Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was a great supporter of Montessori education.
He and his wife, Mabel, sponsored one of the first Montessori schools in America, which was opened in their own home in Washington, D.C. in 1912; they also hosted an enormous reception for Dr. Maria Montessori when she visited the States in 1913; and they each served as president of the Montessori Educational Association, one of the earliest organizations to promote Montessori.*
Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel Hubbard Bell
Bell saw the Montessori approach as being in line with his own views on raising children, and he envisioned Montessori school as an alternative to traditional education — which he was not too fond of, to put it lightly. Here is Bell discussing this:
“The system of giving out a certain amount of work which must be carried through in a given space of time, and putting the children into orderly rows of desks and compelling them to absorb just so much intellectual nourishment, whether they are ready for it or not, reminds me of the way they prepare pâté de foie gras in the living geese.”
For those like myself who might not know what exactly foie gras is, according to Wikipedia it’s defined as “the liver of a duck or goose fattened by force-feeding corn with a feeding tube”(!). You see, Bell really didn’t like traditional school.
And he wasn’t alone.
Dr. Montessori made it her life’s endeavor to radically change how we see children, to help us stop thinking of school “along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge” (The Absorbent Mind). And she succeeded, as today Montessori is a household name, which was definitely not the case when Alexander Graham Bell and his wife first supported it in the early 20th century.
Dr. Maria Montessori during her 1913 American trip, with S. S. McClure, owner of the then popular McClure’s Magazine. In his autobiography*, Mr. McClure noted this: “Alexander Graham Bell … told me that he considered the introduction of the Montessori system in the United States as the most important work that McClure’s Magazine had ever done.”
Alexander Graham Bell is understandably most remembered for inventing the telephone, but he is also to be thanked for the role he played in helping spread Montessori in America — and eventually throughout the world. 🌎🙏
To read about other famous Montessori supporters, visit here.