Biography of Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori, the first female Italian medical doctor, became famous worldwide with her progressive education based on scientific research. By now, there are Montessori schools in almost every country in the world.
Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Chiaravalle near Ancona (Italy) and died in the Netherlands in 1952.
In 1896, she was the first woman in Italy to qualify as a medical doctor. During her internship in Rome, she engaged in the education of mentally retarded children and she achieved outstanding results using and further developing didactic material created by the physicians and educationists Itard and Séguin.
Thereupon, she turned towards the study of pedagogy and psychology in order to develop similar methods for the education of healthy children. In 1907, Maria Montessori founded “Children’s Houses” in a poor district of Rome. There, healthy preschool children were taught according to her educational ideas.
Using her insights and her experience, Maria Montessori created her own pedagogical system over the following years. Known as the Montessori Method, her pedagogy spread quickly all over the world. The latest findings of renowned neuroscientists like Gerald Hüther show that the Montessori Method has allowed children brain-compatible learning for decades.