What Were the Discoveries Made by Dr. Maria Montessori at Casa de Bambini?

1931 Words8 Pages
Maria Montessori, born in 1870 was the first female in Italy to graduate with a degree in medicine in 1894 and later worked as an assistant doctor in a Psychiatric Clinic in the University of Rome. Having the opportunity to work with the retarded children, she said ‘defective children were not extra social beings, not more than – normal ones’ (E.M Standing, Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work, pg 29) In 1898 she was appointed as the director of the Orthophrenic School, where her retarded children were first to have the opportunity to manipulative materials and had proven to be able to help them to normalized. The more Montessori came in contact with these defective children – studying them, meditating over their condition, longing to help them – the more strongly did she come to differ from the generally accepted views with regard to them. It became increasingly apparent to her that mental deficiency was a pedagogical problem rather than a medical one. (E.M Standing, Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work, pg 28) Under her guidance and skilful direction some of these children were able to pass a public examination taken by the normal children. After being successful in teaching the defective children she has been wanted to put her theories in practice with normal children and her opportunity finally came in 1907. The first Casa de Bambini was more of a day-care center than a school situated in San Lorenzo - a slum district, an area full of crime and povert where Dr Montessori was put in charge of sixty children age three to six years old. The main purpose of this center is to stop the children from vandalizing the building and lingering in the streets while their parents were at work. A room was set aside to keep the children under supervision and care. Dr. Montessori applied her methods that had been successful on the retarded children, she also brought

More about What Were the Discoveries Made by Dr. Maria Montessori at Casa de Bambini?

Open Document