Dr. Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori Write Up
Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870 to a set of parents who were both college educated. At the age of 5 Maria and her parents moved to an affluent neighborhood in Rome. This gave Maria access to schools that were said to be “good”. Maria later looked to these as examples of what she did not like in education. Maria had wanted to be an engineer, her father wanted her to choose a more womanly career path, but he continued to support her choice and enrolled her in a boys technical school. Sometime in her schooling Maria decided that she would like to be a physician, and she was the first woman to graduate with a medical degree in Italy.
Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master. Doing so, they will be witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Man who will not be a victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human society. - Maria Montessori, Education for a New World After years of being a physician Maria became interested in treating children with special needs. She began studying children. In 1907 Maria was handed an opportunity for studying children who had no disabilities. Maria was given a children’s home to run. The home was in the slums of San Lorenz outside of Rome. Maria turned the desolate and dirty children home into an example of a home that became an example to visitors from around the world of how children who were thought to be unimportant were full of
Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870 to a set of parents who were both college educated. At the age of 5 Maria and her parents moved to an affluent neighborhood in Rome. This gave Maria access to schools that were said to be “good”. Maria later looked to these as examples of what she did not like in education. Maria had wanted to be an engineer, her father wanted her to choose a more womanly career path, but he continued to support her choice and enrolled her in a boys technical school. Sometime in her schooling Maria decided that she would like to be a physician, and she was the first woman to graduate with a medical degree in Italy.
Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master. Doing so, they will be witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Man who will not be a victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human society. - Maria Montessori, Education for a New World After years of being a physician Maria became interested in treating children with special needs. She began studying children. In 1907 Maria was handed an opportunity for studying children who had no disabilities. Maria was given a children’s home to run. The home was in the slums of San Lorenz outside of Rome. Maria turned the desolate and dirty children home into an example of a home that became an example to visitors from around the world of how children who were thought to be unimportant were full of
Cited: Olaf, Michael. “Maria Montessori, Child Advocate” Themontessorifoundation.org . August 31, 2010. Web/Article. February 17, 2013. Montessori, Maria. "The Whole Child." Education for a New World. India: Kalakshetra, 1963. 74-76. Print.