Preview

What were the discoveries made by Dr. Maria Dr. Montessori at Casa dei Bambini?

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2511 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What were the discoveries made by Dr. Maria Dr. Montessori at Casa dei Bambini?
“When I was at school we had a teacher whose fixed idea was to make us learn by heart the lives of famous women, in order to incite us to imitate them. The exhortation which accompanied these narrations was always the same. Would you not like to become famous?” “Oh no,” I replied drily one day, “I shall never be that. I care too much for the children of the future to add yet another biography to the list.” (Her Life and Work, Chapter 1, p. 21). Despite not having an inclination of being famous, Dr. Montessori became the founder of the Montessori Method of Education. After graduating in 1896 at the age of 26, Dr. Montessori worked at a psychiatric clinic in the University of Rome as an Assistant Director. She quickly observed how the children were ill treated. In light of her interest in children, Dr. Montessori’s studies and work were inclined towards the work of Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin who specialized and studied about mentally disabled children. Dr. Montessori was successful in this field of work and it was not long before Dr. Montessori realized that the similar method in educating the mentally disabled children could be used to normal children. “After I had left the school for deficient, I became convinced that similar methods applied to normal children would develop or set free their personality in a marvelous and surprising way…A great faith animated me, and although I did not know that I should ever be able to test the truth of my idea, I gave up every other occupation to deepen and broaden its conception…It was almost as if I prepared myself for an unknown mission.” (The Essential Montessori, Chapter 1, p.14). Nonetheless, she was not in luck and she did not have an opportunity to work with normal children just yet.

Casa dei Bambini or rather known as Children’s House was the first school Dr. Montessori had established in 1907. This was also her first opportunity to work with normal children. Casa dei Bambini was located in a slum area in San

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Unit 064

    • 1568 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Montessori Education is an approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori and…

    • 1568 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maria Montessori graduated in 1894 from the University of Rome’s medical school, becoming Italy’s first female doctor. This was a feat that reinforced Montessori’s commitment to women’s rights. Living in the 20th century, Montessori noticed society’s use of science as an approach to improving education. She believed these strategies were scientifically irrelevant to the teaching of students. In her writing “The Montessori Method”, Maria Montessori effectively convinces her reader that to be an effective educator, a teacher must learn how to educate the child from the child himself. Montessori makes good use of analogies and rhetorical appeals to back up her argument. She emphasizes the freedom of the student and rejects the scientific approach to learning.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maria Montessori Childhood

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Over the years there have been many innovative leaders in the field of psychology, Maria Montessori was one of them. Maria was born in 1870 and became the first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree. She embedded herself into her work and made significant contributions to the fields of psychiatry, anthropology and education. Maria was acclaimed for her education method that built on the way children learned naturally. She believed in order expand any system of education a favorable environment must be created to allow the flow of a child’s natural gift. Maria Montessori was one of the greatest pioneers of theories in early childhood education, and her work continues throughout the United States and around the globe.…

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Unit 12

    • 3043 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Maria Montessori 1870-1975 was a doctor and worked with children with learning disabilities. She believed that up until the age of six a child was capable of learning things quickly and more easily than the mind of an older person. She believed up until the age of six years old that a child has an ‘absorbent mind’ and that people should make good use of this time and that it should not be wasted. She believed…

    • 3043 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Who is Maria Montessori

    • 3827 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Maria Montessori was the founder of the Montessori approach to education, she was born in Italy in 1870. As a teenager she was an engineer, but later she studied her favor major of medicine. Graduated as Italy's first female medical practitioner she embarked on a career in mental health. Following on from this she was asked to head up a childcare project for a social housing initiative and her first 'Children's House' opened in 1907. Here too she introduced the equipment she had designed and observed the children very closely as they used it, tailoring what she provided in the environment to meet their developmental needs. There was great astonishment at the amount of learning that these pre-school children showed themselves to be capable of, not least their explosion into 'writing'. From this time onward education became her life and she continued to develop educational theories to fit what she observed among the children in her care. She died in Holland in 1952. leaving an international legacy of Montessori schools and training centres around the world.…

    • 3827 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Grubin, D. (Producer). (2001). The Baby 's Brain: Wider Than the Sky [VHS]. Hainstock, E. G. (1997). The essential montessori. New York, NY: Penguin Books. Helfrich, S. (2004). Dr. montessori and the implications of current research [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.qldmontessori.com.au/brain_research_Montessori.html Herschkowitz, N., & Herschkowitz, E. C. (2001). A good start in life. Washington, D.C.: The Dana Press and Joseph Henry Press. Hughes, S. (2010, March 2). Selected screencasts [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.goodatdoingthings.com and http://vimeo.com/9994321 Jensen, E. (1998). Teaching with the brain in mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. McClurkin, S. J. Montessori 's theory of the "absorbent mind" as compared with brain research in the 90 's [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.montessoriplus.org/MTP/absorbentmind_article.htm Montessori, M. (1973). From childhood to adolescence. New York, NY: Schocken Books. Montessori, M. (1995). The absorbant mind. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company. Montessori for Everyone. (2009, July 13). The neurology of montessori [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.blog.montessoriforeveryone.com/the‐neurology‐of‐montessori.html Pathway for Families. (2010, June 27). Montessori for infants and toddlers (0‐3 years old) – sensitive periods. Retrieved from http://tsl.org/family/?s=sensitive+periods+0‐3&.x=0&.y=0…

    • 4805 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Montessori Child Thoriest

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Montessori education is characterized by an emphasis on independence, from freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological development, as well as technological advancements in society. Although a range of practices exists under the name “Montessori”, the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and the American Montessori Society (AMS) cite these elements as essential.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Maria Montessori was a visionary woman, passionate about providing quality education to all children. Born in 1870, at a time where few women attended college and were not expected to work in any area other than teaching, Maria grew up determined to become a doctor in spite of society, and even her father’s reservations. She was not accepted into the University of Rome, but with her spirit of perseverance, Maria gained the help of Pope Leo XIII to intercede on her behalf. In 1896, she graduated and became the first woman to gain her doctorate in Italy (A Biography of Maria Montessori, n.d.). Maria Montessori brought her passion and education as a doctor into a philosophy of education centered around the idea that each child has an intrinsic ability to learn through self-selection and exploration. Her beliefs around child development bear a similarity to Piaget 's and were based on her extensive observations of children. Maria’s observations of and work with children began with school of “deficient” children and within two years those children were able to pass the standardized tests for Italian public schools (Lascarides & Hinitz, 2000, p. 144). In 1907, the Casa dei Bambini was created by Maria with a group of children in an apartment complex with working parents whose children needed to be cared for during the day . It was a time of development in Rome and the poor working class was growing, which also meant that their children would need childcare. These years with Casa dei Bambini would continue to shape her philosophies and be the basis for her book, The Montessori Method. There were five Casa dei Bambini’s by 1908 which was a testament to Maria’s success as well as the society’s needs at that time. Maria’s influence continued to spread as she opened her own schools to train teachers in the Montessori Method. Sadly, with the rise of fascism in Europe, by 1933, most…

    • 1360 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    A woman of pure determination Maria Montessori had a very interesting early life. Born in Chiaravalle, Italy on the 31st of August in the year 1870 (Maria-Montessori,2017, p.1) she would grow to become a very successful and influential woman of her time. In a world that belittled female knowledge, strengths, and opportunities, she was the billboard for woman across Italy in the late 1800s. She broke social normality’s that would then be, considered disgusting in the eyes of many, but astonishing in the hearts of woman who thirst for change. Montessori sparked my interest in learning about a strong independent woman she was who opened many doors in the light of social developments of children that still takes great…

    • 1357 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    1896-1901 – Throughout these five years, Maria Montessori often worked with mentally-disabled children. This was also the start of her women’s right advocacy. She often visited asylums and observed the children there. During the same time, she studied the writings and work of Jean Marc Gaspard Itard and Edouard Seguin. These two 19th century men were the influences of Montessori’s work.…

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Montessori became the director of the Orthophrenic School for developmentally disabled children in 1900. There she began to extensively research early childhood development and education. Her reading included the studies of 18th and 19th century French physicians Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard and Édouard Séguin, who had experimented with the capabilities of…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Born in 1870, Maria Montessori assailed the male-dominated educational system, and became a physician (Povell). Perhaps, the challenges Montessori endured formed the basis for her courage and innovative beliefs (Povell). Povell explains that the era within which Montessori attended medical school was a stimulating…

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Maria Montessori Essay

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages

    She was a member of the University's Psychiatric Clinic and became intrigued with trying to educate children with special needs. Because of her success with these children, she was asked to start a school for children in a housing project in Rome, which opened on January 6, 1907, and which she called "Casa dei Bambini" or Children's House. Children's House was a child care center in an apartment building in the poor neighborhood of Rome. She was focused on teaching the students ways to develop their own skills at a pace they set, which was a principle Montessori called "spontaneous self-development". A wide variety of special equipment of increasing complexity is used to help direct the interests of the child and hasten development. When a child is ready to learn new and more difficult tasks, the teacher guides the child's first endeavors in order to avoid wasted effort and the learning of wrong habits; otherwise the child learns alone. It has been reported that the Montessori method of teaching has enabled children to learn to read and write much more quickly and with greater facility than has otherwise been possible.…

    • 1166 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the early 1900 's Dr. Maria Montessori began to reform educational methods with her work and observations in the 'Case dei Bambini ' in Rome, Italy. Dr Montessori began her work by developing methods to educate mentally retarded children, the method she developed was used with several children who at age eight took the state…

    • 3136 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori (1870-1952). Translated by Anne Everett George (1882-). New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1912…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays