Timeline of Maria Montessori’s life
1870
Maria Montessori is born on August 31 in Chiaravalle in the provence Ancona in Italy.
She is the only child and follows primary and secondary school and continues in a boys’ school ( engineering) in Rome.
1890
She insists to follow a medical education in order to become a doctor, which is not in agreement with the idea of her father.
1896
Maria Montessori finishes her degree “ Doctor of Medicine” from the University of Rome. She continues her studies about children by studying the writings of French doctors Itard and Séguin, who worked with disabled children.
1901
Maria extends her studies in education, experimental psychology, and anthropology—at the University of Rome and pays visits to elementary schools in order to do anthropological research.
1900
As she works at the psychiatric clinic in Rome, she is appointed as director of the Orthophrenic School, a pilot school for training teachers of children with developmental disabilities. Then she starts her experiments and develop materials to stimulate the senses of the children , who are delayed in their development. She succeeds in stimulating the development of some of the children to such an extent that they reach the same results on state exams as general developing schoolchildren!
1904-08
She teaches in anthropology and biology at the University of Rome’s school of education, and during the same period she continues her clinical observations of students in Rome’s elementary schools. (Her book Pedagogical Anthropology (1910) is a result of this period)
1907-1908
She opens a Children’s House (Casa dei Bambini) in Rome and the next year a second one in Milan.
1909
After giving a training course in her method to about 100 students, she writes her book “the Montessori Method” .
1911
Her method is becoming more known and introduced to school in England, Argentina, Italy and Swiss. Also model schools are 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
Maria runs the First International Training Course in her apartment in Rome, under the patronage of Italy’s 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 is 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.
1916
She 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.
Maria starts the Fourth International Training Course in Barcelona and a 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
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
Maria Montessori teaches at Amsterdam University.
1921
She continues the 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.
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 centre with a model Montessori school is 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.
Lectures in Vienna, during which she becomes acquainted with Anna Freud (founder of child psychoanalysis and daughter of Sigmund Freud).
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).
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.
The Netherlands becomes her home; a training centre 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
1939
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.
1940-1946
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.
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 establishes 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.
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
International conference in Amsterdam in honour of Maria Montessori’s 80th birthday.
1952
Maria Montessori dies May 6 in Noordwijk aan Zee, Netherlands; she is buried at the local Catholic cemetery.
