Here's a picture of my friend Cristina and me in Rome at Maria Montessori's first school - Casa dei Bambini. It was quite an (unexpected) emotional and wonderfully special experience for us to be here. I love the laundry hanging out of the 2nd story apartment! Life goes on, doesn't it?

This building was built as a way of providing housing for underprivileged people. At one time there were 10,000 people living here, in what was the start, and failure, of a previous building attempt - basically a skeleton of 6 would-be palatial houses. The new builders chose 1,000 (mostly married) people to live in their very basic apartments. One room was set aside as a way of confining the wild and uncivilized slum children before they would cause damage to the building while their parents were at work. (Can you imagine leaving your 3 year old to fend for himself while you're at work??) It was hoped that a person would be found with enough 'social courage' to tackle the problem. This, of course, turned out to be Dr. Maria Montessori, who was a physician and the Medical Officer of Hygiene at that time. She approached the project from a scientific point of view and her educational method grew out of her observations of the 50 children entrusted to her in this place, Casa dei Bambini.