MARIA MONTESSORI’S IDEAS about education stem from the principles of choice, individual dignity, spontaneous order, experimental discovery, and freedom of movement. They stand in radical contrast to traditional schooling, too often based on authority, central planning, rigid instruction, and force. She once described children in such schools as “butterflies stuck with pins, fixed in their places.”
It would not be accurate to call her a libertarian. She eschewed politics, which she said “do not interest me.” When asked, she declared that the only party she was interested in was the “children’s party.” To advance her ideas, she wanted “anybody’s help, without regard to his political or religious convictions”—leading to more than a few unwise collaborations, including one with Benito Mussolini. Yet perhaps more than anyone else, she advanced a “libertarian…
