Born August 31, 1870, Maria Montessori was destined to become an incredible woman. Born into a privileged household she was able to do things no other woman in her time was able. Her education was at an all-boys school, she was the only girl there in attendance. Even her higher education was groundbreaking. She became the first woman to graduate with a medical degree from the University of Rome La Sapienza.
After her graduation Maria became intrigued with trying to educate the ‘mentally retarded’ or the so-called uneducable in Rome. She developed her own method, later known as the Montessori Method, in an effort to try to teach these students. In 1898 she gave a lecture on her teachings and her findings at the Educational Congress in Torino, Italy.
The Educational Minister of Education became very impressed by her methods and her arguments that he appointed her the Director of the Sculoa Ortofenica. Sculoa was an institute devoted to the care and the education of the mentally handicapped. A few of her 8 year old students at the institute applied for the State examinations of reading and writing, and all passed with above average scores. This achievement was later called the “First Montessori Miracle.”
In 1904 she became a professor of anthropology at the University of Rome. Maria held the chair for only three years before she resigned it. She instead chose to focus her time on the education of children and in 1907 she founded the “Casa de Bambini” or Children’s House. This child care center was made in a poor neighbourhood in Rome and it instituted and technique Maria called ‘spontaneous self development.’ [1]
The purpose of the Montessori methods was to allow children to set their own pace of learning. Maria believed that children develop differently from adults and under that belief she thought that with the proper help in developing that these children would one day advocate world peace.
Twice Maria was invited to the USA. The first time was in 1913 when she gave a speech at Carnegie Hall. That same year Alexander Graham Bell and his wife formed the Montessori Educational Association out of their own home in Washington, DC. In 1915 Maria was given a chance to demonstrate her methods. A classroom with glass walls was built and people were allowed to observe as children learned and excelled under the Montessori Method.
Her principles were so strong that she was even able to stand up against dictators. And that was precisely what she did in 1934 when she stood up against Benito Mussolini. She refused to allow her students to become soldiers and in her defiance she was exiled from Italy.
She then went to Spain but could only stay there until 1936 when the Spanish Civil War broke out. From Spain she went to the Netherlands and remained there until she received an invitation to visit India from the Theosophical Society of India. In 1939 Maria took her son Mario and moved to India, making Chennai her home. Due to the outbreak of WW2 Maria was forced to stay in India for 10 years.
She did not waste the time though. Maria stood bravely as she tried to institute her teachings in a country where the voice and words of women were usually ignored in the public eye. She spent the time in India conducting training courses, 16 batches of them, called the Indian Montessori Training Methods. By the time she left India in 1949 her teachings were on sound footing and spreading throughout India, and even Pakistan, where she did a few training courses as well. Her work in India was continued by Max Joosten and Swamy S. R.
Maria died on May 6, 1952, the same year she received her third Nobel Peace Prize nomination. The other two nominations were in 1949 and 1951. Unfortunately she never won the prize. Though if she had won it, it would only have been a small accomplishment compared to the barricades she had faced in her life with great bravery.
“My vision of the future is no longer people taking exams and proceeding then on that certification …. but of individuals passing from one stage of independence to a higher [one], by means of their own activity through their own effort of will, which constitutes the inner evolution of the individual.” Maria Montessori. From Childhood to Adolescence. [5]
In the Montessori Method of education common practices, such as grading system and exams, are not utilized because it is detrimental to the growth and developmental of the children. Instead the teachers observe the children and write down areas where they need improvement and help the child overcome their difficulties.
The entire method of education is focused on the needs of the child, and to help them develop into fully functioning adults. It is based on the belief that child have their own will to learn, that the children want to master any kind of challenges that are put before them. Children learn at a very early state that someone is concentrating and not to bother that person.
“And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.” Maria Montessori [6]
What supports Maria Montessori’s idea about educating mentally retarded or so-called uneducable students is the fact that various famous and successful personalities, like Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Walt Disney, Agastha Christie, Thomas Edison, Pablo Picasso, and bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan were considered dyslexic.
Recently, Indian actor turned director Amir Khan made a commercial movie “Taare Zameen Par” based on issue of education of children, the idea of which was based on Montessori Philosophy of schooling. [7]

References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori
3. http://www.michaelolaf.net/
4. http://www.montessori.edu/index.html
5. http://www.montessori-namta.org/NAMTA/index.html
6. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/maria_montessori/
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taare_Zameen_Par