At a glance

Key points

  • Maria Montessori was born in Chiaravalle, Italy, in 1870 and earned a medical degree in Rome in 1896.
  • She developed her approach through educational work, observation, writing, and repeated revision.
  • The first Casa dei Bambini opened in Rome's San Lorenzo district in 1907.
  • Her books and courses carried the approach across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

01

Medical education and early educational work

Maria Montessori was born on 31 August 1870 in Chiaravalle and grew up in Rome. She studied medicine at the University of Rome and received her degree in 1896. Her early professional work included clinical practice, university study, and educational work with children in institutional settings. She studied the work of Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard and Édouard Séguin, then adapted ideas about sensory materials and observation within her own educational program.

  • Her path combined medical education, anthropology, the study of teaching, and direct observation.
  • Historical terminology in early texts requires context and does not set current language standards.

02

The first Casa dei Bambini

Montessori opened the first Casa dei Bambini, or Children's House, in the San Lorenzo district of Rome on 6 January 1907. The school served young children in a housing project. Montessori and her collaborators arranged child-sized furnishings, everyday care tasks, and materials for comparing through the senses, then recorded how the group used the environment. She described this work in an Italian book published in 1909. An English translation appeared as The Montessori Method in 1912.

  • The original setting joined social reform, education, and a shared room arranged for easy use.
  • Montessori changed materials and adult practices in response to recorded observation.

03

Writing, courses, and international work

Public lectures and training courses brought Montessori's work to an international audience. She traveled across Europe and the United States, lived in Spain and the Netherlands, and worked in India from 1939 to 1946. Her later writing expanded from early childhood classrooms to elementary education, peace, and the social role of education. She died in Noordwijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, on 6 May 1952.

  • Her published work changed across decades and addressed more than classroom materials.
  • Schools and families now use the Montessori name in varied ways.