Montessori FAQs - Basics for Parents
First of all... Dr. Who?
After our first open house meeting, I had a parent tell me that he'd never even known that there was a Dr. Maria Montessori. I had to confess, that I was in his shoes myself several years ago. I also confessed that for many years I was skeptical that a 100-year-old dead Italian lady could have really developed anything of relevance to my children's education. And if her approach is so great, why isn't it used more widespread in this country?
Dr. Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870. First and foremost she was a highly educated scentist. Seh became the first female Italian medical doctor. It was in treating the medical needs of the poor families in Italy that she became fascinated with the way children learned and developed intellectually, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She devoted the rest of her life developing and refining a method of education know today s the Montessori method. This method was quite celebratred in the United States in the early part of the century. Dr. Montessori was an honored guest at the White House and the main speaker at many educational conferences. However, she had some very strong and vocal opposition. One of the biggest faults found with the Montessori method was that it was difficulty to track and mreasure progress for lare