Maria Montessori: The first female outstanding teacher on the 155th anniversary of her birth

The article is dedicated to the outstanding Italian teacher Maria Montessori (1870-1952). The facts of her biography are given, and her multifaceted organizational, writing, and methodological work is characterized. The main ideas of M. Montessori are revealed: free upbringing and its spontaneous development in a specially prepared learning environment, individual freedom and reliance on sensory development, rejection of the classroom system, belittling the active educating role of the teacher, the creation of author's didactic materials by the teacher, helping the child in the implementation of his individual internal program, experimental work as the basis of teacher communication with a child, etc. The publication of the article is timed to coincide with the 155th anniversary of the birth of the first outstanding female teacher in the history of education.