One of the most significant early years teaching methodologies of the 20th century, in our opinion at Little Cakes, is the Montessori method.
Children learn best by "doing," according to the very effective teaching approach created by Dr. Maria Montessori.
She produced materials that were especially intended to encourage independence and a love of learning from a young age.
She was one of the first women to enrol in medical school in Italy. She was born on August 31st, 1870 in Chiaravalle, Italy.
As one of the first women in Italy and the first student at the University of Rome, this allowed her to enrol in the Faculty of Medicine.
She began to overcome the obstacles that women's careers faced as her schooling advanced, and on July 10, 1896, she became one of Italy's first female doctors, making her well-known throughout the nation.
She focused on two pioneering Frenchmen from the early 19th century, Jean-Marc Itard and his pupil Edouard Sguin.
He developed useful tools that Montessori would later use in novel ways to aid in the development of the sensory perceptions and motor skills of children with intellectual disabilities.
Maria was also named co-director of the Orthophrenic School, a brand-new organisation.
The school accepted students with a wide range of disorders.
She developed more as an instructor here than as a medical professional.
After leaving the Orthophrenic School in 1901, Montessori devoted herself to her own anthropological and educational philosophy research.
She began working as a lecturer at the University of Rome's Pedagogic School in 1904, a position she kept until 1908.
Maria was given the chance to entertain a group of average kids (whose parents where out working all day).
On January 6, 1907, she founded her first Casa dei Bambini, or Children's House.
Later, she would call this auto-education.
There were five Case dei Bambini running by the fall of 1908, four in Rome and one in Milan.
The new educational strategy started to expand within a year when the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland started converting its kindergartens into Case dei Bambini.
Around 100 pupils received the initial instruction in Maria Montessori's methodology during the summer of 1909.
Her notes from this period became her first book, published that same year in Italy, which appeared in translation in the United States in 1912 as The Montessori Method, reaching second place on the U.S. nonfiction bestseller list.
It now has a significant impact on education policy.
Now came a time when the Montessori method experienced significant growth.
Montessori societies, training programmes, and schools sprang to life all over the world, and from then on Montessoris life would be dedicated to spreading the educational approach she had developed by delivering courses and giving lectures in many countries.
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