Maria Montessori: Life, Philosophy and Method of Education

1. Her Life
and
Philosophy of Education

2. Maria Montessori
 Born: August 31, 1870 in
Chiaravalle (Ancona), Italy
 Died: May 6 1952, (aged 81)
in Noordwijk, Netherlands
 Nationality: Italian
 Education: University of Rome
Medical School
 Occupation: Physician and educator
known for Founder of the
Montessori Method of Education
 Religion: Catholic
 Children: Mario Montessori

3. Early Years
• Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Italy to Alessandro Montessori and his
wife
• At the age of thirteen she attended an all-boy technical school in preparation
for becoming an engineer.
• In 1896 she became the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome
Medical School, and first female doctors in Italy.
• Work at the University's Psychiatric Clinic and became interested with trying to
educate the mentally retarded children.
• Study of the works of Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin in Paris
• In 1896 lecture at the Educational Congress about the training of the
disabled.The Italian Minister of Education attended, and appointed her as director
of the Scuola Ortofrenica, an institution devoted to the care and education of the
mentally retarded.
• The “First Montessori Miracle”, when several of her 8 year old students took the
State examinations for reading and writing successfully
• 1907 ‘Casa dei Bambini’, a KG program in a housing project in Rome, which
became very famous
•

4. Invited to the USA by Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison,
and others,
Dr. Montessori spoke at Carnegie Hall in 1915. She was invited to set up
a classroom at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, where
spectators watched twenty-one children, all new to this Montessori
method, behind a glass wall for four months. The only two gold medals
awarded for education went to this class, and the education of young
children was altered forever.
FROM EUROPE TO THE UNITED STATES

5. India and the Nobel Prize
During World War II
Dr. Montessori was forced into exile from Italy because of her views.
She moved to Spain and lived there until 1936 when the Spanish Civil War broke
out. She then moved to the Netherlands until 1939.
In 1938 she visited Alexandra Remanenco, founder of an orphanage that
became a model institution for pre-school education in Romania.
In 1939 the Theosophical Society invited her to India, where she had so stay till
the end of the war. There she developed her work Education for Peace, and was
twice nominated for the Nobel Peace
1949 she went back to the Netherlands where she lived out the remainder of
her life Her son. Mario headed the AMI (Association Montessori Internationale)
until his death in 1982.

6. The Montessori Philosophy

7. Freedom and Love
If survival depended solely
on the triumph of the
strong, then the species
would perish. So, the real
reason for survival, the
principle factor in the
“struggle of existence”, is
the love of adults for their
young.
Her basic assumption:
Every child has an innate
potential and an ability
to develop in an
environment of love and
freedom.
Children are the “other
pole of humanity” with
an essential contribution
to life and community.

8. Self-construction of the Child
Starting as a “spiritual embryo”, there is a pre-determined pattern of
development in the psychological, similar to the biological development.
Conditions for the development are:
1. Understanding can develop through interaction with
the environment, including people
2. Freedom
 Development comes with movement, there is no split between the intellectual and
the physical.
 There is an intense motivation towards his/her own self-construction in a child.
 Full development of his/her person is the unique and ultimate goal in life.
 The goal of self-development is rather for service to mankind, as well as individual
The hand opens the mind

9. Sensitive Periods
Sensitive periods are blocks of time when the child is absorbed with one
characteristic of the environment to the exclusion of all others
 Sensitive period for the need of order
 Sensitive period for the use of hand and tongue
 Sensitive period for the development of walking
 Sensitive period for tiny things
 Sensitive period for social interest
Before 3 years the functions are being created in (a special pre-
conscious state of mind), after 3 years, the functions are developed.
If the child is prevented from following his/her interest of any given sensitive
period, the opportunity for a natural conquest is lost forever.

10. The Natural Psychological Laws
 The Law of Work
 The Law of Independence
 The Power of Attention
 The Inner Formation of the Will
 The Development of Intelligence
 The Development of Imagination and Creativity
 The Development of an Emotional and Spiritual
Life

12. Learning Environment
The 2 Essentials of the Montessori Environment are:
1. The Learning Materials and Exercises
2. The Teacher
The 6 components are:
 FREEDOM
 STRUCTURE & ORDER
 BEAUTY & ATMOSPHERE
 NATURE & REALITY
 EQUIPMENT
 COMMUNITY LIFE

13. Montessori Materials
One aspect only From concrete to abstract Indirect preparation
From simple to complex Inbuilt control

14. Learning Centers
 Practical Life & daily Life
 Sensorial Life
 Language
 Mathematics
 Science
 Art& Culture

16. Role of the Teacher
1. Observer
2. Model
3. Facilitator
4. Directress
• with an interest in humanity
• with ability to see children as
unique individuals
• with faith that children can
and will reveal themselves

17. Fundamental Lesson
Presentation of the
Montessori Materials
Test to find the level of
development in the child
If the child is not ready for
the material, repeat the
presentation at a later time,
do not correct the child.

18. Three Period Lesson:
1. This is…
2. Show me..
3. What is this?
When introducing
words (nomenclature)
with the materials

19. To assist a child we must provide himwith
an environmentwhich will enable himto
develop freely Free choiceis
one of the
highest of all the
mental
processes.
To give a child
liberty is not
to abandon him
to himself
The essence of
independence is to be
able to do something
for one’s self
Of
all things
love is the
most potent