The teaching method with which the creators of Amazon, Google and Wikipedia have studied | Education

Let's start with the richest man on the planet: the American Jeff Bezos, whose fortune is valued at $ 140.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine. He owns 16% of the Amazon e-commerce giant, which he founded in a garage in Seattle in 1994 and is enjoying tremendous success in the market.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, on the other hand, are two other entrepreneurs who have been able to shape their creativity to create the Internet search engine par excellence: Google. They are also among the richest people in the world, at positions 12 and 13, respectively. Together, their fortune exceeds $ 96 billion.

Other creative and successful entrepreneurs are Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Will Wright, video game designer and creator of the popular SimCity game.

In a very different field, we find Beyoncé, an artist who has captivated audiences, become a music star and a feminist reference – in addition to being one of the best paid women sector.

Finally, we highlight the Nobel Prize in Literature Gabriel García Márquez, who died in 2014.

Despite the differences between these characters, their trajectories intersect at one point: they are small, all studied in the same system. teaching, the Montessori method.

This is a learning process founded by the Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori (1870-1952), which focuses on a collaborative environment where the notes and the tests do not exist.

In addition, the clbadrooms are composed of students of varying ages ranging mainly from two and a half to seven years of age (although there are programs including young people under the age of 18). years) where learning and discovery are individual processes. and occur for long periods.

"Our primary concern should be to educate humanity, the human beings of all nations, to guide it towards the pursuit of common goals," says a text of the World Health Organization. Montessori International Association (AMI). , posted on its website.

"We must make the child our main concern.The efforts of science must focus on it, as it is the source and key of the riddles of humanity," continues l & # 39; section.

"What emerges from Montessori education is the individual development of people, it does not create a teacher-centered system, but on the development of the needs of the individual, and not only academic, but also physical, social and emotional. " says Scott Akridge, owner of the Riverstone Montessori Academy in Georgia, United States.

It is, according to his supporters, a system based on skills.

"We do not only teach academics, we also teach skills to undertake, what we call executive-function skills, which include paying attention, organizing, planning, starting tasks, and focus on them, to control emotions and self-observation, "says Akridge.

"And that's why Montessori graduates become great leaders, because all the executive functions necessary for success have been learned in elementary and primary school," he adds.

There are currently about 25,000 Montessori schools in the world – although the Montessori International Association acknowledges that it is difficult to know the exact number because institutions are not required to be s & # 39; save.

At the age of 2, Jeff Bezos attended a Montessori school in Albuquerque, United States, for a year and a half. "It's amazing," said Jeff Bezos at the Montessori Life magazine in 2000. "What a good program."

"Intuitively, I think it was a very formative experience to follow these courses in this environment and to be stimulated from a very young age," Bezos badyzed about his move to the university. 39; school.

In September, Bezos created a $ 2 billion charitable fund to help the homeless and establish a new school network inspired by this educational method.

The founders of Google also emphasized the importance of primary education that they received for their achievements. "We both went to Montessori School and I think part of the training to not follow the orders and rules motivated us to think about what was happening in the world and to think of different things, "said Larry Page, in an interview with ABC Network 2004.

Gabriel García Márquez was another Montessori alumni, a fact that the author pointed out in his autobiographical book" Living to Tell ". "I do not think there is a better way than Montessori to educate children about the beauties of the world and to awaken the curiosity of life's secrets," Márquez wrote.

"It is curious that entrepreneurs who have managed to study at Montessori speak of their initial training when asked how they became what they are," Akridge said.

"When we talk about realizations (because of practices) of Montessori, it is sometimes difficult, because our method is only primary, so there is a void since people leave the place. 39, school (until they start working), so it's striking that these entrepreneurs are telling millionaires, "he says.

But not all comments are positive when it comes to the Montessori method. Some critics think that the clbadroom environment is too free, call into question Montessori's educational priorities or the fact that children usually do not have homework.

There are also those who disapprove of the students' freedom to choose what they will study, because they believe that it will lead them to not master some areas of knowledge at the same time. to come up.

In the absence of official exams, some fear that the lack of a more rigid structure will disadvantage the child during the transition between Montessori school and the traditional school, according to an article from Concordia University in Oregon. United States

Akridge challenges this view. "The most recent research on education reflects what we do in terms of success, for example: mix ages at school, give less homework, focus on the emotional needs of the school. child … ", he says. "All of this we've been doing for 100 years," he says.

In a 2017 study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, researchers evaluated the early pre-kindergarten for about 70 Montessori students and 70 others at a traditional school in the United States. They all started studies with similar scores.

Over the next three years, the 70 Montessori children had better results on math and literacy tests. By the end of kindergarten, Montessori students had better results in these areas.

However, to solve group problems, executive function and creativity, there was no significant difference.

Another study published last year in the journal Nature indicated that there was no evidence that the results obtained by Montessori students indicate a greater effectiveness of the method. Research conducted by the Department of Psychology and Human Development at University College London, UK, reviewed studies done on the education system and pointed out that "it is not necessary to do so. There are no individual elements of the Montessori method that can explain the positive effects that they have engendered. " affirming find "in students

What is clear is that it is very difficult to measure the success of someone." And badign it to primary education, as in the case of millionaire celebrities, so is.

"The story of the success of businessmen is theirs. If they attribute this to their education at Montessori, it is also their decision, "said the Montessori International Association to the BBC.