Montessori education traces its roots back in 1897 when Maria Montessori started developing her educational philosophy and methods. Montessori attended pedagogy courses at the University of Rome and read educational theory of the preceeding 200 years.
- Early Roots – Montessori opened her first classroom in 1907 which she called Casa dei Bambini which means children's house which is located in a tenement building in Rome. Right from the start, she based her work on what she observed in children and her experiments involving materials, environment and lessons available to pupils. To her, her work was “scientific pedagogy.”
- Reach to the United States – Montessori education reached the United States of America in 1911 and became popular in the academe and the media. After three years, however, the spread of Montessori's ideas was away because of conflict between Montessori and the American educational establishment, more specifically the publication of a critical booklet titled The Montessori System Examined which was written by William Heard Kilpatrick who was an influential education teacher. The Montessori system re-emerged in the US in 1960; since then, it has spread to thousands of US schools.
- Comprehensive Model – During her lifetime, Montessori continued to develop and extend her calling and advocacy which is now the fully developed Montessori education system. She developed an encompassing model of psychological development which pertains to the ages of birth to 24 years. The model also involves educational approaches for children ages 0-3, 3-6 and 6-12. Montessori taught teachers about teaching young people aged 12 to 18 and older learners beyond age 18. However, these programs were developed after her lifetime.
The word “Montessori” is already in the public domain and, thus, any person can use the term with or without citing the work of Maria Montessori. At present, the Montessori system is used in approximately 20,000 schools around the world.
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