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