Dr. Maria Montessori was born
August 30, 1870 in Italy. Today, we celebrate her work not as a philosopher but
as an educator for young children. She was influenced by the works of Jean Itard,
Edouard Seguin, Friedrich Frobel and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, all of whom
emphasize sensory exploration and manipulations. She believed that when a child
is presented with a rich environment of color, texture, shapes and sounds s/he
gets enthralled with learning. Learning is a skill; it is a process of
touching, feeling and comprehending with our senses. Dr. Maria Montessori began
her work in India in 1939 and her work in India was continued by her students
A.J. Joosten and S.R. Swamy. I was fortunate enough to be trained by Mr. S.R.
Swamy.
Today on her birthday we would
like to recognize her contribution to early childhood education and creating
this method that she presented during a time of great change. Her teaching
methods have influenced generations of children to actively learn and explore
the world around them.
