What is Montessori?

The Montessori method is an educational system started in 1907 by Dr. Maria Montessori, the first woman in Italy to become a physician. Her scientific background is at the core of the Montessori method, which was developed using the scientific method (clinical observations, hypothesis and testing). Montessori’s aim was to create a new science of teaching based on children’s natural development, which is why, initially, the Montessori method was called Scientific Pedagogy. Maria Montessori’s observations of children contradicted the educational view of her time that saw children as passive miniature adults who needed to receive knowledge exteriorly. Rather, Maria Montessori recognized that from the moment of birth, the infant, guided by a mysterious life force she termed horme, is hard at work, actively constructing the adult he or she will become. The recognition of the child’s work in his or her self-construction is the basis of the Montessori method. When asked what is the most important principles of her theory, Dr. Montessori replied that it is “the fundamental difference between the child and the adult.” She explained, “the child is in a continual state of growth and metamorphosis, whereas the adult has reached the norm of the species.” Montessori observed that children pass through four distinctive physiological and psychological stages before they reach the norm of their species, i.e. adulthood. She called these stages “planes of development.”