
Montessori History, Part One
I’ve addressed many classroom topics in our weekly newsletter this school year, but you may also be interested in a bit of the history of Montessori education.

An opportunity arose for her to test her suppositions when the landlords of a tenement in Rome asked her to provide a school for the unsupervised children of all the working parents of the tenement.In 1907 she opened the first “Casadei Bambini” in San Lorenzo with 50 small children of the residents. The results were astonishing and captured the interest of the world.
In 1909 she wrote her first book about the experience, The Montessori Method. The first English translation sold out 5,000 copies in four days. By 1911 both Italy and Switzerland had adopted her methods for all public schools! By 1913there were over 100 private Montessori schools in America. In 1915, at the Pan-Pacific World’s Fair in San Francisco, she was invited to exhibit a model classroom with live working children. It was a huge hit with fair-goers.
Next week, in “Part Two”, I’ll share the subsequent history of why the early growth in America ceased, while the method spread world-wide and what started the slow rebirth of Montessori in this country.
Respect for the American Flag
On April 19, the elementary class had a guest, Mel Schwartzstein, are tired United States veteran, who taught the students proper etiquette for our country’s flag. They also learned to properly fold a flag into the traditional triangle.
Kindness Rock Project Grows
After the preschool class found a “kindness rock” last month, the elementary students decided to create their own kindness rocks to scatter about our town.