Five of Maria Montessori's great grandchildren and two of their children spent a Sunday afternoon looking after Maria Montessori's grave in Noordwijk, planting the tulips that will bloom in 2020, to mark her 150th birthday.

Noordwijk is a small town close to the Dutch coast, some 40 km south west of Amsterdam, where Maria Montessori died in the family holiday home overlooking the North Sea; at her request she was buried "wherever she would be at the time of her passing" as  Montessori considered herself a citizen of the world.

The inscription on the grave site reads:

Maria Montessori

31.8.1870 - 6.5.1952

Io prego i cari bambini che possono tutto di unirsi a me per la costruzione della pace negli uomini e nel mondo

I ask the dear children who are capable of anything to join me in building peace in Man and in the World.

We look forward to the tulips blooming—a symbol of the continuing impact and vibrancy of Montessori education around the world.

Photo courtesy of Sybrina Wassenaar.