Biographical note on Dr. Maria Montessori

 Write a biographical note on Dr. Maria Montessori in your own words.

Maria Montessori was an Italian physician who became a world-famous educator in the field of early childhood education because of her outstanding work in bringing reforms in teaching.

Early Life and education

She was born in an Italian middle-class family on August 31, 1870, in Chiaravalle, Italy. Her father served in military and civil services. Though her birthplace is Chiaravalle is a small commune in the Province of Ancona; because of her father’s job nature, Maria got exposure to the education system in big cities. Her father was a conservative European man, it was mostly because of her mother’s unwavering support that she pursued a field of education that was considered male appropriate at that time. Being the only female student of the medical class, she was asked to perform labs alone as the presence of a naked body was considered culturally inappropriate. But all this social and cultural pressure couldn’t force her to leave her dreams.

 In her last two years, she studied pediatrics and psychiatry, and worked in the pediatric consulting room and emergency service, becoming an expert in pediatric medicine which later led to her interest in education.

Early career:

 After finishing her medical school, she joined a Hospital to practice kids psychiatry which gave her a chance to closely observe children and their behavior.  Her work is as a pediatrician and a psychiatrist required her to visit asylums. She was appalled to see the conditions children living in those asylums and the kind of activities they do like throwing themselves on the floor to grab bread crumbs. This experience made her determined to study and research such children.

Montessori a Feminist and Human rights activist:

As she was the first lady dr. of Italy, she received attention from all over Europe. The fame she got through this achievement is utilized to advocate for women's rights as she was invited to speak on many international forums. She addressed the International Congress for women’s rights in Berlin in 1896 where she demanded equal pay for equal work. She was against child labor. Her work as dr. gave her a chance to work for children of the poor and working class. First Casa Dei Bambini  (first Montessori House of Children)  was for children from the worst slums of Rome.

Montessori as Educationist:

While working as a caretaker at a psychiatric clinic, she observed that such children need sensory stimulation, and given the right education and purposeful activities could improve their condition. She started developing techniques with a scientific approach to educate special needs children. Her work was greatly inspired by various educational prodigies around the globe like Jacob Pereira, Jean Itard, and Edouard Seguin. Soon the success of her techniques was recognized and she was invited to speak at the National Pedagogical Congress in 1899. In 1900 National League opened an Orthophrenic school where she was appointed as Assistant Director. As her method was working she started taking interest in education more and attended courses in pedagogy in general.

After serving at Orthophrenic school she continued her education at University of Rome subjects like philosophy, anthropology, and psychology and made a career transition from medicine to education. After successfully reforming the teaching methods of special needs children, she started to think that if the same scientific approach is used in normal students it may do wonders. So she accepted the offer of a medical officer to run a daycare center named Casa Dei Bambini in 1907, where she observed around 50-60 underprivileged and socially awkward though mentally normal children and started mentoring through new techniques within a few months those children started behaving decently and took interest in formal education as well. Soon this achievement was recognized also and she opened a chain of casa Dei Bambini in different parts of Italy, western Europe, and America.

To spread her scientific-pedagogical method to more teachers and schools she started writing books, organizing teacher’s training programs, and addressing on national and international forums. Her first book was published in 1909 “The Method of Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Infant education and the Children’s Houses”, whose success can be gauged by the fact that within 3 years it was translated in 10 languages and 5000 copies of its English translation were sold out within 4 days. After that, she wrote in many journal publications and some of her lectures were also transcribed in book form.

In 1916 from early childhood education her interest shifted to Secondary and High School Education. Just like toddlers, she observed that this young adolescent period is tough for concentration on academics so she developed Residential schools, where youth can work in harmony with nature, doing real-world community activities such as farming or running their own small business, etc.

Montessori: Global citizen:

 As a survivor of two world wars, she believed in peace and harmony. She formally added education about peace, tolerance, non-discrimination, equality, acceptance, and social justice in her curriculum. Even beyond the world, she believed in whole universe harmony and introduced the term ‘cosmic education’ to spread the awareness that the whole universe is actually existing as a single entity because of this. This concept was similar to the Theosophical Society of India, therefore she was twice invited to India and this was the root of the spread of the Montessori method teaching in the subcontinent.

Because of her work as a philanthropist, she was nominated thrice for the Nobel Peace Prize for three consecutive years.

Awards and recognitions:

She has won several awards and worldwide recognition because of her incredible work, some of them are French Legion of Honor, Honorary citizenship of Perugia, Milan, Standing ovation at UNESCO conference 1950, Honorary doctorate degree at University of Amsterdam, her picture on Italian currency is some of them.

In short, Dr. Montessori was an embodiment of compassion towards children and devotion to her profession. She was a woman ahead of her time and her pedagogical methods are what makes her immortal.