Research Paper On Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in the town of Chiaravalle, Italy. Her dream was to become an engineer but luckily for us she ended up being the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome La Sapienza Medical School, becoming the first female doctor in Italy. Montessori became intrigued with trying to educate the “special needs” or “unhappy little ones” [Michael Olaf’s Essential Montessori: School Edition for ages 3-12+] Dr. Maria Montessori was a great child theorist.

Dr. Montessori’s first notable success was when she had several of her eight year old students apply to take the State examinations for reading and writing. The children who were “defective” did not just pass but had above average scores. After the results came

Montessori was focused on teaching the children how to develop their own skills at their own rate, which was a principle Dr. Montessori called “spontaneous self-development”. [Early Childhood Today, p. 74.] Montessori discovered that children’s innate power for learning worked best when the children were able to be left alone in a safe, and a hands on environment. When the children were given furniture, equipment, and supplies they were able to work by themselves, they were also self-motivated to explore experiment and reach new understandings. Montessori found self correcting or “auto-didactic”, puzzles to be an essential part of independent learning and the child friendly environment. When a child is ready to learn new skills the teacher directs the child in order to avoid wasted effort and learning the wrong habits, if this does not happen the child ends up learning alone. It has been reported that the Montessori Method of learning has made children learn to read and write much more quickly and with greater facility than has otherwise been

Later on there was less interest which is due mostly to the publication of a small booklet entitled “The Montessori System Examined” by William Heard Kilpatrick who was a follower of John Dewey. (Nancy McCormick Rambusch contributed to the revival of the method in America by establishing the American Montessori Society in 1960), at the time a woman named Margaret Stephenson came to the United States from Europe and began a long history of training Montessori teachers under the Association Montessori International (AMI). In 1939 Montessori received an invitation from the Theosophical Society of India to visit India. She accepted the invitation and went to India the same year which began her special relationship with this country. She became part of the international Headquarters of the Theosophical Society at Adyar. Maria conducted sixteen batches of courses called the Indian Montessori Training Courses. The courses laid a strong foundation for the Montessori movement in India. When she left India in the year 1949 she appointed Albert Max Joosten as her representative, and assigned him to conduct the Indian Montessori Training courses. Joosten and Swamy S.R, another follower of Dr. Maria Montessori continued the work and ensured that the Montessori Movement in India was still going