Montessori Philosophy

Dr. Maria Montessori was, in many ways, ahead of her time. Born in 1870 in Ancona Italy, she became the first female physician in Italy upon graduating from medical school in 1896. In her medical practice, the clinical observation led her to analyze how children learn, how they build themselves from what they find in their immediate environment. In 1896, she accepted the challenge to work with a group of sixty children of working parents in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. It was there that she founded the first Casa dei Bambini, or "Children's House." What ultimately became the Montessori Method of education developed there, based upon Montessori's scientific observations of these children's almost effortless ability to absorb knowledge from their surroundings. Every piece of equipment, every exercise, every method Montessori developed was based on what she observed children to do "naturally", by themselves, unassisted by adults.