ABSTRACT
The most important period in Maria Montessori’s curriculum are the formative years: At birth, the child leaves a person – his mother’s womb – and this makes him independent of her bodily functions. Montessori gave attention to ideas of the early philosophers and educators in the formulation of her own method of education. The overarching guiding principle of Montessori’s revolutionary pedagogical approach, which became known through her writings as the Montessori Method, is freedom and structure. Adaptations of Montessori’s great array of sensory and sensory-motor didactic materials can be found in most early childhood settings across the world. Montessori’s sensory materials and objects that are used to train the senses have many different characteristics, such as weight, structure, colour or shape. The Montessori Method arouses much debate and her focus on freedom of inquiry and a scientific approach to early years pedagogy have found many supporters as well as detractors in Italy and across the world.
