Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was born in Chiaraville, Ancona, Italy in 1870. She became the first female physician in Italy after she graduated from medical school in 1896. During the time that she was a physician, she observed children and analyzed how they learn. She concluded that they build their self from what they learn in their environments. Children learn themselves. That is how to sum up Montessori's philosophy on early childhood education. She believed in children's rights, the value and importance of children's work to develop themselves into adults, and that this developing would lead to world peace.

In the Montessori way of learning, children are grouped in three or six year spans and during this time they have the same teacher. After every age, the children are required a minimum of one three hour work period per day. The set-up of the play area is set up by subjects and the children are free to move around the room with no time limit. The universal characteristics of children are recognized for each level of development; the first is birth through age 6, and the second is ages 6 through 12. The first level is called casa dei bambini or "children's house" where each child is nurtured and guided in an individual paced environment. They do this so when they enter the second level, they become peer oriented and learn in a social environment.

Maria believed that children learn in a distinctively different