Against Two Titans and Three Prejudices? John Dewey, William H. Kilpatrick, and the Reasons Behind the Initial Rejection of the Montessori Method in America (1912–1918)

This paper stems from the author’s long-time interest in the history of the Italian American community on the one hand and the Italian educational thought on the other. Its focus is on the world-famous Italian pedagogist Maria Montessori and an initial rejection of her method of education, or the Montessori system, in the United States. Although widely popular throughout the country today, this is a result of the method’s revival noticeable since the 1960s. Nonetheless, as Maria Montessori made her two visits to America in 1913 and 1915, an early enthusiasm proved only transitory and faded away within a few short years, which can be measured in terms of the quantity of Montessori-related publications and the waning press coverage. The aim of this paper is thus to find out the reasons for this initial rejection of the Montessori Method in America between 1912 and 1918 through an assessment of the impact of criticism voiced by two prominent American educators of the time, John Dewey and William H. Kilpatrick, as well as a verification of the working hypotheses that Maria Montessori might have been disadvantaged by her womanhood, her Italianness and her Catholicism.