Born in 1870, Dr. Maria Montessori, the first women graduate in Italy to become certified as a medical doctor, developed an educational method that still challenges the way we think about teaching our children.
she based her educational methods on scientific observations made while working with number of children from different cultural, social and economic backgrounds.
Dr. Maria is now acknowledged to have been one of the leading educationalists of the 20th century.
she founded a theory of education which has had a profound influence on the lives of thousands of people throughout the world. Her recommendations for educational practice, including the organisation of the environment , the curriculum and the important role of the educator, have developed and entered in to the mainstream of educational theories and approaches.
The implementation of her philosophy results in students developing in a natural way and becoming highly motivated, acquiring good discipline and mastering basic skills, in many cases earlier than in the more traditional system of education. The Montessori experience provides an intellectual, social and ethical programme which allows students to define and reach their own special goals.
One of her observations was that young children learn best in a home-like setting , surrounded by developmentally appropriate materials which provide life experiences. Through observation, Dr. Montessori indicated that :
*Children must be respected as individual who are different from adults.
*Children develop themselves through purposeful activity.
*The most important years for learning are from birth to age six.
* Children possess unusual sensitivity and mental powers for absorbing and learning from their environment, which includes people as well as materials.