Maria Montessori was born in Ancona, Italy in 1870. She pursued an education in science even though it was opposed by her father, teachers, and society. She became the first woman doctor in Italy. Dr. Montessori specialized in psychiatry and pediatrics. When working with children of the poor she realized intelligence was there, just not always revealed.

     In 1901 Dr. Montessori was appointed Director of a school for the "deficient and insane". She recognized that her patients needed more than to be locked into empty rooms and required that the staff respect them. Maria developed a program to teach her patients how to care for themselves. After just two years her patients amazingly passed the Italian Public School sixth grade standard test. Even though she had such success with her patients, the Italian Ministry of Education did not incorporate her ideas into their public schools.

     In 1907 Maria Montessori started day-care centers for children that were too young to attend public school. There were fifty students in her first group and only one person to help Maria. The children started out aggressive and impatient so Dr. Montessori began to introduce the methods that she first developed in the school for the mentally challenged. She found that the children were excited to work with her materials, where as her previous students had to be stongly encouraged. In a short time she had success in her day-care. The students were begging to learn more. Four and five year olds were reading and doing four digit arithmatic on their own. The exciting story was told all over the world.