If an educational act is to be efficacious, it will be only that one which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks.

Although Montessori and her educational approach were highly popular in the United States Maria Montessori was not without opposition and controversy. Montessori also realized that acknowledging that all children were individuals and treating them as such would yield to better learning and fulfilled potential in each particular child. In 1909 Montessori held the first teacher training course in her new method in Città di Castello Italy.

Her educational method is in use today in public and private schools throughout the world. Maria Tecla Artemesia Montessori (August 31 1870 – May 6 1952) was an Italian physician and educator a noted humanitarian and devout Roman Catholic best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name and her writing on scientific pedagogy.