The city of Perugia has a historical connection with Maria Montessori.

This connection was established by one of Montessori’s most brilliant and devoted pupils, Maria Antonietta Paolini (1907-2000).

In 1949, Ms. Paolini invited Dr. Montessori to hold conferences in the Aula Magna of Perugia’s University for Foreign Students. No more than a year went by before Dr. Montessori opened the International Center for Pedagogical Studies in this same university. This marked the beginning of the International Montessori Course which was attended by a total of 89 Italian and foreign students. Dr. Montessori returned to Perugia in 1951 for a cycle of lectures that by then, had become very popular. In 1952 Dr. Montessori was succeeded by Ms. Paolini.

The Santa Croce Children’s House and Montessori elementary school was opened, alongside numerous other Montessori schools in Perugia. From 1952 to 1994, Ms. Paolini directed 33 courses attended by 2,589 Italian students and 1,087 foreign students. Conferences, workshops, and advanced courses have always accompanied both AMI and national training activities. This has made Perugia one of the most important centers for the diffusion of Maria Montessori’s thought and work. Her words were made true when she said “I am sure that Perugia now is the city I am tied to with a golden thread, and that the link between Perugia and Montessori’s idea will continue bringing fruit for the future.”

In 1994, Maria Antonietta Paolini left Perugia. “The faith in God and the faith in the Child, as an educator of humanity, filled my life with light.” This became the educational message and legacy carried out by Sara Concas, one of Montessori’s students during the 1950s and Paolini’s precious collaborator, director of several courses for AMI Children’s House.

The Montessori Training Center Perugia offers quality training for the service of childhood.

Those who work with childhood are entitled to the best training because they have been entrusted the best of today’s humanity, the children, the creators of tomorrow’s humanity.

This has been the guiding idea, the dominating thought of all of those who have worked at reviving the Montessori Training Center Perugia M. A. Paolini since 2014.

The result of this collective commitment was seen in the emotional smiles of those who obtained the AMI Children’s House diploma in 2016. The most valuable reward for the trainers was the immense  gratitude of the course attendees.

In fact, on the 30th July 2016 the first AMI Children’s House course came to an end. The course had been divided into two modules covering a span of two years. There was a total of 22 course attendees, 21 women and 1 man who arrived from all over the world and Italy including Australia, the U.S.A, Mexico, Spain, France, England, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and the Czech Republic. They each obtained a qualification to be able to work with children from 3-6 years in a Montessori environment. One of the Italian students received both the international and national diploma. This is a diploma that is valid all over the world and that will take Montessori’s educational message of freedom and independence, peace and development, and the satisfaction of the educational needs of the best of humanity that is childhood.

After two years of intense and challenging modules that were carried out in the periods of May – July 2015 and May – July 2016, under the guidance of the AMI course director Sylvia Dorantes and under the supervision of the AMI trainer Irene Fafalios, the 22 students faced their exams.The examination committee was chaired by a true world authority of Montessori, Dott.ssa Patel, who came from England, and the other commission was Dr. Baiba Krumnis Grazzini, international trainer, one of the worldwide leading experts of Montessori and AMI course director of Montessori elementary training course in Bergamo, one of the most prestigious centres in the world. The superlative expertise and absolute prestige of the commission that was made up of such great Montessori experts worried the course attendees who faced the hard and hot days in July with great tension but with equal concentration. But as we know, after a challenging week comes a happy party celebration. The strong commitment of everybody was rewarded by the commission who gave every attendeee their diploma, they gave excellent judgements and feedback that confirmed, without doubt, the excellent work that had been done in Perugia by the course director Sylvia Dorantes and her team.

It is nice to see the birth of new things. One bright morning of late July, in the splendid hall of the University for foreign students of Perugia, where Montessori had opened a centre with her favourite pupil Maria Antonietta Paolini, we saw the consignment of the AMI diplomas for Children’s House. It was very emotional to see the rebirth of the international course. After so many years, Perugia has once again become what it was in the past, which is one of the most important Montessori training centres in the world.

It was great to see hope flourish that Montessori education continues in the wake of the great tradition of science and love, and in the trust of the child’s potential. In the gestures, in the words and in the shadow of Dott.ssa Patel, Baiba Kruminis and Sylvia Dorantes, many glimpsed the silhouettes of Maria Antonietta Paolini and her teacher, Maria Montessori. In the smiles of the teachers that had just graduated, everybody saw the hope that shall be broadcast around the world as a certainty for our future.