Montessori Education


In 1906, Maria Montessori, Italy’s first female physician, was invited by businessmen to develop a school for the low-income and “unteachable” children of Rome, to keep them off the streets. Through this work, she developed her novel theories about child development and education. The first Montessori classroom was equipped with a teacher’s table and blackboard, a stove, small armchairs, group tables for the children, and a locked cabinet for Montessori’s experimental materials.

Despite such meager resources, Montessori’s results were nothing short of remarkable. More than 100 years later, private and public Montessori schools throughout the world have shown that by utilizing her method, children of all talents and abilities can grow into highly capable and intellectually curious students, while gaining sustained attention, concentration, self-discipline, and self-knowledge, often at levels considered far beyond their years.

Montessori schools today are built upon concepts she discovered by observing children at work:

Montessori recognized that at a young age, sensorial work is vital for learning (sensorial comes from the words sense or senses, such as touch or smell). Through work with materials that are tactile and experiential, the child is given the key to exploring the world around her and classifying her surroundings. These are the first steps in organizing her intelligence.


