Maria Montessori

This woman is the subject of this biography. She was born in 1870, the first year that Italy existed as a united nation. Her parents took such an interest in her education that they relocated to Rome where there were superior schools.

Since the biography is about her and her educational discoveries and systems, most of the details are left to the chapter summary. Maria had a strong spirit and some important support within her family. Her major work was in making discoveries about specific qualities about children.

Developmental qualities that occur in every child were, once discovered, integrated into the educational environment. Maria Montessori figured out that educational environments could be prepared to make the most of the stage of development of each child. This included the discovery that children actually do best in groups of mixed ages specifically because this makes the most of the mutual...