7/29/2019 Maria Montessori Peace Champion

1/3

Maria Montessori, Champion for Peace

Many will write today about the inspirational figure that is Dr. Martin Luther King,

Jr. I could add my voiceto that chorus again, but this year Id like to celebrate Dr.

Kings legacy by writing about another peacemaker, another believer in the ideathat only love can drive out hate: Dr. Maria Montessori.Many are familiar with Dr. Montessori as a brilliant figure in education who

developed a method for teaching children that is still widely used and respectedtoday. Her methods have truly stood the test of time, and in recent years have

been shown to align even with the most current research into child development 1,hence the methods continued popularity.

There was far more to Maria Montessori, however. Not only was she a brillianteducator, educational philosopher, and physician, but she was a champion for

peace and for equal rights. Despite her parents recommendation, Maria specificallychose not to study education since one of the few professional roles that the women

of her day were encouraged to fill was that of a teacher. Instead, she pursued otherinterests and eventually attended the University of Romes medical school at a time

when a woman doing such a thing was virtually unheard of. She faced a great dealof persecution in her time there, but persevered to become one of Italys first

female doctors. She was her own womens rights movement.

Montessoris early work was in the universitys psychiatric clinic, where she worked

with children with severe disabilities children who at the time were considereddefective and uneducable. She threw herself into research on methods of

education that might reach these children, going to great lengths to find theresources she needed. She truly stood back and observed the children in her care,

seeing them simply as children requiring a different approach. She treated them

like human beings worthy of the same dedication and respect that normalchildren were given. Not surprisingly, these children were actually quite capable ofbeing educated, and this fact was clearly shown when, after working with Dr.

Montessori, they presented for the same state exams that their peers were givenand received above-average scores. She gave these children her respect and

dedication as well as fair treatment, and they thrived.

The first Montessori school, or Casa dei Bambini (Childrens House) was

not an elite private school like many of the Montessori schools oftoday. Instead, it was located in a housing complex in an extremely poor area of

Rome 2. Dr. Montessori was brought in to solve the problem of these children, whowere too young to attend the schools of the day, being left unsupervised while theirparents were out working, and causing damage to the building itself.

Montessori took on this work, and the lives of the children in that first Childrens

House were transformed by it, so much so that many more Childrens Houses wereopened in the years that followed. Montessori believed, even then, in the educationof the whole child and recognized the tremendous work that would have to be donein order to help these young children develop in a way that would empower them to

come out of the poverty and oppressive conditions they were growing up in. There

1

http://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-

http://vibrantwanderings.com/2011/01/we-have-to-be-compassion.htmlhttp://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-1http://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-2http://vibrantwanderings.com/2011/01/we-have-to-be-compassion.htmlhttp://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-1http://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-2

7/29/2019 Maria Montessori Peace Champion

2/3

was great work to be done here, and the education of a small number of childrenwas a start, but Montessori called for more. Each Childrens House, she said, was to

be assigned both a directress, or teacher, and a physician. The mothers of thechildren in attendance were expected to meet with the directress each week. In thisway, the goals of the Childrens House and goals of the home could be aligned, andthe benefit of the Childrens House could touch the entire family.

Montessori explains,

We have placed it [the Children's House] within as theproperty of the collectivity

This idea of the collective ownership of the school is new and very beautiful and

profoundly educational. The parents know that the Childrens House is theirproperty, and is maintained by a portion of the rent they pay. The mothers may

go at any hour of the day to watch, to admire, or to meditate upon the lifethere3. Montessori goes on to explain how the creation of the Childrens House is

just the beginning of many changes she believes are possible, that will serve toliberate women from all those attributes that once made her desirable to man

only as the source of the material blessings of existenceShe shall wish to beloved for herself and not for herself and not as a giver of love and repose3.

In the creation and maintenance of the Childrens Houses, Montessoriworked tirelessly to improve the lives of children and their families. Hermethods gained a great deal of attention and she became an important figure in

education, traveling, writing, speaking, and otherwise furthering her philosophy.

In 1922 Montessori was appointed as Italys Inspector of Schools, but things took

a turn during World War II. The rise of fascism changed the social and

political climate of Italy and Montessori was pressured to turn herschools into instruments to further fascist ideals, essentially training upsoldiers. Montessori, always one to stick to her convictions, refused to cave to

this pressure and was eventually exiled, together with her son, by Mussolini.

During this time, Montessori worked primarily in India, furthering her method and

developing training programs for teachers there. While she had spoken before ofthe potential of the child to lead mankind toward a brighter and more peaceful

future, world events at the time seem to have caused still deeper reflection onthese ideas and Montessori began to speak all the more of education for peace.In the introduction to Education for a New World, she says:

Our world has been torn to pieces, and is in need of reconstruction, of which aprimary factor is education But humanity is not yet ready for the evolution thatit desires so ardently, the construction of a peaceful and harmonious society that

shall eliminate war. Men are not sufficiently educated to control events, sobecome their victims. Noble ideas, great sentiments have always found

utterance, but wars have not ceased! If education were to continue along thelines of mere transmission of knowledge, the problem would be insoluble and

there would be no hope for the world we have before us in the child a psychic

2

http://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-3http://vibrantwanderings.com/?p=3538&preview=true#fn-3538-3http://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-3http://vibrantwanderings.com/?p=3538&preview=true#fn-3538-3

7/29/2019 Maria Montessori Peace Champion

3/3

entity, a social group of immense size, a veritable world-power if rightly used. Ifsalvation and help are to come, it is from the child, for the child is the constructor

of man, and so of society. The child is endowed with an inner power which canguide us to a more luminous future. Education should no longer be mostly aboutthe imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release ofhuman potentialities4.

The education that Montessori spoke of was not the type that attempts to trainchildren up in the way that adults think they should go, assuming the child to bean empty vessel in need of adult insights and wisdom. On the contrary,Montessori explains that,

education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural processspontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by

listening to words but by experiences upon the environmentHuman teacherscan only help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master.

Doing so, they will be witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul and to therising of a New Man who will not be the victim of events, but will have the clarity

of vision to direct and shape the future of human society4.Many mistakenly view Montessori as a rigid system of education overly focusedon academics. In reality, a true Montessori education focuses on holisticeducation, achieved by allowing all of the potentialities of the child to unfold and

giving him or her a sense of the interconnectedness of all things 5.

For her efforts, Montessori received six nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize

over three years: 1949, 1950, and 1951. Not only did she revolutionizeeducation, but she worked to further the rights of children, of women,

and of all mankind. She trusted in the human ability to create a better,more peaceful society and her work, not only in education, but in the

promotion of peace remains relevant to this day. Much can be learned, notonly from her educational methods, but from her courage, passion, and

unceasing commitment to peace and equality.

3

http://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-4http://vibrantwanderings.com/?p=3538&preview=true#fn-3538-4http://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-5http://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-4http://vibrantwanderings.com/?p=3538&preview=true#fn-3538-4http://vibrantwanderings.com/2012/01/maria-montessori-champion-for-peace.html#fn-3538-5