Montessori is a teaching method that’s become wildly popular in the last few decades. It was developed by a 20th-century Italian doctor named Maria Montessori, whose work focused on encouraging children to learn through observation and self-directed exploration. Teachers use Montessori techniques to provide students with materials and experiences that challenge their cognitive abilities while also meeting their social and emotional needs. While there are many Montessori schools around the world, you might be surprised to learn that some famous adults were also educated at one of them! So if you’re wondering whether this unusual approach would work for your own child or if you just love learning about famous people—read on!
Jim Carrey
One of the most beloved persons in our Montessori Novi Sad center! Jim Carrey is known for his comedic roles in films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber. He’s also a talented painter whose artwork has been exhibited in galleries worldwide.
Carrey attended a Montessori school as a child and credits Montessori education with helping him become who he is today: “It really was the beginning of everything for me,” Carrey told Parade magazine in 2009. “There were so many different ways to learn things at this school.”
Lois Lowry
The first time I read Lois Lowry’s The Giver, I was a junior in high school. It was one of those books that took me into a world so different from my own that it felt like I was reading about another planet. I couldn’t put the book down. I remember staying up late into the night to finish it and then immediately starting Gathering Blue (the sequel).
In addition to writing these two bestselling novels for young adults, Lois Lowry has also written several picture books for children and adults alike. She has won numerous awards, including a Newbery Medal winner, a National Book Award winner, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner, International Reading Association Children’s Choice Selection…
John F. Kennedy
The former president attended the Walden School, a Montessori school in Boston. He later said that his experience at Walden was “the best education in the world.”
As an adult and president of the United States, Kennedy was known for his educational background: he graduated from Harvard University with honors and later served on its board of overseers. While serving as president from 1961 until 1963, he established several programs designed to improve American education, including Project Head Start (preschool services for low-income families) and The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (federal funding for schools).
Margot Lee Shetterly
Margot Lee Shetterly is a historian and author. She’s the author of Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, which was adapted into a movie starring Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae, and Octavia Spencer.
She went to a Montessori school as a child and credited it with helping her develop her love for writing and history.
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and philanthropist. He built the Carnegie Steel Company with major investments in railroads, steel production, mining, and oil speculation. In 1901 he sold out to J.P. Morgan for $480 million ($13 billion today). He then devoted his life to large-scale philanthropy, establishing public libraries throughout America (1 in every town), and funding foundations that promoted international peace and world understanding through dialogue between nations; he created more than 2,500 public libraries across the United States alone!
He also established several universities, including Carnegie Mellon University, which provides business education, among other things!
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. He is best known for his mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2 and his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.
Einstein was born in Ulm, Württemberg, Germany, to Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch. He had a talent for music as a child, but his father wanted him to study electrical engineering to take over his factory when he retired. After graduating from high school in 1894 at age 17, Einstein enrolled at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School (later called ETH Zurich). He studied mathematics and physics under professor Jost Winteler until graduating in 1900 with an engineering degree equivalent to a bachelor’s degree today.
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was an American painter and film director known for his work in the pop art movement. He was a leading figure in the world of contemporary art during his lifetime.
Warhol’s works explore the relationship between celebrity culture and art, as well as being a prominent celebrity himself. Many of his best-known paintings replicate commercial products such as Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell’s soup cans. Their subject matter has been characterized as “Campbell’s Soup Cans by Andy Warhol”.
Anne Sullivan Macy
Anne Sullivan Macy was a teacher at the Perkins School for the Blind and also taught deaf-blind children at the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf. She is famous for her work with Helen Keller, who she taught to communicate after Helen lost her sight and hearing. Anne’s teaching method was based on imitation and repetition; she would use signs to teach Helen how to brush her teeth or comb her hair.
The Montessori Method uses these same principles in its classrooms: teachers find ways for students to learn through imitation and repetition within their environment (the classroom), rather than using external resources like books or computers as teaching tools.
Conclusion
The Montessori method is a great way to teach and prepare children for school. The best part about the Montessori method is that it can be applied to any child, regardless of age or learning style. Many famous adults went to Montessori schools as children and credited their success in life to this education system.