BIOGRAPHY

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María Montessori (August 31, 1870 - May 6, 1952) was an Italian educator, scientist, medical doctor, psychiatrist, philosopher, psychologist, devout Catholic, feminist, and humanist. She was born in Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy, into a Catholic bourgeois family. Her mother was Renilde Stoppani, and her father, Alessandro Montessori, was a professional soldier who held strict beliefs. At that time, the most common aspiration for women was to become a teacher, although in her family, the right to education for women was recognized to a certain extent.

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She began studying engineering at the age of 14, later pursued biology, and was eventually accepted into the University of Rome, in the School of Medicine. Despite initial opposition from her father, she graduated in 1896 as the first female medical doctor in Italy. She became a member of the University Psychiatric Clinic in Rome. Later, she studied anthropology and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy, during which she attended one of the earliest courses in experimental psychology. She was a contemporary of Freud and developed her own classification of mental illnesses.

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From an unfortunate romance with Giuseppe Montesano, a psychiatrist and her professor, her son Mario was born. The deep disillusionment caused by the doctor's abandonment led Maria Montessori to become involved in the feminist movement, where she became a representative at the national and international levels, representing Italy at the Berlin (1896) and London (1899) Congresses.

 

Although Mussolini's regime honored her as an honorary member, she publicly accused fascism of "molding the youth according to its brutal patterns" and turning them into "little soldiers." Her opinions caused so much discomfort to the ruling regime that she had no choice but to go into exile. She left Italy in 1933 when her schools were closed and initially went to live in Barcelona for a while before settling in the Netherlands with her husband and son. She returned to Italy in 1947 to help reorganize schools and resume teaching at the University of Rome.

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She became interested in the education of children with mental deficiencies and applied experimental methods to teach these children to read and write. She developed her own methods, which she later applied to all kinds of children. Through her professional practice, she came to the conclusion that children "build themselves" from elements in their environment. To verify this, she returned to university classrooms to study psychology. In 1906, she decided to take care of 60 children whose parents were working during the day.

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She founded the Casa dei Bambini and developed what would eventually be called the Montessori method of education. All of her theories were based on what she observed children doing on their own, without adult supervision. The premise that children are their own teachers and that they need freedom and a variety of choices to learn inspired Maria Montessori in all her efforts to reform educational methodology and psychology.

 

In 1949, she settled permanently in Amsterdam, and that year, she published her book "The Absorbent Mind." In 1950, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Amsterdam. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize on three occasions (1949, 1950, and 1951). She passed away in the Netherlands in 1952 at the age of 82, but her ideas continue to thrive in the many educational institutions worldwide that implement her.