Who is Maria Montessori
Practical Life Rationale Paper
1. Who is Maria Montessori? Please give a brief description of her life.
Maria Montessori was the founder of the Montessori approach to education, she was born in Italy in 1870. As a teenager she was an engineer, but later she studied her favor major of medicine. Graduated as Italy's first female medical practitioner she embarked on a career in mental health. Following on from this she was asked to head up a childcare project for a social housing initiative and her first 'Children's House' opened in 1907. Here too she introduced the equipment she had designed and observed the children very closely as they used it, tailoring what she provided in the environment to meet their developmental needs. There was great astonishment at the amount of learning that these pre-school children showed themselves to be capable of, not least their explosion into 'writing'. From this time onward education became her life and she continued to develop educational theories to fit what she observed among the children in her care. She died in Holland in 1952. leaving an international legacy of Montessori schools and training centres around the world.
2. Discuss the Montessori philosophy elaborating on the three main components: the child, the prepared environment, the directress. Comment on the importance of freedom of choice.
In Montessori, children,teacher and environment are three very important main components. Freedom of choice is important because each one of us has our unique gifts and talents. One of us may be a fast reader, another a math whiz, yet another has a talents for all things mechanical. One may be a swift runner while another is a great cook. We are not all the same. Nor are all our children the same some learn through visual input through what they see, some learn best by listening with their ears and some need to touch to learn. Maria Montessori understood all these learning differences and created an environment for children
1. Who is Maria Montessori? Please give a brief description of her life.
Maria Montessori was the founder of the Montessori approach to education, she was born in Italy in 1870. As a teenager she was an engineer, but later she studied her favor major of medicine. Graduated as Italy's first female medical practitioner she embarked on a career in mental health. Following on from this she was asked to head up a childcare project for a social housing initiative and her first 'Children's House' opened in 1907. Here too she introduced the equipment she had designed and observed the children very closely as they used it, tailoring what she provided in the environment to meet their developmental needs. There was great astonishment at the amount of learning that these pre-school children showed themselves to be capable of, not least their explosion into 'writing'. From this time onward education became her life and she continued to develop educational theories to fit what she observed among the children in her care. She died in Holland in 1952. leaving an international legacy of Montessori schools and training centres around the world.
2. Discuss the Montessori philosophy elaborating on the three main components: the child, the prepared environment, the directress. Comment on the importance of freedom of choice.
In Montessori, children,teacher and environment are three very important main components. Freedom of choice is important because each one of us has our unique gifts and talents. One of us may be a fast reader, another a math whiz, yet another has a talents for all things mechanical. One may be a swift runner while another is a great cook. We are not all the same. Nor are all our children the same some learn through visual input through what they see, some learn best by listening with their ears and some need to touch to learn. Maria Montessori understood all these learning differences and created an environment for children
Bibliography: 3. Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood, New York Ballantine Books, 1966.