her educational method. The term “cosmic education” was introduced to describe an approach for children that emphasized the interdependence of all elements of the natural world. Children worked with plants and animals in their natural environments. Illustrations, charts, and models created lessons. Materials for botany, zoology, and geography were created. This work led to two books: Education for a New World and To Educate the Human Potential.
Maria Montessori with son Mario (left) and the theosophist George Arundale with his wife Rukmini Devi in India, 1939
In 1944, the Montessoris were granted freedom of movement. In 1945, Montessori attended the first “All India Montessori Conference” in Jaipur. In 1946, after the war, at age 76, she and her family returned to Amsterdam and spent the next six years traveling Europe and India conducting training courses.
While in London, she opened the Montessori Center, a training institute that continued as the St. Nicolas Training Center. In 1947, she returned to Italy to re-establish the Opera Nazionale Montessori and gave two more training courses. Later that year, she returned to India and taught courses in Adyar and Ahmedabad. This led to the English edition of the book, The Absorbent Mind. Dr. Montessori described child development from birth onwards and presented her concept of the Four Planes of Development.
In 1948, Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all'educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini was revised again and published in English as The Discovery of the Child. In 1949, she taught a course in Karachi, Pakistan, and the Pakistan Montessori Association was founded. In 1949, Montessori attended the 8th International Montessori Congress in Sanremo, Italy, where a model classroom was demonstrated.
The Scuola Assistenti All'Infanzia (Montessori School for Assistants to Infancy) was also established. Plus, Dr. Montessori was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was also awarded the French Legion of Honor, Officer of the Dutch Order of Orange Nassau, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Amsterdam.
In 1950, she visited Scandinavia, represented Italy at the UNESCO conference in Florence, presented at the 29th international training course in Perugia, gave a national course in Rome, published a fifth edition of Il Metodo with the new title La Scoperta del Bambino (The Discovery of the Child), and was again nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1951, she participated in the 9th International Montessori Congress in London, gave a training course in Innsbruck, and was nominated for the third time for the Nobel Peace Prize. Editor’s note: So WHY didn’t she get it?
Dr. Montessori was directly involved in the founding of the UNESCO Institute for Education in 1951. She was present at the first preliminary meeting of the UNESCO Governing Board in Wiesbaden, Germany, on 19 June 1951 and delivered a speech. She used the address as an opportunity to redouble her advocacy for the rights of the child – whom she often referred to as the "forgotten citizen" or "neglected citizen” – by declaring:
“Remember that people do not start at the age of twenty, ten, or six, but at birth. In your efforts at solving problems, do not forget that children and young people make up a vast population, a population without rights that is being crucified on school benches everywhere, which – for all that we talk about democracy, freedom, and human rights – is enslaved by a school order, by intellectual rules, which we impose on it.
We define the rules, how they should be learned, and at what age. The child population is the only population without rights. The child is the neglected citizen. Think of this and fear the revenge of this populace, for it is his soul that we are suffocating. It is the lively powers of the mind that we are oppressing, powers that cannot be destroyed without killing the individual, powers that tend either towards violence or destruction or slip away into the realm of sickness, as Dr. Stern has so well elucidated.”
Dr. Maria Montessori was a trailblazer and champion for children globally!
10 December 1951 was the third anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In observance of this, UNESCO held a celebration. Dr. Montessori was one of the guests who would also deliver a speech to commemorate and memorialize the momentous occasion. As with her speech six months previously – in front of the UNESCO Board of Governors in Wiesbaden – Montessori once again highlighted the lack of any "Declaration of the Rights of the Child,” stating in part, "in truth, the [Universal] Declaration of Human Rights appears to be exclusively dedicated to adult society.”
On 6 May 1952, at the age of 81, Maria Montessori died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Noordwijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. However, her outstanding contributions and trailblazing legacy will benefit each new generation globally.
The name Montessori is not legally protected. Hence, there are many Montessori organizations. Dr. Montessori’s methods are outlined in such books as Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica (1909; The Montessori Method, 1912), The Advanced Montessori Method (1917–18), The Secret of Childhood (1936), Education for a New World (1946), To Educate the Human Potential (1948), and La Mente Assorbente (1949; The Absorbent Mind, 1949).
Dr. Montessori was an extraordinary person: a physician, humanitarian, highly respected educator, and an activist for women’s and children's rights and peace.
I hope Dr. Montessori’s story inspires others as much as it did me.