The founders of Google, Amazon, and the inventor of the telephone.
What do they all have in common?
If your answer is “Montessori” you are right.
It is a well-known fact that Montessori teaches kids to be self-directed, self-starters, and acquires a love of learning. But where can all this lead? Here are some of the stories of the Montessori alumni:
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, recently told ABC News that they count a Montessori education as a major reason for their success.
Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, was always completely engrossed in his Montessori activities, as a young child. In fact, his mother contributes this trait directly in explaining toward why the company he founded, Amazon.com Inc., has become the most dominant Internet retailer in the world.
Dakota Fanning, the amazingly successful actress, at a very young age (the youngest person ever to have been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award) explains her love of reading to Montessori. “I learned to read at two. I was in a Montessori school and they teach you to read really, really young.” Dakota Fanning
William Wright, the designer of one of the most successful and popular computer games in history says this about his Montessori experience, “Montessori taught me the joy of discovery…It showed you can become interested in pretty complex theories, like Pythagorean theory, say, by playing with blocks. It’s all about learning on your terms, rather than a teacher explaining stuff to you.
Yo Yo Ma, the United nations Peace Ambassador, winner of 15 Grammy Awards, Presidential Medal of Freedom & National Medal of the Arts. A child prodigy cellist and Montessori student, she learned too early to follow his own interests and think outside traditional definitions.
Anne Frank, the Memoirist & author. Her famous diary is a natural extension of her school experience and got translated into 67 languages. She – like all Montessori students – learned to cultivate observation skills and record her thoughts in a journal early on.
Katharine Graham, the Pulitzer prize-winning author and Former owner & editor of the Washington Post. Crisis forced Katherine Graham to assume control of the Washington Post. Her reign at the highly-regarded paper lasted more than two decades.
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the first practical telephone, and his wife Mabel, provided financial support directly to Dr. Montessori and helped establish the first Montessori School in the United States in 1913.
There are many other amazing individuals who proudly speak of Montessori’s influence on their lives. Here are just some of them: