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Birth
Born in Chiaravalle (Ancona), Italy on the 31st Aug, 1870 to the family of Alessandro Montessori(father) and Rendile Stoppani(mother). -
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Academic and Professional Life
In 1890 against opposition from her father, she pursues her wish to become a doctor. In 1896, she becomes the first woman in Italy to become a doctor. She represents Italy at the International women's congress in Berlin, delivers address on rights of working women, including equal pay for equal work. -
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Professional experience & beginning of a distinguished career
In 1900, she was appointed as the Director of the Orthophrenic school, a model school for training teacher's of children with developmental disabilities. For 2 years she experiments at the model school with materials to stimulate the senses and succeeds in fostering the development of some of them to an extent that they achieved the same results on state exams as developing school children. During this period she considered adapting her own methods of educating mentally disabled children. -
Early Career & Influence
Montessori worked with and researched children experiencing some form of cognitive delay, illness, or disability. She also began to travel, study, speak, and publish nationally and internationally, coming to prominence as an advocate for women's rights and education for mentally disabled children. -
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Montessori Method - Teacher Training
The first ever teacher training was conducted in 1909 in Italy followed by two more in 1910 and 1911 respectively. By then, the Montessori method started gaining popularity internationally and thus began her international journey to countries across Europe, Asia, Australia/New Zealand and the United States. -
The First Montessori School
The first "Children House" (Casa Dei Bambini) was opened enrolling about 50-60 children with ages varying from 2-3 years and 6-7 years. It was a huge success and there was no looking back. -
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Key Literary Works of Dr. Montessori
Montessori’s methods are set forth in such books as Il metodo della pedagogia scientifica (1909; The Montessori Method, 1912), The Advanced Montessori Method (1917–18), The Secret of Childhood (1936), Education for a New World (1946), To Educate the Human Potential (1948), and La mente assorbente (1949; The Absorbent Mind, 1949). -
Montessori System - The US Story
In the United States, the Montessori Movement caught on quickly. The first Montessori school opened in 1911, in the home of a prominent banker in Scarborough, New York. Unlike Maria Montessori’s first Casa dei Bambini, which was for children from poor, disadvantaged families, these catered to children from wealthy, cultured families striving to give their children the best education possible. Prominent figures, including Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, gave their support. -
Montessori Training goes International
Runs the first International training course in her apartment in Rome, under the patronage of Italy's Queen Margherita. -
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The Europe & Indian Sub-continent Influence
The Spanish government invited her to open a research institute in 1917. In 1919, she began a series of teacher training courses in London. In 1922, she was appointed a government inspector of schools in her native Italy, but because of her opposition to Mussolini’s fascism, she was forced to leave Italy in 1934. She opened the Montessori Training Centre in Laren, Netherlands, in 1938, and founded a series of teacher training courses in India in 1939. -
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The Struggle
The Nazis systematically destroyed the Montessori movement in Germany closing all Montessori schools. Subsequently, after conflicts with the fascist system all Montessori schools in Italy cease to exist in a single day. -
The War period
Italy enters World War II on the side of the Germans. In June, Mario Montessori interned by the British colonial government in India as an enemy alien, and Maria Montessori confined to the compound of the Theosophical Society. Mario is released in August out of the Viceroy’s respect for Maria Montessori and to honor her 70th birthday. Still, the Montessoris are not allowed to leave the country until the war is over. -
Revival of Montessori System in Europe
Post war, Italy and Germany start seeing the revival of the Montessori system of education and the establishments start reopening. -
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The Recognition
Dr. Montessori gets nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949, following by re-nominations in 1950 and 1951. At the same time, her book "The Absorbent Mind" gets published in India. -
The legend lives on...
Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk, Holland, in 1952, but her work lives on through the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the organization she founded in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1929 to carry on her work.