(founded 1907)

Maria Montessori was born in Chiaravalle, Italy, and graduated from the University of Rome as Italy's first female physician. Maria Montessori introduced The Montessori Method of education in Rome in 1907. Her approach stresses development of initiative and self-reliance, while it encourages and permits children to do for themselves within well-defined limits. Dr. Montessori prepared teachers, through skillful techniques in observation, to design environments and materials to meet varying degrees of development within alternative age groupings of children. Each individual child, within this familial age grouping, is addressed and accommodated based upon her own personal developmental readiness and sensitivity, allowing for further development naturally and according to her own unique pace.