Happy Anniversary, Maria Montessori

Today is the 108th anniversary since the opening of the first Montessori house, Casa Dei Bambini, in Rome, Italy.

Article from the Baan Dek School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota:
A letter written to Dr. Maria Montessori on behalf of every Montessori educator around the world…

Dear Maria Montessori,

Happy Anniversary! It’s so hard to believe, but today marks the one hundred and eighth year since you opened the first Casa Dei Bambini, in Rome, Italy. So much has changed since that initial Children’s House, and yet, we would like to think, so much of your original insights, well, they remain exactly the same. 

We can almost hear you speak these words that you so eloquently wrote in Education for a New World: “If education is to be reformed, it must be based upon the children.” This statement, and so many others, remain, to be sure, an inspiration to schools, children, and communities throughout the world. They remain a beacon-call to humanity itself. We must turn our attention towards children, learning from them, just how they constantly are aspiring to learn from the world.

Can you believe, if you really were to reflect upon your international appeal, just how far and widespread your vision actually reached? We know fame and notoriety were never your intention, but, needless to say, the world now knows your name. More importantly, you would exclaim, they know your method. When you established the Association Montessori Internationale to validate authentic Montessori education, the implementation of the method as you intended it to be learned, did you ever forecast just how successful a movement you would enable?…

“If salvation and help are to come, it is from the child, for the child is the constructor of man, and so of society. The child is endowed with an inner power which can guide us to a more luminous future. Education should no longer be mostly imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities.”

To read the article in full, click on the link http://baandek.org/blog/2015/1/6/happy-anniversary.