Dr. Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator who developed the educational method that bears her name. Despite receiving continuous discouragemnt, hostility, and harassment from her male peers and professors during her time studying medicine, she won an academic prize in her first year and secured coveted a position as a hospital assistant early in her course of study, gaining clinical experience. She studied pediatrics and psychiatry and became an expert in pediatric medicine. She continued her education delving more and more into psychology and pedagogy. She opened the Casa dei Bambini, or Children's House, in 1907, interested in applying more widely an educational method she develped and called "scientific pedagogy". The Children's House initially enrolled between 50 and 60 children between the ages of two and seven. In this first classroom, Montessori observed behaviors in these young children which formed the foundation of her educational method. She noted episodes of deep attention and concentration, multiple repetitions of activity, and a sensitivity to order in the environment. The children showed interest in practical activities and over time, she saw a spontaneous self-discipline emerge. Dr. Montessori believed that by working independently, children could reach new levels of autonomy and become self-motivated to reach new levels of understanding. She also came to believe that acknowledging all children as individuals and treating them as such would yield better learning and fulfilled potential in each particular child.