The Impact of Gender on the life and career of Maria Montessori

The Impact of Gender on the life and career of Maria Montessori

Abstract

This paper addresses the life analysis of Maria Montessori and how gender impacted her life and work. Maria Montessori was born in Italy, which has a rigorous conservative attitude towards women and women it was not socially acceptable for female students to get enrolled at the Italian technical school to pursue courses like engineering and medicine. Engineering and medical courses were believed to be male-dominated, and the cultural norms at that time forbade the action. Her father resisted Montessori’s admission to the technical school, and her teachers and male classmates opposed her idea of pursuing sciences. The medical school work presaged Maria’s later path. In her specializations in psychiatry and pediatrics, Maria developed a passion for children and women and was involved in the Women’s Rights Movement. Maria was the first female to become a physician in Italy. Maria got interested in education and developed the Montessori Method and Scientific Pedagogy, among other publications, to address the suitable education approach to little children and train teachers. Montessori’s works received worldwide acceptance, and many public schools adopted the method.

Keywords: Pedagogy, technical school, gender, engineering, and medicine

Introduction

A society comprises of diverse social groups where members coexist and cooperate through developing interactive relationships with one another. The different roles played by the members define a community, and gender analysis redefines the relationship between men and women in a way that benefits both genders. The rapid economic and social changes that occur within the societies require members to adapt to the move regardless of gender to be able to cope with the different situations that surround them. Gender roles have undergone significant changes in American society over the past few decades. The considerable differences in gender roles of women in the community are attributable to the implementation of affirmative action laws and economic realities that call for contributions from both female and male sexes. The changes are essential because they act as a unifying factor and call for equality between men and women for the continual development of society. Such changes also have a significant and notable impact on women’s life and professions. In this regard, the paper seeks to explore precisely how gender has impacted on the life and career of Maria Montessori by conducting gender analysis, citing from her writing works and though analyzing her personal life.

Having born and raised in Italy, a country that was at that time, had a conservative attitude towards women, Maria Montessori believed that no human is limited and she was unwilling to limit herself to the traditional expectations for women. Maria’s interest in Mathematics at the age of fourteen raised her passion for engineering, but her father resisted. It was not socially acceptable for girls to get admission to a technical school. Maria later became interested in sciences and enrolled for a medical school to pursue medicine in 1890. She became the first female to become a doctor in Italy with specializations in psychiatry and pediatrics. Montorri’s profession in the field of medicine was male-dominated, therefore, her father, together with her teachers and fellow students, were opposed to the idea of Maria pursuing a degree in medicine. Her parents wanted her to pursue education and become a teacher, and teaching was believed to suit both females. Maria persisted and joined medical school despite the initial refusal by the administrators of the University of Rome to admit her and being a course meant for the male gender. Maria’s attendance at the medical school lectured marked the gender-based expectations and double standards (Neacşu, 2017).

Maria experienced the strictly delineated gender roles of Italian society in the late nineteenth century. The engineering course she wanted to pursue was only offered at Italian technical school, which was predominantly educated, boys. Cultural values of the nineteenth century forbade her from socializing with her male classmates and was placed in a separate room from the male classmates. Her excellent grades showed that she was fit for masculine courses and later became interested in sciences and got admission to pursue medicine. Her father had to escort her to and from the university since girls were not socially acceptable to walk in public alone. Another restricting cultural factor was that she had to wait outside the lecture hall until all her male classmates were seated to avoid scrambling for seats, and because she was not supposed to interact with them. As a woman, physician, and educator, in her times, Maria faced gender discrimination as a medical student and as a humanitarian, spreading her ideas on education. Nevertheless, Physician Montessori is one of the pioneers in developing early childhood education. Maria has promoted a significant number of reforms in the field of education that has worked since the nineteenth century (Neacşu, 2017).

The medical school work presaged Maria’s later path. In her specializations in psychiatry and pediatrics, Maria developed a passion for children and women and was involved in the Women’s Rights Movement. She worked in worked at a women’s hospital and became renowned for her competency in treating patients and showing respect to all patients despite their social classes. Her research publications on the learning experience of children with mental disabilities won her prestigious scholarships, which financed a significant part of her medical school costs (Neacşu, 2017). In the year that she completed her course in a medical school, Maria advocated for gained international acclaim at the foreign women’s congress in Berlin as a fierce advocate for the rights of women. On several occasions at the congress, Maria addressed her peers, and her primary focus was on women’s education as a basis for the reduction of illiteracy among women. She also spoke about unfairness and inequality in payment of wages between Italian women and men working in farms and factories. The congress delegates adopted Maria’s resolution for equality in work and paid for fees to men and women.

Maria Montessori became the first female to be admitted to the medical school to pursue medicine and surgery in Italy. Maria’s years she spent in the medical school of the University of Rome did not only test her intellectual capacity but also tested her character and perseverance as the only female in the male profession. Due to the cultural dissection in Italy at that time, Maria was isolated because it was not socially acceptable for male and female students to appear together during dissection in the cadaver room. Montessori, therefore, performed her dissection practical work by herself and had to do the job among corpses for many hours. Maria was devoted to her studies, and such a commitment made a positive impression on the faculty of medicine. She would be the only one to attend her lectures on a snow day and would receive addresses even before other students reached the university.

Maria’s persistence started to yield fruits on the day of presentations before the university, and the members of the public attended. Her father, Alessandro Montessori, participated in the exhibitions to hear his daughter’s speech. At the end of her address, Montessori’s father became the center of attraction to many who attended for having such a brilliant daughter, and he received congratulatory messages from many. The initial opposition from her father to pursue medicine ended, and after the defense of her thesis, Maria was conferred a degree of doctor medicine and surgery. Maria became the first female physician in Italy, a record that showed that female students are capable of pursuing male-dominated courses.

Her gender of being a female student pursuing medicine, Maria received tremendous support from many of the faculty of the school of medicine through nomination for scholarships. Maria was chosen after her first year in medical school to represent Italian women at the international women’s conference congress, which was held on September 20, 1896, in Berlin. Her speaking engagement-focused in supporting women workers and advocated for equal pay for the male and female farm and factory workers in Italy. Montessori had had a similar speaking engagement before in London, where she addressed issues of child labor. Maria was also appointed as a resident doctor at the University of Rome at the Psychiatric clinic. At the psychiatric clinic, Maria worked with mentally challenged children, where she discovered the various needs of the children. Montessori identified the lack of children as a significant aspect that was not only medically related that could be clinically handled. She viewed the situation of mentally challenged children as requiring both systematic social and medical attention. Montessori identified a solution to the problem through her observation, and that was through educating them. She began to speak out and advocated for the mentally challenged children, which she addressed in the various conferences she attended.

As a keen observer of children, Maria Montessori used her experimental and observational predisposition from her medical background to develop a constructivist understanding of the learning process. She scientifically studied the little children and the condition for performing such actions and only believed the existence of a particular behavior in a child only when the child repeated such behavior. Maria thought that the ability of a child to construct knowledge entirely depends on their experience with the world. She also believed that learning was something humans naturally do rather than forced on an individual or motivated. Maria postulates that a child gradually absorbs impressions from the world that surround him with his life throughout the early years. Environment plays a vital role in encouraging a child to pursue his or her education and that children’s learning process is dependent on the phases of their lives. Learning better takes place in a non-competitive environment to allow each child to develop and move with his or her speed without external pressure. Maria also observed that multi-aged classrooms are suitable for learning to enable children in various development stages to learn from each other. Maria developed and suggested the need for cognitive materials in the learning environment to foster learning and provide stimuli to capture the attention of children for better concentration (Montessori & Holmes, 1912).

Maria started advocating the support of mentally disabled children because she believed that a lack of support for such children was the primary cause of their delinquency. Maria had a theme of implementing social reforms in gender roles and education for children. The notion triggered Maria to begin her studies in anthropology and philosophy, lecturing and teaching students in 1901. She served as a lecturer at the Pedagogic School of the University of Rome between 1904-1908. Maria was offered an opportunity to introduce her materials in an attempt to provide children with activities during the day to reduce the destruction of property. (Montessori & Holmes, 1912). Maria was thirty-six years old when she founded Casa dei Bambini (Children’s house), a preparatory school where Maria tested her education methods. Maria trained the teachers on how to educate children with mental disabilities, oversaw their work, and observed the children. In Montessori’s work, The Secret of Childhood, she talks about her conceptualization of childhood, children’s rights, children’s education, and the role of education in enhancing development in a society. In the nineteenth century, the rapid rise of industrialization raised consciousness and better living standards. The change influenced childcare and education, and much attention was paid to childhood education. Montessori suggests the need for observing the children concerning environmental conflicts. She stresses that the environment must provide adequate multi-sensory stimuli to the child for the development of a child’s natural psychic through the provision of proper care of children (Montessori, 1912).

Maria’s first children’s house amazed many people worldwide and received much attention attracting thousands of visitors who were enthusiastic and amazed. People from all over the world increasingly became interested as Montessori duplicated her first school in other settings with the same results. Maria captured the imagination and interest of scientists and leaders around the world like Thomas Edison, Woodrow Wilson, Henry Ford, and Alexandra Graham Bell from America who enthusiastically supported her. She published books, and other authors also wrote articles about her, which made her a well-known public figure to teachers and parents. Montessori adopted a method that offers a systematic approach that translates very well to new settings. The Montessori Method provides at least something to everyone (Gutek, 2004). Conservatives appreciated the responsible and calm behavior of the little children as well as their love for work. Many scientists and political leaders considered it one of the best ways to reform the outmoded school systems of Asia, Europe, and North America. They also saw it as a practical approach that would lead to a more productive and law-abiding populace (Zell, 1997).

Teaching at the medical school at the University of Rome and through free clinics, Maria came into frequent contact with children from different social class families. Education was one of the fields open for women to study in the nineteenth century. Maria found it ironic becoming known best for her substantial contributions to education. Working with children, the convent, and homemaking were socially acceptable traditional roles for women during her time. Through her interaction with children, Montessori discovered that little children had the capability of concentrating for quite a long duration, but they rarely show such signs more often. Children are sloppy and careless but positively respond to a calm atmosphere. In her discovery, Maria found that the environment played a crucial role in obtaining the desired results from little children. She was the first educator to build lightweight child-size chairs and tables after recognizing the frustrations children went through carrying adult-size chairs and tables. Montessori restructured the whole learning environment, having studied the pattern of the room and accordingly arranging the furnishings and the activity area to reduce congestion. She also considered the fact that children like sitting on the floor, and for this reason, Montessori acquired little rugs for defining the work areas of teachers and students (Gutek, 2004).

Montessori’s work got international recognition, and Montessori education experienced rapid growth. Montessori’s education spread rapidly and was adopted by many public schools in Switzerland and Italy. Montessori’s work was widely translated and published during the late nineteenth century. Her publications were translated into different languages, and the Montessori Method sold quickly in the United States, where more than one hundred schools had adopted Montessori’s system. In 1913, Montessori traveled to the United States on a three-week tour to lecture and in which she showed films of her European classrooms and meeting with large, enthusiastic crowds. Montessori returned to Europe in 1915 and gave numerous lectures and training teachers. During her stay in Spain, Europe, for twenty years, her educational approach received tremendous growth in the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom (Zell, 1997).

Due to worldwide recognition of the Montessori career, the first International Montessori Congress was held in Denmark, where Montessori and her son Mario founded the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI). The main objective was to oversee the activities of societies and schools around the world and supervise teachers’ training. AMI also controlled the publication rights of Montessori works and the production of other materials related to the actions of Montessori (Montessori, 1973). In 1932, the second International Montessori Congress took place in Nice, France, where Montessori talked about education and peace. In the same year, Montessori gave a speech addressing the theme of unity and education in Geneva during the International Peace Club. By the end of 1950, Montessori had received a total of six nominations, having nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for three consecutive years, that is, 1949, 1950, and 1951 (Zell,1997).

Montessori aimed to discover the reactions of children in the environment after observing the learning materials and prepared environment of the class. Through her keen and close observation, Montessori, she identified positive changes in the little children and furthered her method.  Maria continued with her education in philosophy and developed ideas around education for small children up to the students of eighteen years of age. Montessori expressed her opinions through writing in her publications, such as Dr. Maria Montessori’s Handbook and The Montessori Method. Montessori’s classes, public speaking, publishing books, travels, and lectures, the Montessori Method spread to different parts of the world, including China, Australia, the United States, England, and Korea. Many ideas of Montessori have left a significant impact on mainstream education. Montessori’s aim of developing transforming pedagogy had a lasting and notable impact on education too. The methodology of handling little children she developed allowed children to express themselves, and this had a significant effect on the methods adopted by the subsequent educational theorists (Montessori et al., 1981).

Conclusion

From the gender analysis, personal life analysis, and works of Montessori, it is clear that gender had a significant impact on the life and work of Maria Montessori. Montessori was interested in mathematics and joined the Italian technical school. However, it was not socially acceptable for women to pursue male-dominated courses like Engineering. Instead, women were required to pursue courses like education, nursing, and take care of children. Montessori defied all odds by joining the medical school to pursue a degree in medicine and surgery. Montessori became the first female physician in Italy, and her father attracted the attention of many people after she successfully defended her thesis before the panel and the members of the public. Montessori became interested in helping women and little children, and she treated them well regardless of their social backgrounds. Maria’s interest in education and philosophy made her develop scientific pedagogy and The Montessori Methods, among other publications that fostered childcare and culture as well as a training teacher. Her methods were well accepted all over the world, and they have transformed the education mainstream.

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