Maria Montessori goes to America. A pedagogical reflection of an encounter-clash between Italian Activism Movement and American Progressive Education

Abstract

The complex history of Montessori’s Method spreading in the United States was signed by some misunderstandings connected with the reform of the american education system. The Method wasn’t understood in its specificity, but it appeared,  in the same time, an alternative or an application of the tradition of Froebel’s Kindergarten. In those years the American pedagogical reflection tried to create an alternative to the continental tradition. For this reason the Progressive Education critized Montessori (i.e. Kilpatrick) for her spiritual and metaphysical premises but this movement couldn’t realize this project and it was inevitably connected with the tradition of European Activism.