A short History of Maria Montessori

A Short History of DRP. Marl Interiors and her Methods Teaching a two years old child how to be Independent, responsible and confident sounds Impossible, but more than 100 years back an Italian doctor named Marl Interiors made It possible. As she believed “the study of child psychology In the first years of life opens to our eyes such wonders that no one seeing them with understanding can fail to be deeply stirred. Our work as adults does not consist in teaching, but in helping the infant mind in its work of development. (What is Interiors preschool? By David Khan p. ) Maria Interiors was born on 31st August 1870 in Charitable in Anaconda, Italy. Her father Alexandra was old-fashioned man with military habits; however her mother Reining was an educated woman which was very unusual in those days. They were a middle class family and Maria Interiors was their only child. When Maria Interiors was around five they moved to Rome and a year after she started school there. Interiors was an ambitious girl with a strong personality.

She was good at mathematics and wanted to be an engineer, but later on she discovered her love for biology and her final decision was to study medicine. Her father was against her Idea of studying medicine since In those days only boys could become doctors. Although she took her flirts degree, she struggled a lot to make her way into the medical university and by that she was the first female medical student in Italy. Maria Interiors thought that this was the end of her struggles but actually it was Just the beginning. She faced difficulties by being the only woman student.

The students which were all men were insulting her when she was passing the corridors and they tried very hard to frighten her away but that did not work. She even assisted a dead body in a room by her own, because it was not proper for a girl to dissect a body in front of men. For her that was not a pleasant experience as she said “there, on the other side, the skeleton – ever more enormous – seemed to move. ‘My God, what have I done to suffer in this way? Why me all alone in the midst of all this death? ‘…. A shiver ran through my bones. ” (Marl Interiors by Michael Pollard p. 5) On that night she became feverish and her mother told her that she do not have to go back to the university, but the next morning Interiors decided to go back and finish what she started. In 1 896 she graduated and became the first female physician in Italy. After graduation she worked in psychiatric clinic in the university of Rome for “idiot” children. In the room where the children were there was nothing for them to handle or play with, there were only benches for them to sit on. The children were clean and feed but after meals they throw themselves on the floor to pick up the crumbs of bread.

DRP. Interiors thought that this cannot be right, therefore something need to be done to help these children. She went to Paris and visited the Procurable Institute where she studied a lot of people. The first to study was Jab Marc Gaspers Atari; he was a physician In the Institute of deaf-mutes in Paris. In his late twenties a boy around eleven years was brought to him, he was found In the woods around Everyone. The boy was more Like an animal and scientists from all around the world came to see him. DRP. Philippe Pine an expert in insanity was nothing can be done. Tara disagreed with him and thought that the wild boy needed training, so he took him home and named him victor. His house keeper helped him to train victor, she loved the wild boy and she was helping him to socialize. ‘Tara used trick methods and tried to teach him language, he even isolated his senses. The boy learned only few words Milk and God; therefore ‘Tara gave up on him and took him back to the institute. Interiors was interested in how the wild boy could not learn language even though he was able to hear.

She began her investigation on when children need to learn language and she even took the isolation concept from ‘Tara. The second person she studied was Detoured Segueing a doctor who studied medicine under ‘Tara. Segueing wished to enter the dark world of the “idiot: children and he accomplished that in a short period. He had an experiment on an “idiot” boy and he was able to train him by using his senses. After the training the boy was able speak, write and even count. Segueing used gymnastic equipments and tools used in daily life to train the boy.

He used beads to thread, pieces of cloth to be buttoned and laced, different sized nails to be inserted in matching sized holes and other tools to help the boy learn the daily life skills. Interiors found what she was looking for after studying Segueing and she decided to study education for the first time in her life. For two years Interiors was training teacher in special methods of observing and educating feeble-minded children in Orthopedic School. The children there were sent from elementary schools to asylums as “idiots”, because they could not function as well as the others.

Interiors spent eleven hours during the day observing and teaching the children by using different materials and methods. At night she would write up her notes on what she sees during the day. She worked really hard with these children as she said “those two years of practice, are my first and indeed my true degree in pedagogy. “(Maria Interiors, A Biography by Rata Kramer p. 98) Some f the children learned to read and write and they even were able to pass the same exam that was given to normal children in the primary grades. DRP.

Interiors thought that the only reason that these children could pass the test is that they were taught in a different way and she wondered why the normal children had these results, as she said “While everyone was admiring the progress of my “idiots”, I was searching for the reason which could keep the happy healthy children of the common schools on so low a plane that they could be equaled in test of intelligence by my unfortunate pupils. (Maria Interiors, A Biography by Rata Kramer p. 91) Maria Interiors had an affair with DRP. Montanan, but they never got married and no one knows the reason.

Between 1898 and 1901 her son Mario was born and as it was not acceptable for women to have a baby without a marriage Mario was sent to live with a family in the country. Interiors visited him but not often and until he was a teenager he did not know that she was his real mother. After that she gave up work at the psychiatric clinic and went to study philosophy and psychology on her own. She also translated and copied out with her own hand ‘Tara and Segueing works room French to Italian. Few years later in Rome wealthy bankers decided to put money to improve life of people there.

They started with a building unit in San Lorenz, the people who were living there were very poor and illiterate. When they went to work their little children were left in the streets and that was the first thing children between two and six years old. Interiors accepted that as she always wanted the opportunity to work with normal children. She was given a room with few furniture, therefore she asks for support from society women to help her collect funds for toys and material. She also found the daughter of the caretaker Candida Enunciate who was untrained and put her in charge of looking after the children.

Interiors believed that the women in charge of the children should be someone who lived in the same place. On Jan 6, 1907 the Case die Bambini was officially opened. On the first day the children were scared and they were wearing a thick blue smocks which made them uncomfortable as they could not move freely. Interiors was not there very often, she sometimes visited only once a week to observe the children. One day she brought some materials that were designed by ‘Tara and Segueing and on her next visits she observed some changes in the children. The children preferred the materials she brought in rather than playing with the toys or drawing.

There were social changes, their personalities grew and they even showed understanding in the activities they were doing. For months Interiors was observing the changes in the children and discussed that with the teacher. Later on she gradually began creating and modifying the ‘sensory material’. One day when Interiors came for a visit Candida was upset and told Interiors that she forgot to lock the large cupboard that contained all the material and when she entered the mom she saw that the children have opened the cupboard and took the materials out.

Candida thought that children were thieves and they had to be punished, but Interiors looked at it as accomplishment. She thought that the children were ready to work; therefore they choose to bring out the materials and start working. From here Interiors decided to get rid of the large locked cupboard and replace it with a long low one were the children could take any materials they like to work with and return it back when they are finished. She also changes the tables and chair and got hem in child-size were the children could carry them and move them around easily.

Interiors wanted to provide the children with an environment where they can be spontaneous and free. Her aim was to make the children independent and teach them to do thing by their own, as she said “Education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual and is acquired not by listening to words but by experience in the environment. ” (Maria Interiors by Michael Pollard p. 33). She soon opened another Children House in San Lorenz for the privilege children. These years that DRP. Interiors spent in San Lorenz and her experiment there, made her famous in Rome.

Couple years after her name traveled all around the world. In the early sass Interiors was asked to be the government inspector of schools in Italy and she was promised by Mussolini his full support for her method. Interiors liked the idea of being supported be a powerful government, but soon things changed. Mussolini’s government was planning for a war and asked Interiors to Join all the Interiors schools in his Fascist organization. She did not agree with him, therefore over a night all Interiors schools were shut down and Maria Interiors went to Spain.

She stayed in there for a short time as after two years the civil war broke out and another Fascist took over Spain. By that time Interiors was reunited with her son Mario, but still no one knew that he was her was a separation between him and his first wife. Interiors wanted a place to settle with her son who had become her assistant and with her grandchildren which became close to her. She was offered to live with her friend in Holland, soon she settled there with her family. Two years later she received an invitation to go to India. In the same time a war broke in Europe and Interiors went to India few months eater.

At that time in India there were a number of Interiors schools and teachers that were trained by DRP. Interiors. The people there respected her and even built her a special village where she could lecture and train her students. She stayed there for around six years and it was one of the happiest times in her life. When the war was over Interiors returned to Holland, but she still was traveling around the continents to give lectures. On May 6, 1952 Maria Interiors passed ways in her friend’s garden in Holland and she was buried in a Catholic church at Narrowing-on- Sea, in Holland.

She wanted to be the citizen of the world and to be buried where ever she dies. Interiors struggled to be the first female doctor but gained respect from scientists all over the world and her words about peace and education flew from one country to another. Maria Interiors a women that did not have a happy personal life and did not have a chance to take care of her own son, touched the lives of others and changed the children’s life. “Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world” (Maria Interiors, homeownership. About. Com) that is what she believed.