Tech geniuses, nation builders, and famous artists have praised the benefits of a Montessori education – but does it hold up to scientific scrutiny? David Robson and Alessia Franco investigate.
When considering the lives of the rich and famous, it is always tempting to look for the secrets of their successes. So here’s a brain teaser: what do the cook Julia Child, the novelist Gabriel García Márquez, the singer Taylor Swift, and Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin all have in common?
The answer is that they all attended Montessori schools as young children. In the US, the schools’ influence in the art and tech world has long been noted. But the reach of the educational method goes far beyond that. Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was a fan, and described how children taught with it “felt no burden of learning as they learned everything as they played”. Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Prize-winning poet, set up a network of Montessori schools to free children’s creative self-expression.
But does the method actually work?
It is more than a century since the Italian doctor and educator Maria Montessori designed her famous principles, which encouraged children to develop autonomy from a young age. Her life offers an inspiring story of an early feminist who dared to defy the Fascist regime in the pursuit of her dream. And according to some estimates, there are now at least 60,000 schools across the world using the Montessori method.
