Maria Montessori, (born Aug. 31, 1870, Chiaravalle, near Ancona, Italy—died May 6, 1952, Noordwijk aan Zee, Neth.), Italian educator. Montessori took a degree in medicine (1894) and worked in a clinic for retarded children before going on to teach at the University of Rome. In 1907 she opened her first children’s school, and for the next 40 years she traveled throughout Europe, India, and the U.S., lecturing, writing, and setting up Montessori schools. Today there are hundreds of such schools in the U.S. and Canada alone; their principal focus is on preschool education, but some provide elementary education to grade 6. The Montessori system is based on belief in children’s creative potential, their drive to learn, and their right to be treated as individuals. It relies on the use of “didactic apparatuses” to cultivate hand-eye coordination, self-directedness, and sensitivity to premathematical and preliterary instruction.