Maria Montessori

    Maria Montessori's first "Children's Houses" received overnight attention, and thousands of visitors came away amazed and enthusiastic. World-wide interest surged as she duplicated her first school in other settings with the same results. Montessori captured the interest and imagination of national leaders and scientists, mothers and teachers, labor leaders and factory owners.

    Montessori's prime productive period lasted from the opening of the first Children's House in 1907 until the 1930s. During this time, she continued her study of children, and developed a vastly expanded curriculum and methodology for the elementary level as well. Montessori schools were set up throughout Europe and North America, and Dr. Montessori gave up her medical practice to devote all of her energies to advocating the rights and intellectual potential of all children.

    During her lifetime, Dr. Montessori was acknowledged as one of the world's leading educators. But the mainstream of education moved beyond Maria Montessori, adapting only those elements of her work that fit into existing theories and methods. Ironically, the Montessori approach cannot be implemented as a series of piecemeal reforms. It requires a complete restructuring of the school and the teacher's role. Only recently as our understanding of child development has grown have we rediscovered how clear and sensible were her insights.

    Today there is a growing consensus among psychologists and developmental educators that many of her ideas were decades ahead of their time.

    Dr. Montessori spent the war years from 1939 to 1947 in India and Sri Lanka, training thousands of teachers and inspiring the development of Montessori schools throughout Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka.

    As the movement gains support and begins to spread into the American public school sector, one can readily say that Montessori, begun ninty years ago, is a remarkably modern approach.

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