“The child is essentially alien to this society of men and might express his position in the words of the Gospel: My kingdom is not of this world”
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Maria Montessori
Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori was an Italian physician and educator best known for her philosophy of education and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori enrolled in classes at an all-boys technical school, with hopes of becoming an engineer. She soon had a change of heart and began medical school at the Sapienza University of Rome, becoming one of the first women to at…
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science · Italian physician and educator (1870–1952) · physician · pedagogue · essayist · philosopher · biologist · also Maria Montessori, Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori, Montessori
Born 31 August 1870 · Died 6 May 1952 · Q131117
61 published statements · 0 followers
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Freedom without organization of work would be useless. The child left free without means of work would go to waste, just as a new-born baby, if left free without nourishment, would die of starvation.The organization of the work, therefore, is the cornerstone of this new structure of goodness [in education], but even that organization would be in vain without the liberty to make use of it.
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2026· 3 entries
“Freedom without organization of work would be useless. The child left free without means of work would go to waste, just as a new-born baby, if left free without nourishment, would die of starvation.The organization of the work, therefore, is the cornerstone of this new structure of goodness [in education], but even that organization would be in vain without the liberty to make use of it.”
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Revista Merca2.0: Quote of the day by Maria Montessori: “When a child feels self-confident, he stops seeking the approval of adults at every turn”
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2000· 1 entry
“In the vivid description of the Gospel, it would seem that we must help the Christ hidden in every poor man, in every prisioner, in every sufferer. But if we paraphrased the marvelous scene and applied it to the child, we should find that Christ goes to help all men in the form of the child.”
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1952· 3 entries
Died 1952-05-06.
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“The task of the educator of young children lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility, and evil with activity.”
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“Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”
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1950· 1 entry
Awarded honorary doctor of the University of Amsterdam (1950).
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1949· 2 entries
Awarded Knight of the Legion of Honour (1949).
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And again in 1950 and in 1951, Montessori was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, receiving a total of six nominations
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1936· 2 entries
Political and social conditions drove Montessori to leave Spain permanently
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Montessori and her family left Barcelona for England, and soon moved to Laren, near Amsterdam
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1935· 1 entry
The headquarters of the Association Montessori Internationale, or AMI, moved permanently to Amsterdam
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1934· 1 entry
Published two books in Spain, Psicogeometrica and Psicoarithemetica
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1933· 2 entries
Resigned from the Opera Montessori, and in 1934 she left Italy
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Under the Second Spanish Republic, a new training course was sponsored by the government, and government support was re-established
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1932· 3 entries
Montessori spoke at the International Peace Club in Geneva, Switzerland, on the theme of Peace and Education
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And her son Mario were placed under political surveillance
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Montessori spoke on Peace and Education at the Second International Montessori Congress in Nice, France
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1929· 1 entry
The first International Montessori Congress was held in Elsinore, Denmark, in conjunction with the Fifth Conference of the New Education Fellowship
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1927· 1 entry
Mussolini established a Montessori teacher training college, and by 1929 the Italian government supported a wide range of Montessori institutions
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1924· 2 entries
Montessori met with Mussolini, who extended his official support for Montessori education as part of the national program
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A new military dictatorship closed Montessori's model school in Barcelona, and Montessori education declined in Spain, although Barcelona remained Montessori's home for the next twelve years
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1923· 2 entries
The minister of education Giovanni Gentile expressed his support for Montessori schools and teacher training
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And her lectures were published as Il Bambino in Famiglia, published in English in 1936 as The Child in the Family
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1922· 1 entry
Montessori was invited to Italy on behalf of the government to give a course of lectures and later to inspect Italian Montessori schools
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1920· 1 entry
To give a series of lectures at the University of Amsterdam
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1919· 2 entries
Resigned from her position at the University of Rome, as her educational work was increasingly absorbing her time and interest
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Montessori came to England for the first time and gave an international training course which was received with high interest
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1917· 2 entries
Montessori lectured in Amsterdam, and the Netherlands Montessori Society was founded
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Montessori published her elementary work in L'autoeducazionne nelle Scuole Elementari (Self-Education in Elementary School), which appeared in English as The Advanced Montessori Method
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1916· 2 entries
Montessori returned to Europe and took up residence in Barcelona, Spain
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Including materials and methods, developed over the previous five years, for teaching grammar, arithmetic, and geometry to elementary school children from six to twelve years of age
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1915· 3 entries
Sponsored by the National Education Association, to demonstrate her work at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California, and to give a third international training course
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The Montessori movement in the US fragmented, and Montessori education was a negligible factor in education in the US until 1952
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Had developed into the Escola Montessori, serving children from three to ten years old, and the Laboratori i Seminari de Pedagogia, a research, training, and teaching institute
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1914· 1 entry
Montessori published, in English, Doctor Montessori's Own Handbook, a practical guide to the didactic materials she had developed
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1913· 3 entries
Was sponsored by the American Montessori Committee, and 67 of the 83 students were from the US
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And German, Japanese, and Romanian editions appeared in 1914, followed by Spanish (1915), Dutch (1916), and Danish (1917) editions
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The first International Training Course was held in Rome, with a second in 1914
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1911· 1 entry
And 1912, Montessori's work was popular and widely publicized in the US, especially in a series of articles in McClure's Magazine
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1909· 1 entry
Montessori held the first teacher training course in her new method in Città di Castello, Italy
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1908· 1 entry
And in 1909 Italian Switzerland began to replace Froebellian methods with Montessori in orphanages and kindergartens
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1906· 1 entry
Montessori was invited to oversee the care and education of a group of children of working parents in a new apartment building for low-income families in the San Lorenzo district in Rome
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1903· 1 entry
And 1904, she conducted anthropological research with Italian schoolchildren, and in 1904 she was qualified as a free lecturer in anthropology for the University of Rome
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1902· 1 entry
Montessori presented a report at a second national pedagogical congress in Naples
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1901· 1 entry
Montessori left the Orthophrenic School and her private practice, and in 1902 she enrolled in the philosophy degree course at the University of Rome; philosophy at the time included much of what is now considered psychol
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1900· 1 entry
The National League opened the Scuola Magistrale Ortofrenica, or Orthophrenic School, a "medico-pedagogical institute" for training teachers in educating children with learning difficulties, with an attached laboratory c
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1899· 1 entry
Montessori was appointed a councilor to the newly formed National League for the Protection of Retarded Children, and was invited to lecture on special methods of education for children with intellectual disabilities at
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1898· 1 entry
Wrote several articles and spoke again at the First Pedagogical Conference of Turin, urging the creation of special classes and institutions for children with learning difficulties, as well as teacher training for th
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1897· 3 entries
As part of her work, she visited asylums in Rome where she observed children with mental disabilities, observations that were fundamental to her future educational work
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Montessori spoke on societal responsibility for juvenile delinquency at the National Congress of Medicine in Turin
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Montessori audited the university courses in pedagogy and read "all the major works on educational theory of the past two hundred years"
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1896· 1 entry
Went into private practice and was accepted as a surgical assistant in the university
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1895· 1 entry
Secured a position as a hospital assistant, gaining early clinical experience
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1890· 2 entries
At the age of 20, with a certificate in physics–mathematics, she had decided to study medicine, a more unlikely pursuit given cultural norms at the time
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Enrolled in the University of Rome in a degree course in natural sciences, passing examinations in botany, zoology, experimental physics, histology, anatomy, and general and organic chemistry, and earning her diploma
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1886· 1 entry
With good grades and examination results
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1883· 2 entries
Or 1884, at the age of 13, Montessori entered a secondary, technical school, Regia Scuola Tecnica Michelangelo Buonarroti, where she studied Italian, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, accounting, history, geography, and sci
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“I shall never be that. I care too much for the children of the future to add yet another biography to the list”
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1870· 1 entry
Born 1870-08-31.
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