, “I know I shall become a Doctor of Medicine.”
Thereupon, I bowed and went out.
In the end, I was duly admitted to the medical faculty of the University – the first woman
medical student in Italy. And I won a scholarship – in fact a series of scholarships, year after
year.
Once admitted to the faculty of medicine, as an intrepid girl by no means found myself at
the end of my difficulties. The men students, jealous of this intrusion into a sphere hitherto
exclusively their own, subjected me to a series of petty persecutions for many months. They soon
discovered, however, that I was not to be frightened away. I confronted my tormentors with such
pluck that in time persecution was changed to a sort of grudging admiration. Typical of my
good-humored indifference to their attacks was the remark I used to make to some of the
students, who – when passing to me in the corridors - “the harder you blow me away, the higher
up I shall go.” Thus, I became the first woman in Italy to take the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
Soon after graduating, I was appointed assistant doctor at the Psychiatric Clinic in the
University of Rome. Part of my duty, in this connection, was to visit the asylums for the insane
in Rome in order to select suitable subjects for the clinic. It was in this way that I started to take
an interest in idiot children, who, at that period were classed together with the insane. I was
touched by the piteous condition of these unfortunate children, and I longed to help them.
 In one of the lunatic asylums, I came across a number of these unhappy children herded
together like prisoners in a prison-like room. I looked around the room and saw the children had
no toys or materials of any kind – that the room was in fact absolutely bare. There were literally
no objects in their environment which the children could hold and manipulate in their fingers. I
saw in the child’s behavior, a craving of a very different and higher kind than for mere food.
There existed for these poor creatures, one path and one only towards intelligence, and that was
through their hands. The more I came in contact with these defective children – studying them,
meditating over their condition, longing to help them – the more strongly did I come to differ
from the generally accepted views with regard to them. It became increasingly apparent to me
that mental deficiency was a pedagogical problem rather than a medical one. I came to believe
that, with special educational treatment, their mental condition could be immensely ameliorated.
In 1899, at a pedagogical congress in Turin, I delivered an address on Moral Education.
In this, I expressed my belief that defective children were not extra-social beings, but were
entitled to the benefits of education as much as – if not more than normal ones. In 1990, I was
appointed as director of the Orthophrenic School for developmentally disabled children. A
position which I held for two years.
It was there that I began my research on early childhood development and education. I
read the works of Fredrich Froebel, the inventor of Kindergarten and also by Johann Heinrich
Pestalozzi, who believed that children learn through activities. I also took a deep interest in the
works of 18th and 19th century French physicians Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard and Edouard Segun,
who had researched and experimented with disabled children and were the first to believe that
intellectually disable children can be educated. I started observing some intellectually disable
children and applying some of their educational theories. Not long after, I started developing my
own concepts and methods along with them. Through hands-on scientific approach and
observations, I found these kids developing exceptionally well. I was able to get these
intellectually disable children to read and write and also sit through an exam where they passed.
This made me wonder, if these children could do so well, then why aren’t other normal children
whom I believed had no reason to fail when kids seen as mentally retarded could pass with flying
colors.
In 1901, I started studying educational philosophy and anthropology. I was lecturing
students from 1904-1908 in my old university as a lecturer of Pedagogy. There was rapid
development in Rome at this time, which also lead the market to bankruptcies and the rise of the
ghetto districts. One such district was San Lorenzo where children in this area were running
around, all day aimlessly, while their parents were at work. I was offered an opportunity to work
with these children and introduce my teaching methodology and materials to these normal
children.
On the 6th of January 1907, I started my first school “Casa Dei Bambini” (Italian for
“Children’s House”) for the children of San Lorenzo District. It was here, with these children, I
introduced and further developed my methodologies and materials that I created when I was at
the Orthophrenic School. Through working hands-on with these children and observing them, I
made many discoveries. I wrote my first book from the observations I made in Casa Dei
Bambini. In 1909, I gave my first training session to around 100 international students in Italy.
Montessori schools started emerging around Western Europe and around the world from 1910. In
1912, I published my book “The Montessori Method” that was later translated into 20 languages.
My goals in education were to develop sensory training, language acquisition, arithmetic,
physical education, practical life skills and abstract thought through the teaching of the whole
child and the integration of the family into the early education system. My aim is to foster
autonomous, competent, responsible, adaptive citizens who are life-long learners and problem
solvers.
My theory of knowledge is, it is the result of experience that we gain from manipulating
our environment and analyzing our senses that increase our knowledge of the world around us
and allow us to live as productive members of the society. My curriculum requires students to
manipulate real life tools to gain an understanding of the world. The more experience we have
with the practical life tools, the more knowledge that we have gained to better prepare us for
society.
I also developed an ideas of what it means to be a human being in a time that education
of special needs children was rare and unappreciated. Through my research on educating
mentally disable children, I discovered what it meant to be a human being. To be human means
to have a family and it is within the family that socialization and primary education of young
children should take place beginning from birth. A human being is different from other species
because of the development process in which a human child grows. It is the ability to manipulate
the environment to increase thought and analysis of the world around them that allows humans to
progress in a “superior” manner than other species.
I have also a theory in learning. For me, it comes from the manipulation of the
environment and the training of the senses. The child’s absorbent mind is the driving force
behind my theories of how children learn. Learning comes from reality based, structured and
prepared environments. Learning is doing. It is to experience through discovery, through
manipulation, through critical thinking, through mistakes and through problem solving skills. In
the process of learning, children can gain self-esteem and generalization skills prior to the first
grade that will prepare them to become a life-long learner.
In my Montessori method, the role of teacher is crucial. I always thoug