King's Wood Montessori School

Curriculum: Who is Maria Montessori?

Maria Montessori was an Italian physician, educator and philosopher. She became the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome medical school in 1896 and began her medical practice in the field of psychiatry. In her work with mentally disabled patients, she developed theories and methods that challenged the belief of the day that these patients were incapable of being taught. Her successes in this area led her to be appointed as director of the Scuola Ortofrenica, an institution devoted to the care and education of the mentally retarded. In this position, she continued to pioneer teaching methods and had many notable successes in educating institutionalized children.

In 1907, her career shifted away from medical practice, when she was asked to start a school for children in a poor neighborhood in Rome. This school was called the Casa dei Bambini, or "Children's House" and enrolled sixty young students. It was here that Montessori set into practice her theories on educating young children. Instead of being “taught” by adults, the children at Montessori’s school learned by naturally interacting with their environment. The classroom materials were all created to stimulate the children’s ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings, work independently, and assist each other. The methods and materials that were first used at the Children’s House ultimately became known as the Montessori method of education and are still in place at public and private schools around the world.

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