Maria Montessori as an Educational Giant

Erika Jo Hellbusch

ED 200 – 03 (Online)
November 08, 2013

Abstract
Maria Montessori was a woman who worked hard to gain her education. Her ideas set the foundation for many private education programs seen today. After struggling to gain and education of her own, Maria took what she learned about educating those with mental disabilities and began to apply it to mainstream students. She opened her own small school where she implemented these strategies and it evolved into the Montessori education system used in many private schools. While these strategies aren’t used as often in public schools, there are teachers that apply them within their classrooms whether they mean to or not.

Key words: Maria Montessori, private education, Montessori education system

Maria Montessori worked very hard to gain her education and helped shape the face of many private education programs seen today. After learning how to work with mentally disabled children, Maria decided to use what she had discovered and apply it to teaching mainstream students. Her ideas evolved into the Montessori education system and are seen in many private schools today.
Maria was born on August 31, 1870 to well-educated parents. Her father, Alessandro Montessori, was an official of the Ministry of Finance and her mother was the great-niece of the Italian geologist and paleontologist Antonio Stoppani. Because of her father’s work, her family moved around a little when she was young, but stayed in Rome after moving there in 1875. Maria started public school in Rome at the age of 6 where she didn’t get the best grades, but was recognized for good behavior in 1st grade. At the age of 13, she started secondary school and began to get much better grades. She graduated secondary school at the age of 15 and quickly after continued her education at the