Maria Montessori

Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori (MON-tiss-OR-ee; Italian: [maˈriːa montesˈsɔːri]; 31 August 1870 – 6 May 1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for her philosophy of education (the Montessori method) and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori enrolled in classes at an all-boys technical school, with hopes of becoming an engineer. She soon had a change of heart and began medical school at the Sapienza University of Rome, becoming one of the first women to attend medical school in Italy; she graduated with honors in 1896. Her educational method is in use globally in many public and private schools.

Birth and family

Montessori was born on 31 August 1870 in Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy. Her father, Alessandro Montessori, age 33, was an official of the Ministry of Finance working in the local state-run tobacco factory. Her mother, Renilde Stoppani, 25 years old, was well-educated for the times and was the niece of Italian geologist and paleontologist Antonio Stoppani. While she did not have any particular mentor, she was very close to her mother who readily encouraged her. She also had a loving relationship with her father, although he disagreed with her choice to continue her education.

Early education

Because of her father's work, the family frequently moved during Montessori's childhood. The Montessori family moved to Florence in 1873, then to Rome in 1875. Montessori entered a public elementary school at the age of 6 in 1876. Her early school record was "not particularly noteworthy", although she was awarded certificates for good behavior in the first grade and for lavori donneschi, or "women's work", the next year. When a teacher asked her class to present the lives of famous women the children wanted to imitate, young Montessori reportedly said, "I shall never be that. I care too much for the children of the future to add yet another biography to the list".