Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Italy. Montessori has a vast background in many fields. As a child, her goal was to become a doctor, which she did, becoming one of the first female doctors in Italy. She worked primarily with impoverished children and was wonderfully regarded as a great doctor because she truly cared for the full well-being of the child. She often worked with the parents to be sure that the basic needs of the children were met, as well as, treating the illness of the child. After returning to Rome, she started working as a surgical assistant at a clinic, which required her to visit the local children’s asylum, which actually led her to teaching. The caretaker at the asylum would often ask her about the odd behaviors of the children so she started doing some research and work with the children. This led her to teaching.
Montessori started to explore the field of sensory education. This led her to become co-director of a new institution call the Orthophrenic School which took children with broad disorders. She was able to put her research into motion. She spent days with the children and would write and process notes at night. After this, she was provided many opportunities in her community to work with children and she continued to conduct her own research.
In 1909, Maria Montessori gave the first official training course in her approach to about 100 students and her notes were published in to a book later that same year. The Montessori Method was also published in the United States and quickly because a best seller. Maria’s philosophy was that children learn best in a well-prepared environment that allows them to explore concepts, encourages self-learning, and fosters independence. This is important for children because we are trying to teach them to be life-long learners so we need to give them the skills to be able to problem solve and to be able to continue to work on something even though it may be hard. By trying to teach a child something that they don’t want to learn, we will, in turn, be teaching them that learning is not fun and that they should just do what other people tell them to do for the rest of their lives. We want children to be independent and work on what interests them so that their curiosity remains for life; who knows what they could bring to their chosen field of study later on! Maria Montessori had a profound impact on education, and still does to this day! There are Montessori schools that are dedicated to teaching in the ways that she created. I think that Montessori is best practice, even if it is not a ‘chosen curriculum’. Using her philosophy to influence classrooms by letting children explore what they are interested in, is very important. It teaches kids to love school and to love learning. I use centers (blocks, art, dramatic, play, reading, writing, etc.) in my classroom. Each center is packed with materials that children can create with and they are provided tons of time to explore each area.