As I am now working with individuals who are mostly over the age of 60, I went and read a biographical sketch of Maria Montessori's life and noted all that she achieved post-60 years of age. Let me put it in very simple terms - She achieved much in her "senior" years.
Many men and women have and continue to be very productive after the age of sixty. I turned 40 the year I took my Montessori training. I clearly remember that one of the most attractive, professional attributes to becoming a Montessori teacher was that the older you got the more you were valued. I had two AMI trainers. One was in her late seventies.
In four and a half years, I will be sixty. At sixty six, Maria Montessori, along with Mario, left to work in India. There is no impending ending to our work as Montessorians. Maria Montessori has left a dual legacy. The first is of course in regards to the child. The second is as a productive individual who saw no limits on what could be achieved in the course of a life time.
Happy 142nd Birthday Maria Montessori!
Maria Montessori
| August 1870 - May 1952 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1936 Maria Montessori, at the age of 66, left Spain and settled in Holland. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1939 September: World War II broke out in Europe. October: Dr. Montessori aged sixty-nine and her son Mario left Holland to work in India. |
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| 1946 July 30th: Dr. Montessori returned to Amsterdam. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1947 Dr. Montessori aged seventy-six, undertook a lecture tour in India which lasted for two years. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1948 What You Should Know About Your Child and The Discovery of the Child were published. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1949 Dr. Montessori visited Pakistan, Italy, France, Austria, Britain and Ireland. The Absorbent Mind was published and she was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1950 At the age of seventy-nine, Dr. Montessori gave lecture tours in Norway and Sweden. June: She spoke to the United Nations education conference in Florence, Italy about the 'International year of the Child' and was again nominated for the Noble Peace Prize. |
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| 1951 July: Dr. Montessori ran a training course at Innsbruck, Austria. For the third and final time Dr. Montessori was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1952 May 6th: At the age of eighty-one, Dr. Montessori died in her friends garden at Noordwijk aan Zee in Holland. She was buried in the local cemetery in Noordwijk. |
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