Absorbent Mind

Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. Her educational method is in use today in public and private schools throughout the world. In 1947 she returned to India and gave courses in Adyar and Ahmedabad. These courses led to the book 'The Absorbent Mind', in which Montessori described the development of the child from birth onwards and presented the concept of the Four Planes of Development. This was Maria Montessori's most in-depth work on her educational theory, based on decades of scientific observation of children. Her view on children and their absorbent minds was a landmark departure from the educational model at the time. This book helped start a revolution in education. Since this book first appeared there have been both cognitive and neurological studies that have confirmed what Maria Montessori knew decades ago.