What is the history of the Montessori method of education?
Dr. Maria Montessori was the first woman to attend and graduate from medical school in Italy. She was a doctor of medicine, a psychiatrist, and anthropolgist who became interested in the field of education through her experiences with patients, colleagues and educators. Dr. Montessori opened the first Montessori classroom in Rome in 1907. She based the Montessori method of education on scientific observation of children’s learning processes. She equipped the classroom with developmentally appropriate activities, guided by her discovery that children learn through their senses, teaching themselves as a result of their environmental experiences. The Montessori method soon appeared in classrooms all over the world as word spread of the remarkable results of her program. The first Montessori class in Canada was in the Bell home in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1917, where seven Bell grandchildren attended. At that time, Alexander Graham Bell was president of the Montessori Educational Associ
