Dr. Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator, born in 1870.  She was the first woman to graduate from a medical school in Italy and became interested in education as a doctor treating retarded children.  After realizing the potential of her methods for all children, she began her work with normal children in 1907.  She gained international fame for designing an educational system to help children in the development of intelligence and independence.  Her educational approach is now known as the Montessori method and Montessori schools exist throughout the world.    During her lifetime, she wrote twenty books (i.e. The Montessori Method, The Absorbent Mind) and numerous articles about education.  She died in 1952.
Her medical background led Dr. Montessori to approach education, not as a philosopher or educator in the usual sense, but as a scientist.  She noted that children learn through activities that involve exploration, manipulation, order, repetition, abstraction and communication.  Dr. Montessori discovered that children learn through their senses until the age of 6 and developed teaching materials that encourage students to use their senses of touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste to explore and manipulate materials in their immediate environment.  She demonstrated to teachers the need to observe which activities deeply involve a child in his/her own learning.  Montessori teachers are trained to continually evaluate the effect of each and every learning activity.  Daily evaluations by the teacher and respect for the child are some of the most fundamental aspects of Montessori education.