The Montessori Story (Introduction) by Robert Rossi

My father grew up in Italy and we have family there, so I had the rare opportunity to go visit when I was young. In preparing to visit my son's kindergarten class a few years back, to talk about Europe, I dug out some Italian money I'd kept from that trip, dating back to before the Euro when Italy still used their national currency, called the Lira. To my surprise, the 1000 Lira note (roughly equivalent to our $1 bill) had a picture of Maria Montessori on it! It made sense...in fact, one of the themes for my show-and-tell was that you could learn a lot about a country from its money—they often put important people or things from the country on the currency. Maria Montessori is revered as a national icon in Italy: she is considered a national heroine and her educational method a national treasure, one now shared with the rest of the world. In future editions of the Splash blog this school year, I'll share the story of Maria Montessori, to help you understand why Italy—and Seward—so value her contributions to education and society.

 

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