Early childhood education owes an enormous debt to the pioneering work of Dr. Maria Montessori. Many practices now taken for granted within the domain of early education have their origin within her method. Montessori was born in Chiaravalle, Ancona, Italy in 1870; the only child of civil servant Alessandro Montessori and his wife Renilde Stoppani. From an early age she showed a thirst for knowledge and an aptitude for mathematics. Having studied physics, mathematics and the natural sciences at the University of Rome she went on to study medicine. In 1896 she graduated as the first female medical doctor in Italy. For a number of years Dr. Montessori specialised in psychiatry but in 1907 her work shifted to developing a new educational method for children in their early years.

Dr. Montessori demonstrated great concern for the welfare, education and rights of the child. She lived through two world wars and having seen the destruction wrought by these cataclysms on humanity and civilisation she became ‘an agent for peace’ and an advocate of peace education. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949 and counted Gandhi amongst her friends. To this day peace education is a key element in Montessori teacher education. Maria Montessori died in Amsterdam in 1952.

“Montessori realised, through her observations and study that the period from birth to six is crucial and is the most important period in the development of the individual personality.”

The Montessori Method

The Child

Montessori’s approach to education was deeply rooted in her classroom observation of children. For her the starting point for educational theory was the child. She focused on the needs of the individual child and then helped that child develop her/his full potential at her/his own rate of development. Fundamentally she believed that all children are born good. It is we as adults who corrupt children through our lack of respect and understanding for them. Before the time of Dr. Montessori little emphasis had been placed on education for children under the age of six. Montessori realised, through her observations and study that the period from birth to six is crucial and is the most important period in the development of the individual personality.

Now taken for granted, in 1907 this idea was radical. Montessori regarded the child under six years of age as having an ‘absorbent mind’. The mind of the child from birth to three years of age is active yet unconscious of what is being learned. A good example of this is the acquisition of language. From three to six we see the child enter the period of the ‘conscious absorbent mind’. Now the child consciously and actively absorbs information from the environment and from experience. The child comes to know the world through the senses. In addition to this quality of an absorbent mind the child has what Montessori referred to as ‘sensitive periods’. These are periods when the child is drawn to certain aspects of the environment.

The sensitive periods include a sensitive period for learning language, refining the senses, learning to perfect movement and walking, a love of order in the environment and an attention to details i.e. the development of concentration. The child is drawn to develop social skills and the community of the classroom facilitates this need.

The Environment
Responding to the child’s absorbent mind and sensitive periods Montessori devised an environment which she referred to as ‘the prepared environment’. This environment assists the development of the child in a holistic manner. She designed child-sized tables and chairs, now standard in all nurseries. Shelves were at a height accessible for the child. With teaching materials displayed at the child’s height she/he is free to go to a shelf and choose a material to work with. She firmly believed that the child is attracted to simplicity and beauty; there is no need for walls covered in pictures not of the child’s making or friezes of famous fantasy characters from film or fiction!

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