Who was Maria Montessori? Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was a medical doctor who became internationally renowned for her work in the education of young children. Born in Ancona, Italy, in 1896 she became the first woman graduate from the University of Rome Medical School. Her life's work with children came as early as one year after taking her degree while carrying out research at the Rome University Psychiatric Clinic. One of her responsibilities involved visiting the Rome insane asylums to find subjects for treatment at the Clinic. It occurred to her, after observing and thinking about the mentally disabled children whom she came across in these asylums, that none of them had any hope of improvement in their environment, as the bare routine of their days starved them of any stimulation or experience. Their minds were not useless, but what capacities they had were totally unused. When Maria Montessori focused their attention and directed their activity, they responded positively. From these beginnings she developed her educational ideas and applied them to children of normal intelligence. In 1907 she was invited to set up her first school in the slum area of San Lorenzo, Rome. Here she observed the children's response to their environment and developed her philosophy to suit their needs. Her method was enormously successful, so much so that she gave up her medical practice and her two Chairs at the University in order to expand her ideas. She undertook further study and became an active educator. Her theories spread throughout Italy and to other parts of the world. By 1909, the Montessori method was established and she had become a public figure, spending her time lecturing, writing, travelling and setting up schools and training centres.  In 1934, after Mussolini forced her schools to close, she moved her headquarters to Barcelona in Spain. She later supervised training courses in Spain, England, the Netherlands and India where she was interned during the Second World War. She became a permanent resident of Amsterdam after the Spanish Civil War began in 1936. It was in the Netherlands that she established the Association Montessori Internationale, the objectives of which were to propagate, maintain and further the rights of the child in society. Maria Montessori died in Noerdwijk, the Netherlands, in 1952.
The Montessori Method of Education Maria Montessori observed the children in her first school, noting the activities they preferred, and developed her educational theories from these observations. She saw that children have a natural love of learning and experience great exhilaration and satisfaction if allowed to complete tasks chosen freely. Montessori also found that children, from early in the first year of life, pass through a series of "sensitive periods" when they are absorbed in one element of their environment with an intense desire to explore that aspect, often repeating many times actions related to that interest until this leads into the next phase. Grasping the opportunities for development in each "sensitive period" is most important. Consequently, the Montessori classroom is devised as a total environment to aid the child's development into a fully integrated and independent individual, with areas which cater for all the "sensitive periods" which appear in the age range of the classroom. This classroom is composed of three essential parts: the child, the prepared environment and the director/directress. The child teaches himself/herself using especially designed Montessori equipment, which is attractive and self-correcting. In this classroom the teacher is known as a director/directress, as he/she acts as a guide and facilitator, demonstrating new activities and pieces of equipment to individual children or small groups. In a child-centred classroom, with each child working at their own pace, the director/directress also observes and monitors their progress to assist and encourage their activities and interests. The Montessori classroom is non-competitive and, because a child may choose his/her own activities and do them at his/her own pace, the child has many opportunities for success and is able to build a positive self-image. The pre-school programme is designed to cover an important three-year development span of the child. Between the age of three and six years this development is characterised by increasing abilities to explore the environment. During the first year the child is introduced primarily to the practical life and sensorial apparatus. These refine skills and help the child function in the classroom and at home. Further work in these areas helps prepare the child for concepts and co-ordination needed for maths and language work. The third year is the culmination of the programme with the previous two years preparing the child for creative and meaningful exploration and progress in many areas. Often it appears to parents that the child develops greatly in the first year of the programme but outwardly shows little progress in the second year. Yet these first two years are laying the foundations. Many of the benefits of the Montessori approach are only truly seen in the third year when concepts and skills come to fruition and the love of learning becomes a real part of the child. Socially, in the third year, the opportunity exists for the child to develop leadership qualities, self-confidence, caring attitudes towards others and a sense of responsibility as he/she interacts with the younger children and in his/her own social group of the older children. 
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