Montessori was born in Chiaraville, Italy, and attended the University of Rome. In 1896, she became the first woman in Italy to receive a medical degree. While working as an assistant doctor at the psychiatric clinic at the University, she became interested in mentally handicapped children. She strongly believed that these children were capable of more learning than most people thought at the time. Consequently, she gave up her position and started the State Orthophrenic School of Rome, where she created unique learning environments that allowed students to explore and learn on their own. Her methods were very successful and in 1907, she opened the "Children's House" in a poor section of Rome where she applied her technique to children who were not mentally handicapped. Her teaching style consisted of allowing children to teach themselves by using and experimenting with a variety of learning materials. After one year, people were coming from all over the world to observe the success of her school. her students learned to read spontaneously, showed strong initiative, and displayed the ability to be self-disciplined. During the next 40tears, Montessori traveled throughout the world lecturing, writing, and established programs to train teachers in her unique unique teaching methods and philosophy. She strongly believed that her teaching methods would help bring about world peace. As a result, Montessori schools were opened in Rome, Paris, Berlin, San Francisco, London, and many other cities. After moving to Spain, Montessori lived in Sri Lanka and eventually settled in the Netherlands. There are still Montessori schools all over the world today.