Maria Montessori BY: Katie Orchard Krystal Wright Savanna Booher Shelby Taylor Amber Eissler Julie Criddle

Early Life Born in Chiaravalle, Italy, August 31, Father was Alessandro Montessori. Mother was Renilde Stoppani. Moved to Rome when she was 5. It enabled her to have a better education. She was close to her father, but her mother was the one that supported all of her dreams and ambitions.

Later On… She began studies in engineering at the Regia Scuola Tecnica Michelangelo Buovarroti. Later she went to study medicine, and became the first female doctor of Italy. Maria had a revelation in “I felt that mental deficiency presented chiefly a pedagogical, rather than mainly a medical problem”. She began to transfer her time toward perfecting education. She developed and educational theory based on many different ideas. In 1900 she began to direct a small school in Rome for “challenged” youth.

Montessori Method/Educational Theory She introduced the method in Rome in 1907, and it has since spread throughout the world. The Montessori Method stresses the development of initiative and self-reliance. It permits the children to do by themselves the things that interest them, within strictly disciplined limits. She also created the educational theory, which consists of 7 different theories.

Montessori School Montessori believed that her methods would prove even more effective with children of normal intelligence. In 1907 she opened the first Montessori School in a slum district of Rome. Within a year, observers came from all over the world to see the progress made by the school’s students. Before the age of 5, the children learned to read and write, they preferred work to play, and they displayed sustained mental concentration without fatigue.

Theory of Value By education must be understood the active help given to the normal expansion of the life of the child. Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process carried out by the human individual and is acquired not by listening to the words but by experiences upon the environment. Education is a process of unfolding what has been given the child at birth. If education is to be an aid to civilization, it cannot be carried out by emptying the schools of knowledge, or character, of discipline, of social harmony, and, above all, of freedom.

Theory of Knowledge The universal force is not physical, but is the force of life itself in the process of evolution. Observable. Scientific Principles. The aesthetic harmony of nature is lost upon him who has coarse senses

Theory of Human Nature The evolution of the individual harmonizes with that of humanity. Childhood is not merely a stage to be passed through on the way to adulthood, but is 'the other pole of humanity The adult is to be dependent on the child and visa versa. A child has a predetermined plan/pattern of development - "spiritual embryo"

Theory of Learning Man's natural bent is toward learning and growth. When this tendency is nurtured and cultivated in childhood, a young person can direct himself into a happier, healthier and more productive life. The basic aim is to free the individual child's potential for self development in a prepared environment. The child is seen as not only capable of but motivated toward auto-formation (self - development) and auto-education (self-teaching).

Theory of Transmission The teacher has an extensive preparation and must have practical experiences to function as a "Directress”. She provides an attractive and responsive environment to be acted upon directly by the child. The child works on self-selected tasks of interest in which the teacher functions as a programmer and a protector of the learning process. The curriculum focuses on the mastery of ones' self and the environment.

Theory of Society Our own method of education is characterized by the central importance that we attribute to the question of environment. Association of Good Building was formed. The House of Childhood was formed.

Theory of Opportunity “Who touches the child touches the delicate and vital point where all can be yet be decided, where all can be renewed, where all is pulsating with life, where the secret of the soul lie hid.” Individual education and attention was important to Montessori.

Theory of Consensus Arguments were created over religion, age, color, and civilization. " and so we proceed in this manner indefinitely all along the line; and we call this education.“ The early education of the child should be more realistic rather than humanistic.