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Biography (English)
Biografía (Español)
María Montessori nació en Chiaravalle (Italia), en 31 de agosto de
1870. Realiza estudios de medicina en la Universidad de Roma
convirtiéndose así en la primera mujer médico en Italia. Representa
a Italia en dos conferencias distintas: una en Berlín (1896) y la
otra en Londres (1900), ambas abordaban el tema de la mujer.
Ejerciendo su profesión, conoce por primera vez las obras de Seguin
sobre pedagogía. En su práctica médica, sus observaciones clínicas
la condujeron a analizar cómo los niños aprenden, y ella concluye
que lo construyen a partir de lo que existe en el ambiente. (Ver:
¿Qué es el método María Montressori?)
En 1902 empieza sus estudios de pedagogía, psicología experimental y
antropología. Constante investigadora; dicta varias conferencias
sobre los métodos educativos para niños afectados por deficiencias
mentales.
Su primera "Casa
de Bambini", fue inaugurada en 1907, era la primera casa hogar en el
barrio romano "San Lorenzo". Dicha casa hogar se convierte en el
origen del método educativo Montessori, el cual comienza a ser
puesto en práctica en este mismo lugar. (Ver:
Educación. Pedagogía)
En 1909 dicta el primer curso de formación profesional en la "Citta
di Castella". En 1911 deja la consulta médica y se dedica al trabajo
pedagógico. En 1913 Alexander Graham Bell y su esposa Mabel
inauguran la Asociación Educativa Montessori en su hogar de
Washington, DC
En 1915, capta la atención del mundo con su trabajo "la casa de
cristal" en el Panama-Pacific International Exhibition (San
Francisco). En 1917 el gobierno español la invita a inaugurar un
instituto de investigación. En 1919, comienza una serie de cursos de
aprendizajes a los profesores en Londres. En 1922 fue nombrada
inspectora de las escuelas en Italia. Durante el régimen de Benito
Mussolini, Montessori, acusó públicamente la doctrina fascista de
"formar a la juventud según sus moldes brutales"; por esta razón
abandona su tierra en 1933, estableciéndose posteriormente en
Barcelona (España). Su método empieza a conocerse.
Viaja
a Barcelona y es rescatada por un crucero británico en 1936, durante
la Guerra Civil Española. Montessori inaugura el "Training Centre en
Laren" (Países Bajos, 1938).
En 1940, cuando la India se incorporó a la Segunda Guerra Mundial,
Montessori y su hijo, Mario Montessori, se internaron como
extranjeros enemigos, pero no se les permitía conducir cursos de
aprendizajes. Posteriormente, fundó el "Centro Montessori" en
Londres (1947). La nominan para el premio Nobel, en tres
oportunidades distintas: 1949, 1950, y 1951.
En 1951 se retira de su vida como conferencista. Tras catorce años
de exilio, regresó a Italia para reorganizar las escuelas e ingresar
como docente a la Universidad de Roma. Montessori había comenzado su
tarea en una de las comunidades más pobres de Roma; su propósito era
mejorar la sociedad, partiendo del estrato más bajo del pueblo.
María Montessori falleció en 1952, en Noordwijk (Holanda) tras
aportar al mundo de la pedagogía un nuevo método y el material
didáctico que hoy es de gran ayuda en el período de formación
preescolar.
Biography
- María Montessori: 1870-1952 - Tarraugh
Flaherty
Early Life in Italy - School and
'Education' - Her Curriculum -
Bibliography
During the same year that Italy became a
unified, free nation one of the worlds' greatest educators, Maria
Montessori was born. She broke traditional roles between male and female,
teacher and student at a very young age. She operated her life as though
she could and would effect it.
Her father, Alessandro Montessori, was a
successful government official and a member of the bourgeois civil
service. Her mother, Renide Stoppani, was a well educated, wealthy woman
devoted to liberation and unity of Italy. It was on this common ground
that Maria's parents met.
Due to a new position for Alessandro, the
family made, what would become, it's last move to Rome in 1875 when
Maria was five years old. The family's move from the more provincial
town of, Ancona, to a sophisticated and cosmopolitan Rome enabled Maria
to have a better education and the use of libraries and museums.
Her parents often differed on how to
raise Maria. She was close with her father until his death, but was
clearly encouraged and supported by her mother. Without her mother's
well wishes she would have not made the first move in her educational
career to enter technical school at the age of thirteen.
She began studies in engineering at the
Regia Scuola Tecnica Michelangelo Buovarroti. From this experience she
began to model what a school should not be like. She also made the
decision not to continue studies in engineering. Her relatives, friends,
and father were all relieved to here that she would veer away from such
an un-ladylike discipline.
What they didn't know was that Maria
Montessori would instead go on to study medicine, only to become the
first female doctor of Italy. Although there is some question as to Pope
Leo XIII's involvement, there is no real proof as to how or whom got
Maria accepted into the University of Rome's medical program. In fact,
she graduated with a score of 100 out of a possible 105 and the diploma
was altered to fit her gender in 1896.
A month after her graduation her life
really took off. She was immediately chosen to represent Italy in a
Women's international congress in Berlin. On return she was appointed to
be the surgical assistant at Santo Spirito. She was also working at the
Children's hospital and had a private practice.
In
1897 Montessori had a revelation. "I felt that mental deficiency
presented chiefly a pedagogical, rather than mainly a medical, problem."
The children she was working with could not be treated in the hospitals
they needed to be trained in schools. Given her new insight she began to
transfer her time towards perfecting education. She wanted to use nature
in the school in order to meet the real needs of children. (The
Montessori Method, 1912)
She developed an educational theory,
which combined ideas of scholar Froebel, anthropologist Giuseooe Sergi,
French physicians, Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin, with methods that she
had found in medicine, education, and anthropology. In 1900 she began to
direct a small school in Rome for 'challenged' youth. The methods she
employed were both experimental and miraculous. "We should really find
the way to teach the child how, before, before making him execute a task."
She suggested that teachers see themselves as social engineers, she
enhanced the scientific qualities of education. (The Montessori Method)
In March of 1898, Montessori's only child,
a son, Mario Montessori, was born. Sometime earlier, she had had a love
affair with her colleague, Dr. Montesano. Together, they made a deal to
keep the relationship, and therefore the father's identity, a secret. In
exchange for the secrete neither of them agreed to ever marry another
person. Montesano, however, fell in love with and married, while still
working with Montessori in daily contact. It was the betrayal of this
promise that prompted her to leave the Orthophrenic School. Her son was
then sent to a wet nurse and later to a boarding school.
It was then in 1907 that Montessori began
to assert her theories and methods of pedagogy. She began by directing a
system of daycare centers for working class children in one of Rome's
worst neighborhoods.
The children entered her program as "wild
and unruly". Much to her surprise they began to respond to her teaching
methods. She always held them in the highest regard and taught her
teachers to do likewise. From the beginning amazing things happened.
Children younger than three and four years old began to read, write, and
initiate self-respect. The Montessori method encouraged what Maria saw
as the children's innate ability to 'absorb' culture. 3...And then we
saw them 'absorb' far more than reading and writhing...it was botany,
zoology, mathematics, geography, and all with the same ease,
spontaneously, and with out getting tired." (The Absorbent Mind)
Although her methods were criticized for
being too detached, rigorous, and even harsh for the youth, they did
seem to facilitate a more genuine, natural experience. She was often
heard saying, "I studied my children, and they taught me how to teach
them." This may seem common for us to do today, but Montessori was the
first to view education in this manner. She pioneered other attributes
of what seems to be modern education today.
A
system of Math learning materials for very young children was developed
which allowed four and five year olds to explore their interests where
otherwise told they were too young. Montessori was also the first in
education to have child-sized tables and chairs made for the students.
She believed that the learning environment was just as important as the
learning itself. Because of this belief her schools were often peaceful,
orderly places, were the children valued their space for concentration
and the process of learning.
It was uncommon to treat children with
such a high level of respect. Back then society felt that children
should be seen and not heard. "To deny them (the children) the right to
learn because we, as adults think that they shouldn1t is illogical and
typical of the way schools have been run," she said at one time. Her
methods completely contradicted the educational theories and practice
popular during her day. On one occasion,
"SI decided to give the children a
slightly humorous lesson on how to blow their noses. After I had
shown them different ways to use a handkerchief, I ended by
indicating how it could be done as unobtrusively as possible. I took
out my handkerchief in such a way that they could hardly see it and
blew my nose as softly as I could. The children watched me in rapt
attention, but failed to laugh. I wondered why, but I had hardly
finished my demonstration when they broke out into applause that
resembled a long repressed ovation in a theater. When I was on the
point of leaving the school, the children began to shout, 'Thank you,
thank you for the lesson!'"
Adults were often reprimanding kids about
their running noses, but never talking the time to teach them how to
independently take care. It's as if Montessori knew that they dealt with
this situation, and wanted to facilitate a more human experience for the
students. On another occasion, one of her teachers was late and the
students actually crawled through the window and got right to work.
Montessori also created the "game of silence," somewhat like meditation,
where each child was able to start the day with a sense of peace and
focus. After just a few times trying the game, they liked it.
During the remaining years of her life,
from about 1907 to the mid-1930's, Dr. Montessori devoted all of her
time and energy to developing schools throughout Europe and North
America. She then traveled to India and Sri Lanka, until 1947, where she
trained thousands of teachers the Montessori curriculum and methodology.
-
Rita Kramer, Maria Montessori,
Longman Canada Limited, 1976
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William Heard Kilpatrick Ph.D., The
Montessori System Examined, Arno Press Inc., 1971
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National Association for the
Education of Young Children, Montessori in Perspective N.A.E.Y.C.,
1966
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Maria Montessori, Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook,
Robert Bentley, Inc., 1964
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