Maria Montessori's 'Libertarian View of Children': The education pioneer's authoritarian personality was at odds with her commitment to children's independence.

• Author: Kirby, David
• Position: BOOKS - The Child Is the Teacher: A Life of Maria Montessori

MARIA MONTESSORI'S IDEAS about education stem from the principles of choice, individual dignity, spontaneous order, experimental discovery, and freedom of movement. They stand in radical contrast to traditional schooling, too often based on authority, central planning, rigid instruction, and force. She once described children in such schools as "butterflies stuck with pins, fixed in their places."

It would not be accurate to call her a libertarian. She eschewed politics, which she said "do not interest me." When asked, she declared that the only party she was interested in was the "children's party." To advance her ideas, she wanted "anybody's help, without regard to his political or religious convictions"--leading to more than a few unwise collaborations, including one with Benito Mussolini. Yet perhaps more than anyone else, she advanced a "libertarian view of children," as the Italian fascist Emilio Bodrero complained in 1930. Her ideas endure today in 20,000 Montessori schools around the world.

In The Child Is the Teacher: A Life of Maria Montessori, the European journalist Cristina De Stefano places Montessori in the milieu of early 20th century Italy, where ideas from feminism to Freemasonry were swirling in the air. The book goes beyond the typical accounts written by disciples: Montessori comes across as a brilliant visionary but also as a control freak prone to outbursts of anger, often on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

THE STORY BEGINS with 6-year-old Maria attending a public primary school in Rome--"a prison for children," as De Stafano summarizes Montessori's views. Sitting at their desks for hours, listening to a teacher lecture, repeating their lessons in chorus, watching the adults mete out punishments: She hated it all from the very first day. Nonetheless, her teachers recognized her talent.

At age 20, after earning a diploma from Royal Technical Institute of Rome, Montessori declared that she wanted to be a doctor. Later, she would claim to be the first woman doctor in Italy. This was not true: While it was unusual for women to pursue medicine at that time and place--upper-class girls were typically guarded as precious objects, waiting for husbands to come along--she was not the first to do it. Nor, contrary to her claims, did she face the opposition of the pope, the Freemasons, and academia; indeed, her professors encouraged her. But she really was a pioneer, one of just 132 women among the 21,813 students enrolled in...