On This Day: 29 February 1912

On this day 108 years ago: Maria Montessori received this letter. Many such letters and notes were written to her during those early years (1907-1914) with a request to be permitted to visit and observe the children during their activities. This particular school would have been the one on Via Giusti, Rome. This was a class established by the Franciscan sisters at the convent on Via Giusti and was to become the model classroom for the international teacher training courses given in 1913 and 1914. The class was created for the 60 children affected by the 1908 Messina earthquake. The remarkable results amongst these traumatised children drew even more interest.

Since Maria Montessori was inundated with these types of requests, she relied on several young women to help her answer all these requests, such as Anna Fideli, Anna Reno Margulies, and Elisabetta Ballerini.