Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori (1870–1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. Her educational method is in use today in some public and private schools throughout the world. Montessori education method based on belief in the child's creative potential and his right to be treated as an individual.

The woman's year emblem; a woman who studies a botanic book, with a child on her shoulders and a spade at her feet.