The great teacher of the past.

                                                     Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was an Italian physician,educator best known for the philosophy of education and creator of the pedagogical system based on the idea of free education. Montessori was the first woman in the history of Italy to complete a medical course and one of the first holders of the PhD degree. In 1896, she received a medical degree, becoming one of the first women doctors in Italy.

She was born on August 31, 1870 in Chiaravalle, Italy. Her father, Alessandro Montessori, was an official of the Ministry of Finance working in the local state-run tobacco factory. Her mother, Renilde Stoppani, was well educated for the times and was the great-niece of Italian geologist and paleontologist Antonio Stoppani.While Maria did not have any particular mentor, she was very close to her mother who readily encouraged her. Her successes in elementary school were not particularly noteworthy, but then she improved her academic performance and graduated with honors from the secondary technical school named after Michelangelo Buonarroti.

At the age of 20 she decided to study medicine which was an unusual aspiration for a woman in her time. In 1890, she entered the University of Rome in a degree course in natural sciences. But she was met with hostility and harassment from some medical students and professors because of her gender.Montessori won an academic prize in her first year, and in 1895 secured a position as a hospital assistant.Montessori graduated from the University of Rome in 1896 as a doctor of medicine. After graduating Montessori continued with her research at the University's psychiatric clinic, and in 1897 she was accepted as a voluntary assistant there. As a part of her work, she visited asylums in Rome where she worked with children with mental disabilities.As a result, the Montessori’s wards excelled healthy children in writing, counting and reading skills. This showed how ineffective the traditional education of healthy children was. The result of this awareness was the desire of Maria Montessori to start working with healthy children and develop her own teaching methodology.

Montessori pedagogy is based on the ideas of free education, an important place is given to sensory education (development of the senses) with the help of didactic classes and a specially organized environment.Her methodology denied the leading role of an adult in the upbringing and development of children. She developed the principles of education and development:

- do nothing for the child if he is able to do it himself

- development of all senses

-handwork (for example, cutting out with scissors)

- singing, playing on the air.

She died in 1952 on May 6, but her educational method is in use today in many public and private schools throughout the world.

The reason why I have chosen her is because she was a strong and independent woman. She was not afraid of convictions and went forward to her goals, despite all the difficulties. She proved that a woman can do anything and even more. I also liked her method of self-study. I believe that thanks to this method, the child develops his confidence and independence.