When we think about the lives of the rich and famous, we are always drawn to find out what the secret of their success really is.
Here's a brain teaser: what do chef Julia Child, writer Gabriel García Márquez, singer Taylor Swift and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have in common?
The correct answer is that they all attended Montessori schools when they were children.
In America, the influence of these schools on the world of art and technology has long been noticed.
However, the effect of this educational method is far wider.
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The leader of the movement for Indian independence, Mahatma Gandhi, was a supporter of this school and believed that the children attending it "do not feel the burden of learning, because they learn everything while playing".
Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Prize-winning poet, established a network of Montessori schools, whose goal was to enable children to express themselves creatively.
But does this method actually achieve that?
More than a century has passed since the Italian doctor and educator, Maria Montessori, devised the famous principles of this school, with the aim of encouraging children to develop autonomy from an early age.
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According to some estimates, there are more than 60.000 schools in the world that use the Montessori method.
It is interesting, however, that the advantages of Montessori education are still a matter of debate.
This is partly due to the existing difficulties in conducting research in the classroom, which means that previous studies have been subject to serious criticism from skeptics.
Only recently have researchers managed to solve some of these problems and their conclusions are interesting reading for teachers, parents and students, that is, for anyone who is fascinated by the adaptability of children's minds.
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Playing with crumbs
Montessori was born in the Italian town of Chiaravalle in a progressive family, her parents often socialized with the most advanced thinkers and scientists in Italy.
The enlightened family environment provided Maria with many advantages, which other girls at that time could not experience.
"Her mother's support was crucial for important decisions she made later, such as enrolling in a technical school after finishing elementary school," says Elide Tavijani, a member of the organization's Board of Directors. Montessori National Opera in Rome, which Montessori herself founded to research and promote her educational methods.
Also, her parents' support meant a lot to her when she decided to study medicine, which was a male-dominated field.
"Maria Montessori's family was very concerned about social problems," adds Taviani, such as the fight for women's emancipation, a fight that Montessori continued as an adult.
"She represented an important reference point for women in that era."
Shortly after graduating in 1896, Montessori began working as a volunteer at a psychiatric clinic at the University of Rome, where she cared for children who had learning difficulties.
The rooms were sparsely furnished, with only a few pieces of furniture in them.
On one occasion, she discovered that the children were enthusiastically playing with crumbs that had fallen on the floor, says Catherine L'Equie, a researcher in psychology and education at the University of Navarra in Spain and author of The Miraculous Approach (The Wonder Approach).
"Then it occurred to her that the cause of some intellectual difficulties could be related to poverty."
With the right learning materials, it is possible to nurture young minds, Montessori concluded.
This insight would influence Montessori to devise a new method of education that focused on providing the necessary stimulation during sensitive periods in childhood.
At the center of that method was the principle that all learning materials should be adapted to children and intended for all senses.
Also, every child must be allowed to move and act freely, use creativity and problem-solving abilities.
Teachers took on the role of guides, supporting children without coercion or control.
Montessori opened the first House for Children (Children House) in 1907, and soon many more similar institutions were born.
Over time, she became acquainted with many visionaries around the world, such as Gandhi.
It may seem strange today, but when the fascists came to power in Italy in 1922, they initially embraced her movement.
However, they soon opposed the method of emphasizing children's freedom of expression.
According to Taviani, the values of Maria Montessori have always meant respect for people, as well as "the rights of women and children".
"And the fascists wanted to take advantage of her work and fame."
The breaking point came when the fascist regime tried to influence the educational content in schools, and in 1934 Montessori decided to leave Italy with her son.
She returned to her homeland in 1947 and continued to write and develop her method until her death at the age of 81 in 1952.
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Children as responsible persons
Today there are many different types of Montessori schools and the Opera Montessori organization does not recognize them all, but some of the basic principles have not changed.
The first is the idea that teachers are a kind of gentle guides, who encourage children to complete activities on their own with as little adult involvement as possible.
"Our children are learning how to take care of themselves," says Miriam Ferro, head teacher at the Montessori Eco-School in Palermo, Sicily, which caters to children from just a few months to six years old.
Some of the subjects taught in the eco-school are similar to those in other preschools and schools, such as mathematics and music.
But there is also a segment called "practical life" that relies on the original Montessori vision of child autonomy.
It includes everyday practical tasks such as serving drinks to school friends.
For safety reasons, the teachers will boil the water, but the children will take an active role in cleaning the work surface and then serve the prepared drinks to others.
"During breakfast and lunch, they are still engaged, because they take turns setting the table and serving their friends," Fero says.
This method encourages independence as well as cooperation.
Children of different ages attend classes in the same classroom, so six-year-olds, for example, help three-year-olds.
There are no tests or grades, to avoid competition among students.
Each class lasts three hours, so that the children can fully devote themselves to what they are doing.
The learning materials are designed to use all the senses in handling it, the letters and numbers are made of coarse sandpaper, so that children can feel their shape with their fingers.
No matter how cheerful and reasonable this concept seems, the question remains whether it brings any tangible benefits, more significant than those achieved in the classic classroom?
It seems like a simple question, but it is not easy to answer.
Research shows that there may be benefits from specific aspects of Montessori education, if we take into account important objections to those results.
This is because the standard scientific process used to find out whether something works or not is not easily adapted to the classroom environment.
To scientifically evaluate the effects of an intervention, you would normally conduct a randomized controlled trial.
This means that the participants are randomly divided into two groups: an "experimental group" on which a certain intervention is carried out and a "control group", in which a different procedure is carried out, which can also be evaluated, and whose goal is not to get the desired effect.
If those on whom the intervention was applied had better results than those on whom it was not, we can conclude that this intervention had the desired effects.
In medicine, people undergoing an intervention may receive the real pill, while the control group will receive a placebo pill, which looks like the real thing but contains no active ingredients.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to apply the same rigorous standards to educational interventions.
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You may choose to compare students in a Montessori school with children attending school in another education system.
But for many Montessori schools there is a tuition fee, and the choice of parents for that method can be related to many other factors, which can also affect the progress of the child.
Parents' income is not the only important thing.
"Parents who send a child to a Montessori school are more involved in the child's education, so the methods they apply at home can have a positive impact on the child's success," explains Javier Bernaser from the Institute of Culture and Society at the University of Navarre in Spain.
Children who went to a Montessori school generally show better results on tests of literacy, numeracy and storytelling.
Some of the conducted studies managed to show that there are a number of benefits for children's development in this system, but we cannot be sure if this is a consequence of the Montessori method or the privileges of the environment in which these children grow up.
Angelina Lillard, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, tried to solve these problems by studying a Montessori school in Milwaukee.
The children, who attended the school, were chosen through a lottery system.
This random selection would eliminate other confounding factors, which led Lillard to be more confident that the differences she observed were due to the Montessori method.
Analyzing the progress of children in the fifth year, Lillard concluded that children who attend the Montessori school show better language and numerical literacy, organizational skills and coping in society compared to children from other schools.
At the age of twelve, these children were better at telling stories.
No matter how positive these results seem, it should be borne in mind that the conclusions were drawn based on the observation of a relatively small group of students.
Chloe Marshall of the Institute of Education at University College London says that Lillard's research results provide the most detailed information, but also that "they represent only one piece of the puzzle, and in science you need to repeat things."
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The benefits of "unstructured time"
However, studying the literature on education and psychology in a slightly broader sense, Marshall seems to have some benefits to this method, without any downsides.
For example, recent studies have found evidence that providing children with unstructured time, when they are allowed to engage in free activities without adult interference, leads to greater independence and self-direction, and this approach is at the heart of the Montessori method.
There is evidence that children in classrooms using approved Montessori learning materials perform better than children in classrooms using other methods, indicating that the unique design of Montessori materials contributes to early learning.
Solange Denervaux, a neuroscientist at the University Hospital Center Vado in Switzerland and a former Montessori teacher, shares similar positive experiences.
In a study she recently conducted, she concluded that children who attend Montessori schools have a higher degree of creativity, which is associated with better academic results.
(Although she was unable to obtain a completely random sample of students for this study, she attempted to compare children of similar intelligence, who have similar socioeconomic backgrounds, in an attempt to eliminate some of the confounding factors).
Denervo assumes that the benefits come from the child's experience of taking the lead in learning activities from an early age to increasing opportunities to find solutions to a problem, as well as learning from their own mistakes,
Does the success of students in Montessori schools reflect these advantages?
Marshall says it is necessary to think more about it, because there is not yet convincing evidence of long-term benefits.
Denervo thinks more positively about it.
Based on the results of her research, she believes that Montessori education can help people thrive in creative industries.
"When you're in school, you're building the architecture of your mind," she says.
It makes sense that people who have learned to be motivated, flexible and to cooperate with others from an early age, she claims, are more successful later in life.
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Montessori brand
Whatever the merits of this method, it is clear that the central idea is attractive, and its promoters have made great success of advertising the message of a free, self-regulating childhood, freed from the tyranny of conventional education.
Maria Montessori tirelessly promoted her method and her successors continued to do the same.
"It became, and not by accident, a brand," explains Gianfranco Marone, professor of semiotics, the discipline that studies signs and symbols, at the University of Palermo.
He pointed to the rise of brands and marketing since the 1980s, which has also spread to educational institutions.
The name Montessori, according to him, is today associated with a high quality of education, even a philosophy of life, which attracted many parents.
However, it is ironic that many schools today bear the name of Maria Montessori, but only loosely rely on her methods.
The reason for this is that the name is not trademarked.
Although there are official Montessori institutions in many countries that provide teacher training and accreditation, this does not mean that schools that use this name in their promotion have gone through that process.
"It's becoming increasingly difficult to find an authentic Montessori education," says L'Equie, who worries that some schools are just following the trend without embracing the core principles of child autonomy or class length, all of which can affect important educational outcomes.
The lack of consistency in the application of this method can explain why there are differences in evaluating the usefulness of the Montessori method, among other things, the inability to notice the advantages of this method compared to some others.
Marshall is more optimistic when she talks about these changes.
While she agrees that different approaches can skew the assessment of the Montessori method, she also recognizes that the movement will need to adapt to social and technological change.
We can take, for example, electronic devices and how much they are used in education: "That's not something she could write about."
It is a huge praise for Maria Montessori's work that one hundred years after she opened her first school, professors continue to deal with her theory, which still encourages researchers to seriously deal with it.
Considering the good recent results of those researches, this theory will drive discussions in the new century as well.
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