A woman before a method. Montessori is named after its founder, Dr Maria Montessori, an Italian physician and anthropologist. Determined not to follow the traditional path of teaching for women in her day, she ironically came into this path after encountering children housed in Rome’s psychiatric institutions, where she observed that many were capable of learning if given the right conditions.

This realisation led her to study educational approaches developed by Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard and Édouard Séguin, and to begin observing children closely in order to understand how they learned.

In 1907, she opened the first Casa dei Bambini (“Children’s House”) in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. Approaching education with the mind of a scientist, Dr Montessori did not impose a predetermined curriculum. Instead, she carefully observed children and allowed their activity and interests to guide the development of the environment and materials.

Contemporary research in neuroscience and child development has increasingly affirmed many of Dr Montessori’s observations about how children learn. Studies also suggest that Montessori education can help reduce achievement gaps for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and contribute to wellbeing later in life.