Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Devi Sridhar

Today, in our quest to feature the amazing, brilliant, and influential people who attended Montessori school as children, we feature Devi Sridhar, the youngest-ever American Rhodes scholar, author, Oxford research fellow, and professor on global health politics. Her latest book, Governing Global Health, was co-written with Chelsea Clinton (who was also a former Montessori student!). Devi Sridhar, a former Montessori student, has found tremendous success in her field; her areas of expertise include understanding the complexities of how international health organizations work, the financing of global public health and developing better tools for priority-setting in global health management. By the age of 18, she already spoke five languages, played tennis and the violin expertly, and had co-written a book on Indian mythology. She went on to become the youngest Rhodes Scholar in the program’s 100-year history. Interested in health as a young person, she now directs CEG’s global health governance project and is a professor and chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh Uni Medical School.

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Beyoncé Knowles

In our continuing foray into the famous, influential, and amazing people who attended Montessori school as children, today we focus on Beyoncé Knowles. Though she certainly needs no introduction, Beyoncé is one of America's most beloved singer/songwriters who has sold 100 million records worldwide, won 22 Grammy's, and has been listed in Time's 100 most influential people in the world. Beyoncé, who was born in Houston, Texas, attended St. Mary's Montessori School, where she also enrolled in dance classes and won a school talent show at age seven. She attended Montessori school until the third grade, and thanks in part to her school valuing arts as well as academics, her thriving career sprouted from the empowering and lifelong love of learning that Montessori education provides. We are beyond proud to call her a part of the extended Montessori community!

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: David Blaine

Along the thread of circuses and magic, we wanted to explore one famous magician, illusionist, and endurance artist who just so happened to attend a Montessori school when he was young: David Blaine. David Blaine, who discovered his love for magic when he was a four-year-old Montessori student, stops people in their tracks with his illusions and mastery of magic. Among his many fantastical stunts is his 2006 performance, during which he lived for seven days in an eight-foot sphere of water while breathing through an air tube. Before that, his previous stunts include "encasing himself in a block of ice for 62 hours, standing atop an 80-foot pole for 35 hours and burying himself in a plexiglass coffin for seven days without food or water." (NY Times)While we aren't condoning our children to push the limits quite in the same way Blaine does, we can certainly stand in awe of his ability to think outside the box, train and understand the human body in a way many scientists are fascinated with, and to continue to be curious at any age!

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In our quest to discover the influential and well-known people who attended Montessori school as children, we feature Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Columbian author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, who has not only won the Nobel Prize, but is also credited for shaping world literature for the past 28 years. Marquez credits many of his successes to the Montessori form of education, noting that before Montessori school, he struggled to read, and found the phonetic way of learning the sounds of letters extremely helpful. In a broader sense, Marquez believed that Montessori education was responsible for "making children sensitive to the beauties of the world and awakening their curiosity regarding the secrets of life." We couldn't agree more!

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Joshua Bell

Continuing in our series of exploring the well-known, big-impact adults in our world who attended Montessori schools as children, today we feature world-renowned, Grammy-award winning violinist Joshua Bell. Joshua Bell, who has enjoyed more than 30 years as a violin soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and conductor, was first given a violin at age four, after his mother found him strumming taut rubber bands between dresser drawers. Bell was later the subject of a Pulitzer-prize winning story in the Washington Post, which highlighted not only his incredible musical achievements, but his humility.From Bell's official website:Convinced of the value of music as a diplomatic and educational tool, Bell participated in President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ first cultural mission to Cuba.  He is also involved in Turnaround Arts, another project implemented by the Committee and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. which provides arts education to low-performing elementary and middle schools. Bell has performed for three U.S. Presidents as well as the President of China and devoted himself to several charitable causes, most notably Education Through Music, which put instruments in the hands of thousands of children in America’s inner cities.

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Sean "P Diddy" Combs

Continuing on our foray into the interesting, successful people who were influenced by their Montessori education, today we feature multi-Grammy award-winning musician, rap artist, and CEO of Bad Boy Records, Sean "P Diddy" Combs, who credits his Montessori education with his drive for success: "I feel like I was nurtured into wanting to be somebody special."Though Sean "P Diddy" Combs rarely talks about his Montessori roots, he attended Mount Vernon Montessori School when he was just two years old, shortly after his father died. "The Montessori educational approach might be the surest route to joining the creative elite, which are so overrepresented by the school’s alumni that one might suspect a Montessori Mafia," writes The Wall Street Journal, which names Combs as part of this talented group of individuals. We think it's amazing to discover the wide range of success stories from Montessori-education people!

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Will Wright

photo credit: Anya Zavarzina

Following our discovery of highly influential people who attended Montessori, today we focus on Will Wright, who pioneered The Sims, SimCity, and Spore, and opened the world's eyes to interactive design in the way of video games. Wright credits Montessori education with amplifying his imagination in a way that allowed creative discovery.

Wright holding a Sim: photo credit: Electronic Arts

“Montessori taught me the joy of discovery," Mr. Wright told The Wall Street Journal. "It showed you can become interested in pretty complex theories, like Pythagorean theory, say, by playing with blocks. It’s all about learning on your terms, rather than a teacher explaining stuff to you. SimCity comes right out of Montessori."Says Wright of his interest in his field, "I guess what really draws me to interactive entertainment and the thing that I try to keep focused on is enabling the creativity of the player. Giving them a pretty large solution space to solve the problem within the game. So the game represents this problem landscape. Most games have small solution landscapes, so there’s one possible solution and one way to solve it. Other games, the games that tend to be more creative, have a much larger solution space, so you can potentially solve this problem in a way that nobody else has. If you’re building a solution, how large that solution space is gives the player a much stronger feeling of empathy. If they know that what they’ve done is unique to them, they tend to care for it a lot more. I think that’s the direction I tend to come from."

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Jeff Bezos

Here at Villa di Maria, we know just how amazing Montessori education is - how the freedom within limits philosophy helps each child to develop executive functioning skills, how the "cosmic education" component helps to make the world a better place - we could go on and on! That's why it is  not surprising that many famous, successful adults attended Montessori school as children. Today, we explore one: American technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, best known as the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Amazon Jeff Bezos. It's no secret that some of the top tech innovators have one thing in common: roots in Montessori education. For Bezos, his Montessori education, along with summers spent tinkering with windmills and repairing equipment on his grandparents' Texas ranch, helped him to develop a mindset that valued and sought out experimentation. In a 2015 interview with Fortune, Bezos states, "Experiments are key to innovation because they rarely turn out as you expect and you learn so much... We’ve tried to reduce the cost of doing experiments so that we can do more of them. If you can increase the number of experiments you try from a hundred to a thousand, you dramatically increase the number of innovations you produce."Bezos has also been described as focusing on process, not failure, growing and learning from mistakes rather than allowing them to inhibit his experimentation. Constantly viewing failures as opportunities for growth, Bezos was able to grow and remain open to all possibilities. This way of approaching the world, with a hands-on, curious mindset and an openness to new experiences, is truly Montessori.

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Julia Child

photo credit: Smithsonian Magazine

Continuing on our foray into the wonderful people who were influenced by their Montessori education (and because today is International Pi Day - really, who better to represent pie/pi than the queen of butter?), today we feature Julia Child: American chef, author, and television personality, perhaps best known for her show The French Chef, which premiered in 1963. Child attributed her Montessori education with creating her lifelong love of discovery and mastery. 

photo credit: LA Times

Perhaps as well-known for her fantastic sense of humor as for her cooking skills, Julia Child was, in true Montessori fashion, a lifelong learner. Said Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times, "Everyone has been talking about how Julia Child taught America to cook. But that was not the greatest of her gifts. For those who had the privilege of knowing Julia, her life was a grand lesson in how to live."

In Julia Child's words she advised to “learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun!”

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Yo Yo Ma

Image credit: Indiana University

Here at Villa di Maria, we know just how amazing Montessori education is - how the freedom within limits philosophy helps each child to develop executive functioning skills, how the "cosmic education" component helps to make the world a better place - we could go on and on! That's why it is  not surprising that many famous, successful adults attended Montessori school as children. Today, we explore one: United Nations Peace Ambassador, winner of 15 Grammy Awards, and famous cellist: Yo Yo Ma.

Image: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

Yo Yo Ma, a former Montessori student himself, says of his daughter's Montessori experience: "Structure is an absolutely important part of the creative life, and Emily [Yo Yo Ma’s daughter] got this from her Montessori experience." 

In 2006, when Yo Yo Ma was appointed as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said to Mr. Ma, “Over the course of your extraordinary musical career, you have demonstrated time and again your dedication to overcoming cultural differences and bridging gaps between nations and generations.  Through your music, the message of peace can spread far and wide and influence people around the world to focus on harmony and human dignity.” Truly, the Montessori value of global citizenship is clear here!

Mr. Ma has also been known for his strong commitment to educational programs that not only bring young audiences into contact with music, but also allow them to participate in its creation.  While touring, he has taken time to conduct master classes as well as more informal programs for students, and has also reached young audiences through appearances on Arthur, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street.

Famous People Who Attended Montessori: Sergey Brin & Larry Page

There are so many wonderfully talented human beings who contribute so much to our world who also happen to be former Montessori students! We'll feature them here, on our blog, on a weekly basis, to highlight just how amazing and empowering this form of education can be. Today: Google founders Sergey Brin & Larry Page.Famous for their "Don't be evil" philosophy, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page came up with the famous start-up in 1998 in a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. They credit their success to their early start in Montessori. "We both went to Montessori, and I think as part of that training of being self-motivated and questioning things going on in the world makes it a little different," said Larry Page in a 2010 interview with Barbara Walters.“You can’t understand Google,” says Wired, “unless you know [its founders] were Montessori kids… In a Montessori school, you paint because you have something to express or you just want to… not because the teacher said so. This is baked into Larry and Sergey… it’s how their brains were programmed early on.”"The Montessori Mafia," by Peter Sims (The Wall Street Journal, 2011)