Montessori, Maria (1870–1952)

Italian educationist. Working with mentally disabled children, she developed the Montessori method, an educational system for all children based on an informal approach, incorporating instructive play and allowing children to develop at their own pace.

The Montessori method also emphasizes the value of work. Children are given a wide variety of materials carefully graded to permit repetition, self-correction, and self-education. She wrote The Montessori Method 1912 and The Secret of Childhood 1936.

She was born near Ancona and studied at Rome. In 1894, she became the first woman in Italy to take a medical degree. She specialized in paediatric medicine and psychiatry.