Maria Montessori Learn English through story level 3

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maria montessori

the doctor who discovered a new way to

teach

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children i was the first woman to get a

medical degree

in italy i helped children with mental

problems to learn

i then created a special method

to teach all children many

schools around the world still use my

method

when i was a little girl my mother

always told me

be kind to others

every day she asked me to make clothes

for poor people

we lived in kiara vale in italy

and a lot of poor families lived near

our

home fortunately

my parents had enough money to send me

to school

my father had traditional ideas about

women he wanted me to get married

and stay at home so he didn’t want me to

continue my education after primary

school

but my mother was very different and

she encouraged me to study

in 1883 i started at secondary school

and after that i went to a technical

college

i did well in maths and physics

but later i became very interested

in biology i decided to become

a doctor it wasn’t an easy decision to

make

only men studied for medical degrees at

that time

would a medical school accept me

in 1890 i began a course in science

at the university of rome i did very

well in this degree

and at last the university’s medical

school

accepted me some of the teachers and

students

didn’t want me to study there but i

worked hard and in 1896

i was the first woman in italy to become

a doctor

the university had a special hospital

for children

with mental problems

i wanted to help the children to

communicate and to learn

i wanted to improve their lives

but how could i do this i began to study

and give talks about this question

in 1898 i became a director

of a school in rome for children with

mental problems

at that time people call these children

horrible things

such as crazy or idiots

but these children were just different

and they needed to learn in a different

way

my teachers and i showed the children

what to do

slowly we made progress with this

practical method we showed the children

simple actions such as how to eat

or wash or play games the children

copied these actions

and then we repeated them again and

again

in 1906 the government asked me to work

in a different school for very young

children

from poor families i

changed the classrooms and took away the

rows of

desks we used small

tables and encouraged the children to

play

we created educational toys that the

children could

touch and feel they learned

by playing

traditional teachers didn’t understand

this method

for them the most important thing was to

teach for us the most

important thing was to learn

we also wanted children to help each

other

and to learn from their own experiences

soon people in other countries wanted to

know about my teaching method

montessori schools were opened in many

countries

by 1913 there were more than 100

montessori schools

in the usa alexander graham bell

the inventor of the telephone believed

in my method

and became the leader of the american

montessori society

in 1915 i was invited

to the usa and spoke at carnegie hall

a famous concert hall in new york

in san francisco i gave a course for

teachers

we made a classroom with 21 students

and a glass wall thousands of people

came to watch our classes

in europe the first world war

was destroying many lives

i decided to move to barcelona in spain

where things were more peaceful than in

italy

i lived there for many years and

traveled to many

other countries to teach people about my

method

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in 1929 an international organization

was started

the international montessori association

the organization encouraged parents and

teachers

to use the montessori method

in 1936 the spanish civil war started

and i decided to move to amsterdam in

the netherlands

there were more than 200 montessori

schools in the netherlands

at that time i continued to create

new educational materials and give talks

i wanted people to use education

for peace

in 1939 i was invited to india

to give talks and train teachers

the second world war started that year

and in 1940 the german army attacked the

netherlands

i couldn’t go home to amsterdam so i

stayed in india for several years

and created courses for indian teachers

for the rest of my life i continued to

train

teachers and improve my method

i was given many honours for my work

such as the french

legion of honor i was

also nominated three times for the nobel

peace prize

because i believed in education for

peace

i believed that education could improve

people’s lives when i

looked back at my long life i was happy

that my montessori schools were able to

do this