One hundred years ago in January of 1907, Dr. Maria Montessori opened the first Montessori children’s house for fifty illiterate children from the slums of Rome. This was the beginning of the Montessori movement -- what is today the single largest educational pedagogy in the world, with over 8,000 schools on 6 continents. The Montessori philosophy maintains that children are not merely "adults in small bodies”, that they have their own pattern of development and learn best by interacting with their environment through first-hand discovery. Her method focuses on the individuality of each child and helps each maintain the natural joy of learning. Notable Montessori students include actor George Clooney, Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google.
