Maria Montessori - A Historical Perspective

Building A World-class Montessori School Page 6 © 2001 The Montessori Foundation

Dr. Maria Montessori

An Historical Perspective

�To aid life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself, that is the basic task of theeducator.�

�Ours was a house for children, rather than a real school. We had prepared a placefor children where a diffused culture could be assimilated, without any need for directinstruction...Yet these children learned to read and write before they were five, and noone had given them any lessons. At that time it seemed miraculous that children of fourand a half should be able to write, and that they should have learned without the feelingof having been taught.

We puzzled over it for a long time. Only after repeated experiments did we concludewith certainty that all children are endowed with this capacity to 'absorb' culture. If thisbe true - we then argued - if culture can be acquired without effort, let us provide thechildren with other elements of culture. And then we saw them 'absorb' far more thanreading and writing: botany, zoology, mathematics, geography, and all with the sameease, spontaneously and without getting tired.

And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, butthat it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is notacquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on hisenvironment. The teacher's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series ofmotives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.

My experiments, conducted in many different countries, have not been going on forforty years (ed. now eighty-five years), and as the children grew up parents kept askingme to extend my methods to the later ages. We then found that individual activity is theone factor that stimulates and produces development, and that this is not more true forthe little ones of preschool age than it is for the junior, middle, and upper schoolchildren.

Dr. Maria MontessoriThe Absorbent Mind


Maria Montessori is as controversiala figure in education today as she was ahalf century ago. Alternately heraldedas the century�s leading advocate forearly childhood education, or dismissedas outdated and irrelevant, her researchand the studies that she inspired helpedchange the course of education.

Those who studied under her andwent on to make their owncontributions to education and childpsychology include Anna Freud, JeanPiaget, Alfred Adler, and Erik Erikson.Many elements of modern educationhave been adapted from Montessori�stheories. She is credited with thedevelopment of the open classroom,individualized education, manipulativelearning materials, teaching toys, andprogrammed instruction. In the lastthirty-five years educators in Europeand North America begun to recognizethe consistency between of theMontessori approach with what wehave learned from research into childdevelopment.

Maria Montessori was an individualahead of her time. She was born in 1870in Ancona, Italy, to an educated but notaffluent middle class family. She grewup in a country considered mostconservative in its attitude towardwomen, yet even against theconsiderable opposition of her fatherand teachers, Montessori pursued ascientific education and was the firstwoman to become a physician in Italy.

As a practicing physician associatedwith the University of Rome, she was ascientist, not a teacher. It is ironic thatshe became famous for hercontributions in a field that she hadrejected as the traditional refuge forwomen at a time when few professionswere open to them other thanhomemaking or the convent. TheMontessori method evolved almost byaccident from a small experiment thatDr. Montessori carried out on the side.Her genius stems not from her teachingability, but from her recognition of theimportance of what she stumbled upon.

As a physician, Dr. Montessorispecialized in pediatrics and psychiatry.She taught at the medical school of theUniversity of Rome, and through its freeclinics she came into frequent contactwith the children of the working classand poor. These experiences convincedher that intelligence is not rare and thatmost newborns come into the worldwith a human potential that will bebarely revealed.

Her work reinforced her humanisticideals, and she made time in her busyschedule to actively support varioussocial reform movements. Early in hercareer she began to accept speakingengagements throughout Europe onbehalf of the women�s movement, peaceefforts, and child labor law reform.Montessori become well known andhighly regarded throughout Europe,which undoubtably contributed to thepublicity that surrounded her schools.


In 1901 Montessori was appointedDirector of the new orthophrenic schoolattached to the University of Rome,formerly used as the asylum for the�deficient and insane� children of thecity, most of whom were probablyretarded or autistic. She initiated awave of reform in a system thatformerly had served merely to confinementally handicapped youngsters inempty rooms. Recognizing her patients�need for stimulation,purposeful activity,and self-esteem,Montessori insistedthat the staff speakto the inmates withthe highest respect.She set up aprogram to teach heryoung charges howto care forthemselves and theirenvironment.

At the sametime, she began ameticulous study of all researchpreviously done on the education of thementally handicapped. Her studies ledMontessori to the work of two almostforgotten French physicians of theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries:Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin. Itard ismost famous for his work with the�Wild Boy Of Aveyron,� a youth whohad been found wandering naked in theforest, having spent 10 years livingalone. The boy could not speak andlacked almost all of the skills of

everyday life. Here apparently was a�natural man;� a human being who haddeveloped without the benefit of cultureand socialization with his own kind.Itard hoped from this study to shedsome light on the age-old debate aboutwhat proportion of human intelligenceand personality is hereditary and whatproportion stems from learnedbehavior.

The experiment was a limitedsuccess, for Itard found the �wild boy�uncooperative and unwilling or unableto learn most things. This led Itard topostulate the existence ofdevelopmental periods in normalhuman growth. During these �sensitiveperiods� a child must experiencestimulation or grow up forever lackingadult skills and intellectual conceptsthat he missed at the stage when theycan be readily learned! Although Itard�sefforts to teach the wild boy were barelysuccessful, he followed a methodical


approach in designing the process,arguing that all education would benefitfrom the use of careful observation andexperimentation. This idea hadtremendous appeal to the scientificallytrained Montessori, and later becamethe cornerstone of her method. FromEdouard Seguin, Montessori drewfurther confirmation of Itard�s work,along with a far more specific andorganized system for applying it to theeveryday education of the handicapped.Today Seguin is recognized as the fatherof our modern techniques of specialeducation for the retarded.

From these two predecessors,Montessori took the idea of a scientificapproach to education, based onobservation and experimentation. Shebelongs to the Child Study school ofthought, and she pursued her work withthe careful training and objectivity ofthe biologist studying the naturalbehavior ofan animal inthe forest.She studiedher retardedyoungsters,listening andcarefullynotingeverythingthat they didand said.Slowly shebegan to geta sense ofwho they really were and what methods

worked best. Her success was givenwidespread notice when, two years aftershe began, many of Montessori�s�deficient� adolescents were able topass the standard sixth grade tests of theItalian public schools. Acclaimed forthis �miracle,� Montessori responded bysuggesting that her results proved onlythat public schools should be able to getdramatically better results with normalchildren.

Unfortunately, the Italian Ministryof Education did not welcome this idea,and she was denied access to school-aged children. Frustrated in her effortsto carry the experiment on with publicschool students, in 1907 Montessorijumped at the chance to coordinate aday-care center for working-classchildren who were too young to attendpublic school.


This first Casa dei Bambini �orChildren�s House� was located in theworst slum district of Rome, and theconditions Montessori faced wereappalling. Her first class consisted offifty children from two through fiveyears of age, taught by one untrainedcaregiver.

The children remained at the centerfrom dawn to dusk while their parentsworked. They had to be fed two meals aday, bathed regularly, and given aprogram of medical care. The childrenthemselves were typical of extremeinner-city poverty conditions. Theyentered the Children�s House on thefirst day crying and pushing, exhibitinggenerally aggressive and impatientbehavior. Montessori, not knowingwhether her experiment would workunder such conditions, began byteaching the older children how to helpout with the everyday tasks that neededto be done. She also introduced themanipulative perceptual puzzles thatshe had used with the retarded.

The results surprised her, for unlikeher retarded children who had to beprodded to use the materials, these little

ones were drawn to the work sheintroduced. Children who hadwandered aimlessly the week beforebegan to settle down to long periods ofconstructive activity. They werefascinated with the puzzles andperceptual training devices. But, toMontessori�s amazement, children threeand four years-old took the greatestdelight in learning practical everydayliving skills that reinforced theirindependence and self-respect.

Each day they begged her to showthem more, even applauding withdelight when Montessori taught themthe correct use of a handkerchief. Soonthe older children were taking care ofthe school, assisting their teacher withthe preparation and serving of mealsand the maintenance of a spotlessenvironment. Their behavior as a groupchanged dramatically from streeturchins running wild to models ofgrace, and courtesy. It was little wonderthat the press found such a humaninterest story appealing and promptlybroadcast it to the world.


Montessori education is sometimescriticized for being too structured andacademically demanding of youngchildren. Montessori would havelaughed at this suggestion. She oftensaid, �I studied my children, and theytaught me how to teach them.�Montessori made a practice of payingclose attention to the their spontaneousbehavior, arguing that only in this waycould a teacher know how to teach.Traditionally, schools pay little attentionto children as individuals, other than todemand that they adapt to ourstandards. Montessori argued that theeducator�s job is to serve the child;determining what each one needs tomake the greatest progress. To her, achild who fails in school should not beblamed, any more than a doctor shouldblame a patient who does not get wellfast enough. After all, it is the job of thephysician to help us find the way tocure ourselves, and the educator�s job tofacilitate the natural process of learning.

Montessori�s children exploded intoacademics. Too young to go to publicschool, they begged to be taught how toread and write. They learned to do soquickly and enthusiastically, using

special manipulative materials thatMontessori designed for maximumappeal and effectiveness.

The children were fascinated bynumbers; to meet this interest, themathematically inclined Montessorideveloped a series of concrete Mathlearning materials that has never beensurpassed. Soon her four- and five-year-olds were performing four-digitaddition and subtraction operations,and in many cases pushing on evenfarther.

Their interests blossomed in otherareas as well, compelling a over-workedphysician to spend night after nightdesigning new materials to keep pacewith the children in geometry,geography, history, and natural science.The final proof of the children�s interestcame shortly after her first schoolbecame famous when a group of well-intentioned women gave them amarvelous collection of lovely andexpensive toys. The new gifts held thechildren�s attention for a few days, butthey soon returned to the moreinteresting learning materials. ToMontessori�s surprise, most of the timechildren who had experienced both


preferred work over play. If she werehere today, Montessori would probablyadd: �Children read and do advancedMathematics in Montessori schools notbecause we push them, but because thisis what they do when given the correctsetting and opportunity. To deny themthe right to learn because we, as adults,think that they shouldn�t is illogical andtypical of the way schools have been runbefore.�

Montessori evolved her methodthrough trial and error, makingeducated guesses about the underlyingmeaning of the children�s actions. Shewas quick to pick up on their cues, andconstantly experimented with the class.

For example, Montessori tells of themorning when the teacher arrived lateto find that the children had crawledthrough a window and gone right towork. At the beginning, the learningmaterials, having cost so much to make,were locked away in a tall cabinet. Onlythe teacher had a key and would open itand hand the materials to the childrenupon request. In this instance theteacher had neglected to lock the cabinetthe night before. Finding it open, thechildren had selected one materialapiece and were quietly working. AsMontessori arrived the teacher wasscolding the children for taking themout without permission. She recognizedthat the children�s behavior showed thatthey were capable of selecting their ownwork, and removed the cabinet andreplaced it with low open shelves onwhich the activities were always

available to the children. Today thismay sound like a minor change, but itcontradicted all educational practice andtheory of that period.

One discovery followed another,giving Montessori an increasingly clearview of the inner mind of the child. Shefound that little children were capableof long periods of quiet concentration,even though they rarely show signs of itin everyday settings. Although they areoften careless and sloppy, they respondpositively to an atmosphere of calm andorder. Montessori noticed that thelogical extension of the young child�slove for a consistent and often-repeated

routine is an environment in whicheverything has a place. Her childrentook tremendous delight in carefullycarrying their work to and from theshelves, taking great pains not to bumpinto anything or spill the smallest piece.They walked carefully through therooms, instead of running wildly as theydid on the streets. Montessoridiscovered that the environment itselfwas all important in obtaining theresults that she had observed. Notwanting to use school desks, she hadcarpenters build child-sized tables and


chairs. She was the first to do so,recognizing the frustration that a littlechild experiences in an adult sizedworld. Eventually she learned to designentire schools around the size of thechildren. She had miniature pitchersand bowls prepared, and found knivesthat fit a child�s tiny hand. The tableswere light-weight, allowing twochildren to move them alone. Thechildren learned to control theirmovements, disliking the way the calmwas disturbed when they knocked intothings.

Montessori studied the trafficpattern of the rooms as well, arrangingthe furnishings and the activity area tominimize congestion and tripping. Thechildren loved to sit on the floor, so shebought little rugs to define their workareas and the children quickly learnedto walk around them. Through theyears, Montessori schools carried thisenvironmental engineering throughoutthe entire building and outsideenvironment, designing child-sizedtoilets and low sinks, windows low tothe ground, low shelves, and miniaturehand and garden tools of all sorts.Some of these ideas were eventuallyadapted by the larger educationalcommunity, particularly at the nurseryand kindergarten levels.

Many of the puzzles andeducational devices now in use at thepreschool and elementary levels aredirect copies of Montessori�s originalideas. However, there is far more of herwork that never entered the

mainstream, and educators who aresearching for new, more effectiveanswers are finding the accumulatedexperience of the Montessoricommunity to be of great interest.

Maria Montessori�s first �Children�sHouse� received overnight attention,and thousands of visitors came awayamazed and enthusiastic. World-wideinterest surged as she duplicated herfirst school in other settings with thesame results. Montessori captured theinterest and imagination of nationalleaders and scientists, mothers andteachers, labor leaders and factoryowners. As an internationally respectedscientist, Montessori had a rarecredibility in a field where many othershad promoted opinions, philosophies,and models that have not been readilyduplicated.

The Montessori method offered asystematic approach that translates verywell to new settings. In the first thirtyyears of this century, the Montessorimethod seemed to offer something foreveryone. Conservatives appreciatedthe calm, responsible behavior of thelittle children, along with their love forwork. Liberals applauded the freedomand spontaneity. Many political leaderssaw it as a practical way to reform theoutmoded school systems of Europeand North America, as well as anapproach that they hoped would lead toa more productive and law-abidingpopulace. Scientists of all disciplinesheralded its empirical foundation, alongwith the accelerated achievement of the

Organizing a New Montessori School Page 14 © 2001 The Montessori Foundation

little children. Montessori rode a waveof enthusiastic support that should havechanged the face of education far moredramatically than it has.

Montessori�s prime productiveperiod lasted from the opening of thefirst Children�s House in 1907 untilthe1930s. During this time, shecontinued her study of children, anddeveloped a vastly expandedcurriculum and methodology for theelementary level as well. Montessorischools were set up throughout Europeand North America, and Dr. Montessorigave up her medical practice to devoteall of her energies to advocating therights and intellectual potential of allchildren.

During her lifetime, Dr. Montessoriwas acknowledged as one of the world�sleading educators. Education movedbeyond Maria Montessori, adaptingonly those elements of her work that fitinto existing theories and methods.Ironically, the Montessori approach

cannot be implemented as a series ofpiecemeal reforms. It requires acomplete restructuring of the school andthe teacher�s role. Only recently as ourunderstanding of child development hasgrown have we rediscovered how clearand sensible was her insight.

Today there is a growing consensusamong psychologists anddevelopmental educators that many ofher ideas were decades ahead of theirtime. As the movement gains supportand begins to spread into the Americanpublic school sector, one can readily saythat Montessori, begun eighty-eightyears ago, is a remarkably modernapproach.

Statue in Amsterdam erected

in memory of Dr. Maria Montessori

Dr. Montessori with the children of one of her

earliest schools founded in Rome, 1951

Maria Montessori - A Historical Perspective

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