A short History of Maria Montessori
A Short History of Dr. Maria Montessori and her Methods
Teaching a two years old child how to be independent, responsible and confident sounds impossible, but more than 100 years back an Italian doctor named Maria Montessori made it possible. As she believed "the study of child psychology in the first years of life opens to our eyes such wonders that no one seeing them with understanding can fail to be deeply stirred. Our work as adults does not consist in teaching, but in helping the infant mind in its work of development." (What is Montessori preschool? by David Khan p.4)
Maria Montessori was born on 31st August 1870 in Chiarvalle in Ancona, Italy. Her father Alessandro was old-fashioned man with military habits; however her mother Renilnd was an educated woman which was very unusual in those days. They were a middle class family and Maria Montessori was their only child. When Maria Montessori was around five they moved to Rome and a year after she started school there.
Montessori was an ambitious girl with a strong personality. She was good at mathematics and wanted to be an engineer, but later on she discovered her love for biology and her final decision was to study medicine. Her father was against her idea of studying medicine since in those days only boys could become doctors. Although she took her first degree, she struggled a lot to make her way into the medical university and by that she was the first female medical student in Italy.
Maria Montessori thought that this was the end of her struggles but actually it was just the beginning. She faced difficulties by being the only woman student. The students which were all men were insulting her when she was passing the corridors and they tried very hard to frighten her away but that did not work. She even dissected a dead body in a room by her own, because it was not proper for a girl to dissect a body in front of men. For her that was not a pleasant experience as she said "there, on the other side,
Teaching a two years old child how to be independent, responsible and confident sounds impossible, but more than 100 years back an Italian doctor named Maria Montessori made it possible. As she believed "the study of child psychology in the first years of life opens to our eyes such wonders that no one seeing them with understanding can fail to be deeply stirred. Our work as adults does not consist in teaching, but in helping the infant mind in its work of development." (What is Montessori preschool? by David Khan p.4)
Maria Montessori was born on 31st August 1870 in Chiarvalle in Ancona, Italy. Her father Alessandro was old-fashioned man with military habits; however her mother Renilnd was an educated woman which was very unusual in those days. They were a middle class family and Maria Montessori was their only child. When Maria Montessori was around five they moved to Rome and a year after she started school there.
Montessori was an ambitious girl with a strong personality. She was good at mathematics and wanted to be an engineer, but later on she discovered her love for biology and her final decision was to study medicine. Her father was against her idea of studying medicine since in those days only boys could become doctors. Although she took her first degree, she struggled a lot to make her way into the medical university and by that she was the first female medical student in Italy.
Maria Montessori thought that this was the end of her struggles but actually it was just the beginning. She faced difficulties by being the only woman student. The students which were all men were insulting her when she was passing the corridors and they tried very hard to frighten her away but that did not work. She even dissected a dead body in a room by her own, because it was not proper for a girl to dissect a body in front of men. For her that was not a pleasant experience as she said "there, on the other side,