In 1923 the University of Durham confers an honorary doctorate (DLitt) upon Maria Montessori.
By 1923 Maria Montessori’s work and ideas had really caught on in the UK — she and her co-workers had built a solid presence, through the frequency of training courses, dedicated publishers (Heinemann) and PR agents, and an active Montessori society which included some of Montessori most talented students of the time, e.g. Claude Claremont.
UK educational researcher Kevin Brehony[1], wrote:
In 1913 the Montessori method began to dominate the educational press in England.
The Journal Child Study, for example, which was begun by the Child-Study Society in 1908 and up until then had largely carried articles on a wide range of educational innovation in 1913 published several articles and many reports on meetings held to discuss Montessori. The attendance at these meetings was extraordinarily large. Montessori received a fervent endorsement in an official publication within three years of the first article on her work appearing in England.
In this landscape, Montessori education and the person had been receiving much interest, also reaching the board of governors of the University of Durham. This university was founded by an Act of Parliament in 1837, and the first recognised university to open in England for more than 600 years, after Oxford and Cambridge, making it the third oldest university of England.
On December 11, 1923, Professor John Wight Duff — a Scottish classicist and academic, Professor of Classics at Armstrong College, Durham addressed Maria Montessori at the festive celebration marking the university’s conferring a honorary doctorate in letters on her.
In Signora Dottoressa Maria Montessori the University of Durham proposes to honour a name which in the Chronicles of Education is known over the wide world. An expert in psychiatry, Signora Montessori has devoted her great talents to the study of methods applicable to the training of children and of the mentally deficient. It was her lectures in Rome that led to the foundation of the Scuola Ortofrenica for the feeble-minded, and of that school she was directress for some years. She was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Medicine[2] from the university of Rome; and for fully seven years she lectured on Pedagogical Anthropology.
Theories for instructing the young which engrossed thinkers like Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebel, were given a new direction by Signora Montessori. Her noble conceptions of childhood — Questa piccola infanzia — which has been so dear to her — have sought to remind the world of the essential divinity of child-nature in the spirit of Wordsworth’s line "Heaven lies about us in our infancy.” And where others perhaps might have seen only naughty children, she could have said with Dante, "Well did I perceive their heads were fair." (Purgatorio, VIII, 34)
Her system maintains as one of its cardinal truths that teachers themselves must learn from the taught. A university so close to the ancient frontier of the Roman Empire is proud to possess through Signora Montessori a fresh link with Rome.
[1] For publications by Prof Kevin Brehony (1948-2013) see https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Kevin-J.-Brehony/74127515
[2] Professor Wight Duff erroneously assumed that Maria Montessori was the first medical doctor to graduate from the University of Rome.
Read an account of the day of the conferment ceremony
Italian text received from Grazia Honegger Fresco
…. All’Università di Durham, dopo essere stata a colazione col massimo personaggio della medesima, nel suo palazzo antico con grandi saloni, fui introdotta a messa in un’anticamera. L’Università è in un antico castello del 1200. Là mi vestirono con la cappa magna nientedimeno rossa (!!) e guarnizioni di raso color oro, e con un bel berettino a 4 punte. Ero naturalmente la sola persona ad avere il grado di Dottore ad Honoris Causam. L’aula magna era piena di studenti e pubblico, e molti avevano cappe diverse, dovendo ricevere la laurea o titoli di vario grado. Molti dovevano ricevere il titolo di Dre in Teologia, e portavano il colletto da pastore. Avevano cappe nere, alcune guarnite di pelliccia, altre di raso viola. Io stavo sul palco con altri vestiti come me, fra gli altri il personaggio che mi aveva invitato a colazione. Un uomo vestito di cappa nera, con una gran croce d’argento sul mantello a destra, ed un alto bastone d’argento con uno stemma in cima: era l’araldo che conduceva, e che m’invitó a seguirlo (uno o due passi) per fermarmi davanti al rettore che era su una specie di trono e che si alzó in piedi. Un professore, vestito come me si fermó pure avanti a me e lesse il discorso riportato dal giornale. Poi mi prese per la mano e tenedomi cosí mi presentò al Rettore con una formula (questa qui presente è la Drssa Maria Montessori che fu eletta ecc. ecc., ed il Rettore risponde alzando lo scettro: in nome e rappresentatanza dell’Universitá, Voi Signora Maria Montessori, siete dichiarata Dottore ad Honoris Causam. Poi mi seggo, e l’araldo col bastone d’argento va, successivamente nel fondo della sala a condurre al rettore file di laureandi uno dietro l’altro, tra la massa degli Studenti, commenta a/e schiamazza. Dopo ci fu una visita ad una cattedrale unita al Castello, e poi in automobile al Convento di Sunderland. Là c’era una festa con concorso grande di preti, ed una commedio la delle allieve. Un canonico fece un discorso parlando dell’Università di Durham, centro protestante da cui vengono i pastori protestanti (specie di collegio centrale di teologia) che per la prima volta dette un grado d’onore ad una persona cattolica: e ancora, a una donna! E gli applausi erano sacroscianti e l’entusiasmo grandissimo, io portavo la cappa rossa e oro……………
…..Una delle cose piú sconquassanti fú che arrivai dopo una notte “insonne” nella cabina agitata del bastimento e no potei dormire il giorno e la sera avevo lezione. Quale fu il mi stupore ne trovare una folla straordinaria, professori d’università, il Console Generale d’Italia, ecc.: fiori meravigliosi, fra cui un gigantesco cesto messo inmezzo in alto, formato dall’unione di grandi vasi di azalea rosse, e piante di palmette, e piogge di capel venere, il tutto disposto come un gran cesto coperto di velluto verde. E orchidea sottili gialo oro e piante varie. Comició quindi la serie del discorsi. Compredevo, per l’emozione con cui erano pronunziati che l’onore ricevuto era assolutamente straordinario. Gli applausi, i saluti colla mano dei teosofi ecc, erano tali da sbalordirmi… Il giorno dopo fui tanto visitata dai fotografi, che quasi non ebbi tempo di mangiare. Tutti i giornali vogliono riprodurre il vestiario magnifico e strano, di cui non si ha un’idea in Olanda
At the University of Durham, after having had lunch with the highest official of that institution, in its ancient building with large halls, I was taken into an antechamber. The University is in an ancient castle dating back to 1200. There they dressed me with a red cape no less(!!) and gold-colored satin trimmings, and with a nice 4-pointed hat. I was of course the only person to receive the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa. The lecture hall was full of students and other people, many wore different caps, for their graduation or some other degree. Many of these were to receive the title of Doctor of Theology, and wore a priest’s collar. They wore black hats, some trimmed with fur, others with purple satin. I was on stage with other people dressed like me, one of them the person who had invited me for lunch. A man dressed in a black cape, with a large silver cross on the right side of his cloak, and a tall silver staff with a coat of arms: he was the herald, he invited me to follow him (one or two steps) to stop in front of the Rector who was on a kind of throne and who stood up. A professor, dressed like me also stopped in front of me and read the speech reported in the newspaper. Then he took me by the hand and presented me to the Rector with a formula (this here is Drssa Maria Montessori who was elected etc. etc.), and the Rector responded by raising the scepter: In the name of and as a representative of the University: “I declare you, Signora Maria Montessori, Doctor Honoris Causa.” Then I sat down, and the herald with the silver staff walked to the back of the room to lead a long line of undergraduates one after the other, first past the noisy crowd of students, then past the Rector. Afterwards there was a visit to a cathedral joined to the castle and then by car to the Convent of Sunderland. Here they gave a party with a great gathering of priests, and an operetta by the pupils. A canon gave a speech talking about the University of Durham, a Protestant centre from which Anglican pastors come (a kind of central college of theology) which for the first time had conferred a degree of honour to a Catholic, and what’s more, to a woman! The applause was thunderous and there was great enthusiasm, I wore the red and gold cape...............
After the honours and festive celebrations in Durham, it was time for Maria Montessori to return to the Netherlands, where she had taken a week “off” amidst a teacher training course (1923 Nov. 1 - Feb. 15, 1924: National Training Course. Assembly Hall, University of Amsterdam) Upon arrival in Amsterdam, she went straight back to the course and delivered a lecture in the evening to her students and interested people. The passage below describes the congratulatory speeches and flowers at the start of that lecture which had come as a total surprise to her.
One of the most disturbing things was that I arrived after a "sleepless" night in a rocking cabin on the ship and I could not sleep during the day and in the evening I had a lecture. What amazed me was to find an extraordinary crowd, university professors, the Consul General of Italy, etc. Marvellous flowers, including a huge basket placed high up, containing large vases of red azalea, palm leaves, and trailing maidenhead fern, all arranged like a large basket covered with green velvet. And slender golden yellow orchids, and various plants. Then began a series of speeches. I understood, from the emotion with which they were pronounced, that the honour received was absolutely extraordinary. The applause, the greetings with the hand [palms together before the breast] of the theosophists, etc., were such as to amaze me ...
The awarding of Maria Montessori's honorary doctorate was covered in many newspapers. The clippings were saved by Maria Montessori's father.
In 1924 Maria Montessori's great friend, Maria Maraini, organised a reception for her in Rome to celebrate the recent honorary doctorate from Durham.
