Montessori
Who was Maria Montessori?
Who was Maria Montessori? Ms. Wood gives a short introduction to the woman, doctor, and scientist who founded the Montessori Method.
Full Transcript
Hi, I’m glad you’re here!
Today we’re going to talk about Maria Montessori, the person. Many people know about Montessori schools, or the Montessori paradigm, but not many people know that Maria Montessori was a person!
She was born in Italy in 1870, and her family moved to Rome for her to continue her eduction. She took full advantage of this and became the first female physician in Italy. She was not hire-able as a woman in hospitals or clinical practices, so she began research. Specifically, research with young children.
Because of this research with children ages 3-6, she developed the paradigm that we now think of as the Montessori teaching philosophy.
Because of this research with children ages 3-6, she developed the paradigm that we now think of as the Montessori teaching philosophy. She did this through research and through what she knew about science at the time.
A lot of things were new in this era of science and medicine. For example, vaccines were just becoming en vogue, and penicillin was just being developed in the 1920’s. Simple things we take for granted, such as hand-washing, were brand new. Science and medicine were moving from a place of hopeful anecdotal recipes, to being documented. Maria Montessori applied this to her work with children as well.
Today, we still have hand-washing in our classroom, and we take it for granted that this was important. But when Maria Montessori was developing her teaching paradigm, things like this were brand new. She observed how children interacted with the materials, changed things slightly, and then adapted that into the teaching method that we use today.
Thank you, see you next time!
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