At age 13, Montessori acted on her interest in mathematics and her vision of studying engineering, and convinced her parents to enroll her in a technical institute, in a class where she was one of two female students. This article presents how Maria Montessori broke through barriers to leave an innovative educational method. A timeline of her life…

In this article, the author reflects on a trip to Italy where she visited Dr. Montessori's birthplace in Chiaravalle.

Maria Montessori arrived in India in 1939 to conduct the first training course on the Asian continent. Thus began Montessori's extended stay in India. She wrote and published "The Absorbent Mind," crystallized the Elementary curriculum, and developed the theory of "Planes of Development" as the basis for the curriculum from…

Philipp Abraham Kohnstamm (1875-1951) was one of the founders of Dutch educational science and a key figure in the New Education movement in the Netherlands. This article has three aims: first, to depict Kohnstamm as an insightful example in the process of sharing and adopting ideas around New Education and the implementation of these ideas in the…

This article has as its focus the life and thinking of the practitioner and theorist Norman MacMunn (1877-1925), whose experimental work in a number of schools outlined a new conception of freedom and one that drew initially upon the thinking and practice of Maria Montessori. It explores how MacMunn used these new psychological ideas to develop…

Roslyn Davis Williams (1921-1997), a Montessori parent who became a leader in American Montessori education, followed a long tradition of Black educators who sought to end the scourge of racial segregation in America. In 1967, facing the imminent closure of her daughter's Montessori preschool program, Williams (along with other parents) founded…

This article provides photographs, quotes, and a timeline that traces Maria Montessori's legacy.

Kathleen Allen's reverence for the stories of women naturalists spanning from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries, and their parallel scientific interest in the documentation of life cycles through art and narratives, gives support to the child in history and nature that is so central to Montessori formal research and discipline. The…

Educational pioneers believed that the early childhood curriculum was inappropriate for most of the children. It needed to be modified to meet each child's maturing needs, abilities, and interests. The pioneers advocated that education should be more hands-on and assist children to function successfully in society. They recommended the initiation…

Dr. Margaret "Peggy" Loeffler (1921-2016) was a true Montessori pioneer, someone who had a lasting impact on the American Montessori Society (AMS), on Montessori schools, and on teacher education programs. In this article, John Chattin-McNichols shares some of his memories of her, and, in doing so, also reflects on some of his memories…

This article explores the history and pedagogy of Janusz Korczak within the context of his contemporary early Twentieth-Century European Innovative Educators which include Maria Montessori, Homer Lane, A.S. Neill, and Anton Semyonovitch Makarenko. The pedagogies of the aforementioned are compared and contrasted within the literature.

For more than 30 years, the thinking and writing of Jerome W. Berryman has made a significant and unique contribution to the religious education of children and adults in faith-based contexts. Claiming to be influenced primarily by the work of Maria Montessori, his writings reveal the purpose of religious education to be teaching children the art…

Gerard Leonard and Kathleen Allen describe a variety of nature experiences as a part of the Montessori elementary tradition, beginning with a warning about the way contemporary life constrains children's experience of nature. Through a lyrical rendering of the nature-based expressions of children, Leonard and Allen look at a variety of approaches…

In this article, the author profiles Dr. Elisabeth Caspari (1899-2002). As a teacher of teachers, Caspari traveled extensively for 50 years, sharing the wisdom she had gleaned from her training under Dr. Maria Montessori in Adyar, India, and from 4 years of frequent association with Montessori and her son, Mario, in Kodaikanal. The threads of…

In this article, the author presents the biography of Maria Montessori, who pioneered early childhood education and introduced a new method of pedagogy. The innovations in education that Montessori introduced were enough to reserve a place for her in the history books. Montessori was ahead of her time in many aspects of her life. The decisions…