Today is the 142nd birthday of Maria Montessori, who invented a form of education used throughout the world even today. The Montessori education is used in over 20,000 schools for children between the ages of newborns to 18 years old.

It is known that Google’s co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both went through the Montessori education system.

To celebrate the late Italian physician and educator, Google has a special Doodle for her on her 142nd birthday.

Here are the “elements” of the Montessori education model:

Mixed age classrooms, with classrooms for children aged 2½ or 3 to 9 years old by far the most common
Student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options
Uninterrupted blocks of work time
A Constructivist or “discovery” model, where students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction
Specialized educational materials developed by Montessori and her collaborators

The logo shows some of the tools used for her education model.

The video below shows how important the Google’s co-founders early education was to them:

For more details on her contributions and her life, see the Google search result for her name.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.