Montessori Alumni
Many Montessori Alumni have gone on to make significant impacts in our society. Below are some of those alumni and also resources for parents to better understand how a Montessori education can help their child excel.
Montessori Alumni
Many famous people throughout the world praise the results of Montessori education. Below are some people you may recognize that attended Montessori schools, who's children attended Montessori schools, and others who support Montessori.
Famous people who attended Montessori schools:
Larry Page, co-founder of Google
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google
Peter Drucker, management guru
Prince William and Prince Harry, England’s royal family
George Clooney, Academy Award-winning actor
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon
Anne Frank, famous diarist from World War II
Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian architect
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia
Will Wright, designer of The Sims
Katherine Graham, former owner-editor of The Washington Post
Sean Combs, rap mega-star
Julia Child, famous chef, star of many TV cooking shows, and author of numerous cookbooks
Helen Hunt, Academy Award-winning actress
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize winner for literature
Joshua Bell, American violinist, owner of Stradivarius Violin
Lea Salonga, multi-awarded Filipino-American singer and Broadway actress
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, former editor, former First Lady (John F. Kennedy)
Berry Brazelton, noted pediatrician and author
Kami Cotler, actress (youngest child on long-running series: The Waltons)
Melissa and Sarah Gilbert, actors
Elizabeth Berridge, actress
Stephen Curry, NBA player
Famous people whose children attended Montessori schools:
Stephen J. Cannell, TV writer-producer-director (The Rockford Files and many other)
Patty Duke Austin, actress
Bill and Hillary Clinton, former President and New York Senator
Cher Bono, singer, actress
John Bradshaw, psychologist and author
Yul Brynner, former actor
Marcy Carcy, TV producer
Michael Douglas, actor
Shari Lewis, former puppeteer
Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
Willie Nelson, musician, has a Montessori school on his ranch
Elizabeth Berridge, actress
David Blaine, street magician
Jennifer Granholm and Daniel Mulhern, Governor of Michigan
Famous people who support Montessori education:
Bruno Bettelheim, noted psychologist/author, was married to a Montessori teacher.
Thomas Edison, noted scientist and inventor, helped found a Montessori school.
President Wilson’s daughter trained as a Montessori teacher. There was a Montessori classroom in the basement of the White House during Wilson’s presidency.
Erik Erikson, anthropologist/author, had a Montessori teaching certificate.
Jean Piaget, noted Swiss psychologist, made his first observations of children in a Montessori school. He was also head of the Swiss Montessori Society for many years.
Mister Rogers, children’s TV personality, strong supporter of Montessori education.
Alexander Graham Bell (inventor) and his wife Mabel founded the Montessori Education Association in 1913. They also provided financial support directly to Dr. Maria Montessori and helped establish the first Montessori class in Canada and one of the first in the United States.
Alice Waters, restaurateur and writer, is a former Montessori teacher.
Evaluating Montessori Education
An analysis of students' academic and social scores compares a Montessori school with other elementary school education programs.
Tomorrow's Child
This magazine answers the questions that every Montessori parent asks:
- What will Montessori do for my child?
- How can I be sure that it’s working?
- What exactly is my child doing at school?
- What can I do at home to help?
- What can I do to support my child?s school
Tomorrow’s Child will help you understand and appreciate Montessori, and apply Montessori insights at home.
The Opposite of Play
"We all know that play is good for children. But research shows that it is integral to the development of their brains and that human beings are, in fact, designed by nature, to flourish through play...."
Education by Design
An article about Julia Child. "Julia Child attended Montessori school and credits that education (in her book Julia Child and Company) for her love of working with her hands...."