Peace and education
by Maria Montessori

During the 1930s, as war clouds gathered over Europe, Maria Montessori became profoundly concerned with the question of peace. The problem of war caused her to engage in a passionate search for new human truths. Taking as her starting point her conviction that the child must be our teacher, she moved on to consider the problems of human and social development and began a crusade in the name of education.

This collection of speeches, which she delivered at international congresses and peace councils, vividly reveals why she was nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

About the Author:

Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian physician and educationist, born in Rome, the first woman in Italy to receive a mediacal degree (1894), she founded a school for children with learning disabilities (1899-1901), and developed a system of education for children of three to six based on spontaneity of expression and freedom from restraint. The system was later worked out for older childre, and applied in Montessori schools throughout the world. She opened the first Montessori school for children in the slums of Rome in 1907.