Montessori is a system of education named after Dr. Maria Montessori. It is both a philosophy of child growth and development and a rationale for guiding such development.
Maria Montessori was born in 1870. In 1895, she became the first woman in Italy to obtain the degree of Doctor of Medicine. This background led Dr. Montessori to approach education more from the scientific level than the accepted academic standard and the classroom became her laboratory
She observed children and was constantly testing and retesting the validity of her concepts that would contribute to a more natural growth of learning in the student. She designed materials and techniques that advanced the method of educating all children; learning disabled through gifted, far beyond previous practice. To Dr. Montessori, education was a preparation for life not merely a search for intellectual skills.
Montessori education was introduced in the United States in 1912, when one of the first schools was established by Alexander Graham Bell in his own home. In 1915, America enthusiastically welcomed Dr. Montessori to establish classrooms for the World Exhibition in San Francisco, California.
Dr. Montessori died in 1952. Today, after almost 75 years of international application, the Montessori Method thrives in the United States, with more than 3,000 schools established since 1957.
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