Because of her success with these children, she was asked to start a school for children in a housing project in Rome, which opened on January 6 1907, and which she called "Casa dei Bambini" or Children's House. Children's House was a child care center in an apartment building in the poor neighborhood of Rome. She was focused on teaching the students ways to develop their own skills at a pace they set, which was a principle Montessori called "spontaneous self-development". The success of this school sparked the opening of many more, and a worldwide interest in Montessori's methods of education.
After the 1907 establishment of Montessori's first school in Rome, by 1913 there was an intense interest in her method in North America, which later waned. (Nancy McCormick Rambusch revived the method in America by establishing the American Montessori Society in 1960). Montessori was exiled by Mussolini mostly because she refused to compromise her principles and make the children into soldiers. She moved to Spain and lived there until 1936 when the Spanish Civil War broke out. She then moved to the Netherlands until 1939.
In the year 1939, the Theosophical Society of India extended an invitation asking Maria Montessori to visit India. She accepted the invitation and reached India the very same year accompanied by her only son, Mario Montessori Sr. This heralded the beginning of her special relationship with India. She made Adyar, Chennai her home. However the war forced her to extend her stay in India. With the help of her son, Mario, she conducted sixteen batches of courses called the Indian Montessori Training Courses. These courses laid a strong foundation for the Montessori Movement in India. In 1949 when she left for The Netherlands she appointed Albert Max Joosten as her personal representative, and assigned him the responsibility of conducting the Indian Montessori Training Courses. Joosten along with Swamy S R, another disciple of Dr. Maria Montessori, continued the good work and ensured that the Montessori Movement in India was on a sound footing.
During a teachers conference in India she was interned by the authorities and lived there for the duration of the war. Montessori lived out the remainder of her life in the Netherlands, which now hosts the headquarters of the AMI, or Association Montessori Internationale. She died in Noordwijk aan Zee. Her son Mario headed the AMI until his death in 1982.
Maria Montessori died in the Netherlands in 1952, after a lifetime devoted to the study of child development. Her early work centered on women’s rights and social reform and evolved to encompass a totally innovative approach to education. Her success in Italy led to international recognition, and for over 40 years she traveled all over the world, lecturing, writing and establishing training programs. In later years, ‘Educate for Peace’ became a guiding principle, which underpinned her work.
What followed worldwide has been called the "discovery of the child" and the realization that: "...mankind can hope for a solution to its problems, among which the most urgent are those of peace and unity, only by turning its attention and energies to the discovery of the child and to the development of the great potentialities of the human personality in the course of its formation.”
The efficacy of Montessori teaching methods has most recently been demonstrated by the results of a study published in the US journal, Science (29 September 2006) which indicates that Montessori children have improved behavioral and academic skills compared with a control group from the mainstream system. The authors concluded that "when strictly implemented, Montessori education fosters social and academic skills that are equal or superior to those fostered by a pool of other types of schools."
The Montessori method of education that she derived from this experience has subsequently been applied successfully to children and is quite popular in many parts of the world. Despite much criticism of her method in the early 1930s-1940s, her method of education has been applied and has undergone a revival. It can now be found on six continents and throughout the United States.
The Association Montessori Internationale is member of the International Coalition for the Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence.
| 1870 | Born |
| 1896 | Became Doctor of Medicine |
| 1896 | Represented the Women of Italy at a Conference at Berlin |
| 1896-1906 | Held a chair in Hygiene at a Women's' College in Rome |
| 1899 | Addressed a Pedagogical Conference in Turin - stressed on the benefits of Education to defective children |
| 1900 | Represented at the Feminist Conference in London - attacked the exploitation of children in the mines of Sicily |
| 1901 | Enrollment in the University of Rome as a student of Psychology and Philosophy |
| 1904 - 08 | Professor of Anthropology in the University of Rome. Her first major publication -"Pedagogical Anthropology" |
| 1909 | Publication of "The Method of Scientific Pedagogy as applied to infant education in the Children's Houses" |
| 1913 | Conducted the First International Training Course |
| 1914 | She visited the United States of America. She was a guest of Thomas Alva Edison. The formation of American Montessori Society under the Presidentship of Mr. Alexander Graham Bell |
| 1918 | The Education Society of London sent Mrs. Hutchinson to take a course under Dr. Montessori. The course was considered a "Rhapsody" by the Department of Education |
| 1919 | The first official visit to London. She was given a royal reception. |
| 1922 | Dr. Montessori appointed the Inspector of schools by the Italian Government. |
| 1925 | International Montessori Congress at Helsinki |
| 1929 | Founded the Association Montessori Internationale in Amsterdam |
| 1932 | International Montessori Congress in Europe |
| 1939-1947 | Dr. Montessori makes India her home. She with the help of her son conducts 16 batches of the Indian Montessori Training Courses, thus laying a strong foundation for the Montessori Movement in India. |
| 1947 | Reestablishment of the Opera Montessori in Rome, Italy |
| 1948 | Dr. Montessori visits India again. |
| 1949 | Appoints Albert Max Joosten as her personal representative to conduct the Indian Montessori Training Courses. Conducts the First International training Course in Pakistan. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1951 | Conducts the International Montessori Course in London. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second time. |
| 1952 | Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the third time. All three occasions the Nobel Prize eludes her. Dr. Montessori passes away. Interred at Noordwijk-aan-Zee in Holland |
Erica Moretti, a renowned scholar of Italian studies at Brown University has produced a monograph expounding Montessori's method and its applications to education in the developing world. In particular she has unearthed documents that establish her theories as a foundation for school models in urban India.
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