An article on washingtonpost.com gives us insight to the history of Montessori Schools. Started in January 1907, they are ready to celebrate their 100th birthday. Maria Montessori, an Italian physician, started her school by allowing students the freedom to approach learning as individuals using a variety of objects.
The stubborn Italian physician and her contemporary, U.S. Philosopher and psychologist John Dewey -- who believed that learning should be active -- are considered perhaps the most influential progressive thinkers in the modern history of education.
Montessori developed a system of learning for all students, disabled and otherwise, in large open classrooms with low shelves, with tables of different sizes that fit one to four children and with chairs sized for children of different ages. Montessori classes often group children in three levels: ages 3 to 6, 6 to 9, and 9 to 12. The older students help the younger.
Students in Montessori schools are active and have choices about what they are learning. One of the goals is for the children to work and learn on their own in an unstructured environment.
Nationwide, there are approximately 250 to 300 public Montessori schools. There are also many private Montessori preschools and elementary schools. There are colleges that train Montessori teachers, but since there is not a trademark on the name, it is possible to open a school and call it a Montessori school without using teachers trained in the Montessori method.
The Montessori approach has typically appealed to upper income families sending their children to private schools.
American Montessori Society President Michael J. Dorer, an education professor at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., said creating more public schools would be the best way to break out of the upper-income niche that in some ways still limits the Montessori movement's growth.