Perché Montessori oggi?

The article describes some of the reasons why today in Italy, pedagogy and the Montessori method arise interest both in the academic context as well as among families. In the last century, at the beginning of the nineties, in the academic context, there was a more objective research of historiography on the human and intellectual experience of the Italian pedagogue that brought to the overcoming of the reconstruction through anecdotes. Nowadays families choose the Montessori method because they are looking for a school in which the specificity of each child is respected: the child is considered in the entirety of his person and not only as a pupil. Parents are searching for a school where interest is stirred up and knowledge is the result of a free personal discovery rather than the repetition of a learning already prepared. A democratic school that is neither authoritative nor competitive. The renewed interest for the Montessori method is also supported by the fact that some of its fundamental principles are confirmed by contemporary psychology. For instance, from present researches it emerges that more freedom and more choice, carried out in a prepared educational environment, contribute to better results in learning. Also neurosciences point out that there is a complete harmony between the way the brain represents numbers and the materials proposed by Montessori for the learning of maths.