MONTESSORI ARTICLE

TIMELINE OF DR MARIA MONTESSORI’S LIFE

by Romana Schneider and Gerard Leonard
courtesy of the North American Montessori Teachers’ Association (NAMTA)

1870
Maria Montessori born on August 31 in Chiaravalle, Ancona province, Italy.
Attends a boys’ school in Rome, with a science/engineering emphasis.

1890
Against opposition from her father, she pursues her wish to become a doctor.

1896
Becomes the first woman to obtain a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Rome.
Represents Italy at the International Women’s Congress in Berlin; delivers address on rights of
working women, including equal pay for equal work.
Studies the writings of French doctors Itard and Séguin, who worked with disabled children.

1897-98
Audits courses in pedagogy at the University of Rome; reads all major works in educational
philosophy over the past 200 years.

1899
Attends women’s congress in London; received by Queen Victoria.

1899-1906
Lectureship in hygiene and anthropology at the teacher training college for women in Rome.

1900
Works at the psychiatric clinic in Rome.
Appointed director of the Orthophrenic School, a model school for training teachers of children with
developmental disabilities. For two years, she experiments at the model school with materials to
stimulate the senses. She succeeds in fostering the development of some of the children to such
an extent that they achieve the same results on state exams as typically developing
schoolchildren.

1901
Begins a second degree—in education, experimental psychology, and anthropology—at the
University of Rome. Visits elementary schools to do anthropological research.

1904-08
Lectures in anthropology and biology at the University of Rome’s school of education,
incorporating her clinical observations of pupils in Rome’s elementary schools. These lectures
become the basis of her book Pedagogical Anthropology (1910).
1907
First Children’s House (Casa dei Bambini) is opened at 53 Via dei Marsi in the San Lorenzo district
of Rome on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6.

1908
The Children’s House on Via Solari in Milan, run by Anna Maria Maccheroni, is opened.

1909
Gives the first training course in her method to about 100 students in Rome. There, she writes, in
the space of a month, her first book, Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all’educazione

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infantile nelle Case dei Bambini. In the years to follow, this book is translated into over 20
languages. The English edition is titled The Montessori Method.

1910
Two parallel teacher training courses are held in the Franciscan convent on Via Giusti in Rome,
where there is a model Children’s House.
Second book: L’Antropologia pedagogica (Pedagogical Anthropology).

1911
Resigns her teaching post at the University of Rome and gives up her private medical practice to
concentrate entirely on education.
The Montessori method is already being put into practice in English and Argentinean schools and
is beginning to be introduced into Italian and Swiss primary schools.
Model schools set up in Paris, New York, and Boston.

1912
The English version of Il Metodo appears in the U.S. in an edition of 5,000 copies under the title
The Montessori Method. Within a few days, it is sold out. It reaches second place on the year’s list
of nonfiction bestsellers.

1913
Runs the First International Training Course in her apartment in Rome, under the patronage of
Queen Margherita. Students come from Italy and other European countries, Australia, South
Africa, India, China, the Philippines, the United States, and Canada.
Montessori Educational Association founded in the United States. Its membership includes
Alexander Graham Bell, his wife, Mabel Bell, S.S. McClure, and President Wilson’s daughter,
Margaret Woodrow Wilson.
First trip to the United States.

1914
Second International Training Course in Rome.
Montessori’s third book, Dr. Montessori’s Own Handbook, is published in New York.

1915
Second trip to the United States, accompanied by her son, Mario. Addresses International
Kindergarten Union and National Educational Association (NEA), and runs a training course, the
Third International Course.
At the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, a Montessori class works in a
glass pavilion observed by visitors.
Dr. Montessori’s NEA lectures are published in New York: My System of Education, The
Organization of Intellectual Work in School, Education in Relation to the Imagination of the Little
Child, and The Mother and the Child.

1916
Moves to Barcelona at the invitation of the city government; Barcelona remains her home until the
coup in 1936 that brings General Franco to power.
Fourth International Training Course in Barcelona.
Model Montessori school and a children’s chapel are set up in Barcelona, as well as a teacher
training institute, with the backing of the Catalan government.
Her fourth book appears, L’autoeducazione nelle Scuole Elementari (English title: The Advanced
Montessori Method).

1919

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Training course in London using the format that would become standard: fifty hours of lectures, fifty
hours of teaching using the materials, fifty hours of observation of Montessori classes.

1920
Lectures at Amsterdam University: for the first time, Maria Montessori outlines her ideas on
secondary school education.

1921
Training courses in London and Milan.
Founding of the New Education Fellowship (today known as the World Education Fellowship), of
which Maria Montessori is an active member, engaging in heated debate with the leading
educational reformers of the time.

1922
Publication of I bambini viventi nella Chiesa in Naples (English edition The Child in the Church,
London 1929), Maria Montessori’s first book on the Catholic liturgy from the child’s point of view.
First Children’s House in Vienna set up by Lili Roubiczek.

1923
Training courses in London and the Netherlands.
Montessori’s first visit to the Haus der Kinder in Vienna; start of her collaboration and friendship
with Lili Roubiczek (Peller), Lisl Herbatschek (Braun), and others.

1924
Four-month training course in Amsterdam.
Meeting of Montessori with Benito Mussolini (who had come to power in 1922) results in official
recognition and widespread establishment of Montessori schools by the Italian government.

1925
Training course in London. Dr. Montessori’s son, Mario, takes this course and receives his
Montessori Diploma.

1926
Visits Argentina.
Speaks on “Education and Peace” at the League of Nations in Geneva.

1927
Presented at the English court.
Visits schools in Ireland for the first time.

1928
The book Das Kind in der Familie, based on lectures she gave in 1923 in Vienna, is published in
German. (It will be issued in English as The Child in the Family in 1936.)

1929
A Montessori teacher training center with a model Montessori school has been built in Rome;
collaboration between Maria Montessori and the architects.
First International Montessori Congress in Helsingør, Denmark.
In conjunction with her son, Mario, founds the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), with
headquarters in Berlin (until 1935; after that in Amsterdam).

1930
International Training Course in Rome.

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Lectures in Vienna, during which she becomes acquainted with Anna Freud (founder of child
psychoanalysis and daughter of Sigmund Freud).

1931
International Training Courses in Rome and England.
Lectures at Berlin University.
Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement, visits Montessori schools in
Rome.

1932
Second International Montessori Congress in Nice, France. Montessori delivers lecture Peace and
Education, published by the International Bureau of Education, Geneva.
Publications: La Vita in Cristo (Rome), Ideas Generales Sobre Mi Método (Madrid), The Mass
Explained to Children (London).

1933
The Nazis systematically destroy the Montessori movement in Germany, closing all Montessori
schools.
Third International Montessori Congress in Amsterdam.
Training courses in London, Dublin, and Barcelona.

1934
Fourth International Montessori Congress in Rome.
After conflicts with the fascist system, all Montessori schools in Italy “cease to exist … in a single
day” (Rita Kramer).
Psico-Aritmética and Psico-Geometría published in Barcelona.

1936
Fifth International Montessori Congress in Oxford, England; development of further principles of
Montessori education for Elementary (Cosmic Education) and for secondary schools.
General Franco’s coup; Maria Montessori flees Barcelona for England and then Amsterdam. The
Netherlands becomes her home; a training center with model school is set up in Laren, near
Amsterdam (materials on Cosmic Education are used for the first time), and AMI moves its
headquarters there. At this time there are over 200 Montessori schools in the Netherlands.
Publications: The Secret of Childhood (London), Les Etapes de L’Education (Bruges, Belgium).

1937
Sixth International Montessori Congress in Copenhagen; the theme is “Educate for Peace.”
Montessori delivers several lectures later collected in Education and Peace (first published in Italy
as Educazione e Pace, 1949).

1938
Seventh International Montessori Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Speech at the Sorbonne in Paris in which she makes one of her numerous appeals for peace.

1939
God En het Kind (“God and the Child”) and The ‘Erdkinder’ and the Functions of the University:
The Reform of Education During and After Adolescence published in the Netherlands.
Departs for India with Mario to run what was to be a three-month training course at the invitation of
the Theosophical Society, which has been using the Montessori method to successfully combat
illiteracy.

1940

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Italy enters World War II on the side of the Germans. In June, Mario Montessori interned by the
British colonial government in India as an enemy alien, and Maria Montessori confined to the
compound of the Theosophical Society. Mario is released in August out of the Viceroy’s respect for
Maria Montessori and to honor her 70th birthday. Still, the Montessoris are not allowed to leave the
country until the war is over.

1939-1946
Training courses in Madras, Kodaikanal, Karachi, and Ahmedabad in India, and in Ceylon.
Further develops the Cosmic Education Plan for the Elementary years with Mario’s collaboration.

1941-1942
The Child (1941) and Reconstruction in Education (1942) published in India.

1946
The war over, Maria and Mario Montessori return to Europe.
Training course in London; visit to Scotland.
Education for a New World published in India.

1947
Maria and Mario Montessori establish a Montessori Centre in London.
Trip to Italy: revival of the Montessori Society. Montessori establishments start to be reopened.
Assistants to Infancy work initiated in Rome.
Return to India to give a training course in Adyar.

1948
Training courses in Ahmedabad, Adyar, and Poona; lectures in Bombay.
Trip to Gwalior, India; supervises the opening of a model school up to age twelve.
Visit to the Montessori training centre with model school in Colombo (Ceylon).
De l’enfant á l’adolescent (From Childhood to Adolescence) published in French. This book sets
out Maria Montessori’s concepts for elementary and adolescent education.
The Discovery of the Child, To Educate the Human Potential, What You Should Know about Your
Child, and Child Training published in Madras, India.

1949
First nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize (again in 1950 and 1951).
One-month training course in Pakistan, assisted by Mario and Albert Joosten.
Definitive return to Europe. Eighth International Montessori Congress in San Remo, Italy.
The Absorbent Mind published in India.
Publication of her last major work: Formazione dell’uomo (in English, The Formation of Man, Adyar
1955).

1950
Lecture tour of Norway and Sweden.
Speaks at the General Conference of UNESCO in Florence.
International conference in Amsterdam in honor of Maria Montessori’s 80th birthday.

1951
Ninth International Montessori Congress in London.
Last training course run by Maria Montessori held in Innsbruck, Austria.

1952
Maria Montessori dies May 6 in Noordwijk aan Zee, Netherlands; she is buried at the local Catholic
cemetery.

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