The Secret of Childhood

Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian physician and educationist, born in Rome, the first woman in Italy to receive a mediacal degree (1894), she founded a school for children with learning disabilities (1899-1901), and developed a system of education for children of three to six based on spontaneity of expression and freedom from restraint. The system was later worked out for older childre, and applied in Montessori schools throughout the world. She opened the first Montessori school for children in the slums of Rome in 1907