This year 90 years ago... Focus on important events of 1913

Time Lines are one facet of children’s work in a Montessori class. They provoke research and they provide tangible personal links with people and events from the children’s own past and present. This new feature is an extension of that idea, charting, year by year, the milestones, developments, achievements, and encounters which combined to make the rich and colourful fabric of Maria Montessori’s work and life. This item is launched with highlights from 1913, with special emphasis on the International Training Course in Rome, the first in a series of courses spanning almost forty years.

January: First International Training Course in Rome
Dr. Montessori gave her first ever training course in 1909 in Città di Castello. By 1911 and 1912, many people in education across many countries and continents had heard of this new and revolutionary method. There was avid interest in finding out more about the Casa dei Bambini, the ideas behind it and the woman who had developed and brought about this ‘miracle’. Interested people from all over the world were writing to Dr. Montessori, literally queuing on her doorstep, requesting to be trained so that they could take back the method to their home country. Less than five years after the first course, Dr. Montessori held an international course in Rome, under the patronage of the Queen Mother Margherita of Savoy and under the auspices of the National Montessori Committee. On January 15, the course opene with a splendid welcome reception organised by her great friend, admirer and supporter Marchesa Maria Maraini Guerieri-Gonzaga.

…Giacomo Boni (…) took the students on a guided tour of the excavations he had carried out on the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. These excavations had brought to light Roman ruins dating back not only to the Republican period but also to the early period when Rome was ruled by kings. This seemingly rather modern introduction to the course was one much desired by Dr. Montessori herself, who wished to give her students a taste of Italian art and culture since most of them were visiting Italy for the very first time.

On Monday, January 20 Maria Montessori began her own lectures for the course. (…) All of the ninety students enrolled on the course were foreign and three-quarters were American. From the English language weekly newspaper the Roman Herald (January, 1913) we quote ‘(…) heads of schools both public and private, inspectors of education, teachers [from] all kinds [of] kindergartens, (...) physicians, psychologists, in fact all who have a close interest in little children and their welfare, have flocked to the Dotteressa (sic) (…) Last year a few students from America, England and France studied with the Dotteressa (sic) and since then they have started experimental schools. Other countries represented [were] Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, India, China, Japan, Brazil, Chile, The Argentine Republic, Canada, Mexico, etc.’