Montessori Education helps each child
reach their full potential, whether that potential is in art, math, science,
literature, computers, music, or performance. Our educational model allows each
child to pursue his own interests. For example, in addition to the list of
Montessori graduates and proponents shown below, it is interesting to note
that:
The youngest Noble Peace
Prize nominee is a Montessori graduate
The youngest Rhodes
Scholar is a Montessori graduate
The youngest artist to exhibit
at the United Nations is a Montessori graduate
Dr. Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952)
Montessori education has been in existence for over 100 years. Dr. Maria
Montessori's first class began in 1907 and consisted of about 50 to 60
children, ages 3 to 6 years old, who lived in the slums of Rome, Italy. She
described the ages from three to six years old as being a particularly
sensitive time during which young children are especially attuned to acquiring
knowledge from and about their environment.The news of the unprecedented success
of Dr. Montessori's work in this 'Casa dei Bambini' (Children's House) soon
spread around the world, people coming from far and wide to see for themselves
the remarkable educational advances of these children. Montessori education soon
spread to other countries. Her educational method is in use today in public and
private schools throughout the world.
Time Magazine and
Nobel Foundation
Maria Montessori was the first female entrepreneur to appear on the cover
of Time magazine. She was a physician and educator and appeared on the cover of
the February 3, 1930 edition. Maria Montessori was known throughout the world
for her philosophy and method of educating children from birth to adolescence.
She was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize and won numerous awards
in the field of education during her life.
Alexander Graham Bell,
Thomas Edison and Helen Keller
In 1913, Dr. Montessori was invited to the USA by the renowned Alexander Graham Bell. Among
Montessori's supporters were Thomas
Edison, Helen Keller, and others
who were interested in this new method in education. Alexander Graham Bell and
his wife founded the Montessori Educational Association that year, with
Alexander Graham Bell as its president.
Founders of Google
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of the Internet search engine Google.com, have stated many times that
their years as Montessori students were a major factor behind their success. They
say that going to a Montessori school taught them to be self-directed
self-starters who could think for themselves. They also state that a Montessori
education gave them the freedom to pursue their own interests allowing them to
"think outside the box".
Founder of Amazon.com
Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, the most dominant retailer on
the Internet, attended a Montessori School. By his mother's account, the young
Jeffrey got so engrossed in the details of activities at his Montessori school that
teachers had to pick him up in his chair to move him to new tasks.
Julia Child, world
renowned American chef, author, and television personality
In her book "Julia Child and Company," Ms. Child says that
Montessori learning taught her to love working with her hands. John Long, head
of a Montessori school in Houston, wrote about Child's connection to Montessori
education and states: “Maria Montessori wanted kids to develop 'a friendly
relationship to error,' – to understand that mistakes are a normal part of
learning, and that to learn, you must be willing to make mistakes, and then to
move forward."
American computer game
designer of the best-selling PC game in history
William Wright, an American computer game designer whose greatest success
to date is as the original designer for The Sims games series, the best-selling
PC game in history. He was educated at a local Montessori school, where he
enjoyed its emphasis on creativity, problem solving, and self-motivation.
Wright admitted to having been inspired to create certain elements of SimCity
from his experiences in the school. "Montessori taught me the joy of
discovery...It showed you can become interested in pretty complex theories,
like Pythagorean theory, say, by playing with blocks. It’s all about learning
on your terms, rather than a teacher explaining stuff to you. SimCity comes
right out of Montessori—if you give people this model for building cities, they
will abstract from it principles of urban design."
Co-founder of
Wikipedia
As a child, Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, was an avid reader with
an acute intellectual curiosity. This he credits to the influence of the
Montessori Method which was the basis of his school's philosophy of education. There
were only four other children in Wales' grade, so the school grouped together
the first through fourth grade students and the fifth through eighth grade
students. During an interview in 2005 with Brian Lamb, he credits the influence
of the Montessori Method on the school's philosophy of education, where he "spent
lots of hours poring over the Britannica and World Book Encyclopedias".
Nobel Prize winner for
Literature
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a Nobel Prize winner for Literature who attended
Montessori de Aracataca, Columbia, for 5 years and credited his time there with
making him fall in love with language. He said that Montessori Education gave
him the desire to "kiss literature" and "the taste instilled to
him to go to the school, not only to see literature but to write it."Many Montessori websites quote the
Nobel prize winner as saying, “I do not believe there is a method better than
Montessori for making children sensitive to the beauties of the world and
awakening their curiosity regarding the secrets of life.”
Dr. Jagdish Gandhi
In India, Dr. Jagdish Gandhi,
inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and others, established City Montessori School in
1959. City Montessori School has become
the largest Montessori school in the world with over 47,000 students. City
Montessori School has won numerous awards, including being the winner of the
2002 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. The school is noted for its “meaningful,
value-based and quality education to children…Over the last 53 years, hundreds of
thousands of students have passed out from of the portals of CMS, reinforced
with virtues and values of World Unity and World Peace, and equipped with a
global perspective and international vision to successfully face the challenges
of tomorrow.”
