In 1911, the first Montessori school opened in the United States.īy 1914, 187 English-language articles and books had been written about Montessori education. Its first 5,000 copies in English, succinctly titled The Montessori Method, sold out in 4 days.īy 1910, Montessori schools could be found throughout Western Europe and were being established around the world. Within 3 years it had been translated into 10 languages. Montessori published her first book, Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all’educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini. Her courses drew students from as far as Chile and Australia, and within a few years there were Montessori schools on 5 continents. The innovative Montessori Method also began to attract the attention of prominent educators eager to learn it. Dignitaries traveled to Rome from countries far and wide to witness, firsthand, the “miracle children” who exhibited concentration, attention, and spontaneous self-discipline. Montessori’s schools sparked interest around the world. And on October 18, 1907, in Milan, she opened a third Casa.

Montessori opened a second Casa dei Bambini, also in San Lorenzo. News of the school’s success soon spread through Italy. Montessori designed unique learning materials for them, many of which are still in use in Montessori classrooms today, and created a classroom environment that fostered the children’s natural desire to learn. Utilizing scientific observation and experience gained from her earlier work with young children, Dr. She saw that the children absorbed knowledge from their surroundings, essentially teaching themselves. Montessori observed that before long, the children exhibited calm, peaceful behavior, periods of deep concentration, and a sense of order in caring for their environment.

While the children were unruly at first, they soon showed great interest in working with puzzles, learning to prepare meals and clean their environment, and engaging in hands-on learning experiences. Montessori was determined to make the Casa a quality educational environment for these youngsters, whom many had thought were unable to learn-and she did. She opened the doors on January 6, 1907, calling the center the Casa dei Bambini-Italian for “Children’s House.” Dr. There, she would be working with some of the area’s most disadvantaged, and previously unschooled, children. Maria Montessori, an Italian educator, physician, and scientist, who had just judged an international competition on the subjects of scientific pedagogy and experimental psychology, was invited to create a childcare center in San Lorenzo, a poor, inner-city district of Rome.

The life of maria montessori