Montessori has become an integral part of early child education as it focuses on learning and not teaching. It is completely different from traditional education which is teacher centred, where a teacher stands at the front of the classroom giving instructions. Montessori education focuses more on the students; it is more of a children centred method which was started by Dr. Maria Montessori in 1907 with her first school, the Casa dei Bambini which was part of an urban renewal project in a low-income district of Rome. The school was a success that instantly became popular throughout Italy and following which many other schools followed suit in Rome and Milan. That was just the beginning!
In 1909, Dr. Maria Montessori published her landmark book which is normally known by its translated English title as the Montessori Method and by 1910, the innovative technique have made its way beyond the lands of Europe and teachers throughout the world were eager to learn it. The early Montessori teachers were trained and taught by Dr. Montessori herself. The courses developed by her drew the attention of potential educators from as far as Australia and Chile and within a short span of time, the Montessori form of education began growing on 5 different continents. In the United States, the blooming movement caught on rapidly, yet it burned out as quickly as it took flight due to the rough consequences of language barriers, World War I travel limitations, anti-immigrant sentiment, and the disdain of a few prominent educators.
In 1960, Montessori education returned to the U.S and has since spread to many schools while continuing to extend her work for the rest of her lifetime.
In 1929, Dr. Montessori founded the ‘Association Montessori International’ (AMI) in order to provide basic teacher education and guidance to the many Montessori schools opening across the globe. Today, Maria Montessori is known as one of the foremost pioneers of education in the 20th and 21st century.
Dr. Maria Montessori’s early research was aimed at educating little children but during the 1920’s she shifted her attention to adolescent kids. At such a stage of development, she observed that students were in dire need of activities that would benefit them in a way so as to understand themselves and find a place their place in the world. It was on her proposal that residential schools came up where students could live in a trusting community, engaging in practical activities etc. Dr. Maria Montessori also included peace education into the curriculum in due course, as a result of surviving two horrific world wars.
Montessori education returned to the United States in 1960 and has since spread to thousands of schools there. Montessori continued to extend her work during her lifetime, developing a comprehensive model of psychological development from birth to age 24, as well as educational approaches for children ages 0 to 3, 3 to 6, and 6 to 12. She wrote and lectured about ages 12 to 18 and beyond, but these programs were not developed during her lifetime. Shortly after the death of Maria Montessori in 1952, the movement was taken over by her son, Mario. During World War II, Montessori developed Education for Peace in India, and earned two Nobel Peace Prize nominations.
Montessori Method has been recognized worldwide and Montessori schools have sprung up across the globe as the Montessori philosophy has been highly appreciated internationally.
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