Who was Maria Montessori.
Maria Montessori was a unique individual. Today many would describe her as a person who thinks outside the box, a pioneer in enabling children to learn through meaningful experiences. Maria Montessori was an individual way ahead of her time.
Maria was born to parents of educated middle class. Her father, Alessandro Montessori was a civil servant and former soldier. He had studied debate and mathematics. Her mother was Renilde Stoppani was unusually well educated and an avid reader. She was niece of the famous philosopher – scientist Antonio Stoppani. Maria Montessori herself was confident and strong minded, excelling in school. She was an only child filled with strong determination and love. Maria was born on August 31st, 1870 in Ancona, Italy. Maria grew up in a time when girls in Italy had just two career paths, to be either a teacher or a nun. Schools at this time were rigid, regimented and repressive and so this did not appeal to Maria Montessori. Her parents influenced her development greatly, although it was her mother’s constant questioning intellectualism that helped give Maria the intellectual and moral fibre to break out of the traditional mould of passive Italian womanhood.
At the age of six Maria started the local public elementary school. It was here that she became fascinated with mathematics and science. At the age of eleven Marias family moved to Rome where she would be suitably educated. Her father hoped she would study classics, which was considered the most suitable course for young ladies. But Maria had other ideas. At the age of thirteen she had chosen a course at a technical school. Her mother was very supportive of her while her father, more traditional and conservative, wanted his daughter to pursue teaching. Technical schools were usually available only to boys. Maria and one other girl were able to attend but were not allowed to go outside with the boys at recess. She graduated from college at sixteen and was accepted for technical institute, Rome. Against her father’s traditional views Maria Montessori decided to attend medical school, which was not open to women.
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And so she persisted and enrolled at the University of Rome. She faced many obstacles and challenges as she was the only female medical student. Despite all of this she excelled as a student and received a standing ovation during a medical lecture she gave. Her father reluctantly attended but was glad he did because it gave him a new insight into his daughter and turned his thoughts into great pride.
When, in July 1896 Maria Montessori presented her thesis, her sheer brilliance so impressed the all male board of review that they awarded her a full medical degree making her Italy’s first woman doctor. On becoming the first woman in Italy to receive a doctorate of medicine, she was a scientist, not a teacher. It is ironic that she became famous for her contributions in a field that she had rejected as the traditional refuse for women at the time.
As a physician, Dr. Montessori specialised in paediatrics and psychiatry. Maria taught at the medical school of the University of Rome, which had free clinics where she came into contact with the poor and middle class, this is where she found that intelligence was not rare and that most new borns came into the world with the human potential that will be barely revealed.
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“And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.”
She made time to actively support social reform movements, she often attended speaking engagements, peace efforts and child labour law reform. And because of this, in 1896 Maria served as a delegate for Italy, at the International Congress for women’s rights in Berlin. It was here that her proposal for equal pay for equal work for women was adopted. She was highly thought of throughout Europe, this is likely to have helped with the publicity that followed her schools.
