14. Maria Montessori, Italy’s First Female Doctor, Revolutionized Childhood Education
In the late 1800s, while practicing as Italy’s only female pediatrician, Maria Montessori treated many low-income children at her free clinics. What she noticed was that these children had an intrinsic intelligence, even though they were deprived of many of the social supports that enabled wealthier children to attend school and university. She went on to become the director of a school for developmentally disabled children, where she worked to apply theories of early childhood education – which included the use of the senses and creativity – to children who were disabled. The progress that the children made inspired her to develop what we now know as the Montessori method of education.
The Italian government allowed the doctor to teach 60 young children from the slums, where she created a classroom environment that she believed was most conducive to childhood exploration. She instructed her teachers to follow the children’s lead and let them generate their own learning, rather than memorizing lessons. Within just a few years, thousands of Montessori-style schools opened, both in Europe and across the Atlantic, in America. She earned two Nobel Prize nominations for her work in education, and today, her name is synonymous with a child-centered approach to learning. Her writings are still widely used in both teaching and child-rearing, as they show adults how to create environments that are best suited to stimulate children’s natural penchant for learning, growth, and creativity.