Famous Montessorians, and why your child might be next on this list

Some of today’s biggest entertainment and business influencers credit their career success to timing. Others, to good luck. But there is a large population of entrepreneurs, artists, actors, singers and business leaders – even royalty – who credit their success to a Montessori education. 

The entire thought process behind a Montessori education is uniquely positioned to create people who strive for something more. Why? Because it bucks trends and never defines where the student should be and what is possible. A Montessori foundation is “follow the child” which means that each child has their own unique set of skills, attributes and talents, and Montessori allows the child the freedom to explore their talents without the pressure to meet pre-determined “success rates” created by standardized testing. 

Will Wright the creator of the software game Sims City and Spore says “the joy of Discovery” in his Montessori education is what uniquely inspired him to become a video game developer.  He attributes Montessori to being an “imagination amplifier” for him that propelled him into the creative innovation of video game development.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, says that “Discovery and experimentation where what allowed him to be comfortable with risk and failure as he built his mega empire, Amazon, from the ground up.

Larry Page and Sergei Brin, the founders of Google, attribute their success to their Montessori foundation where they developed self-motivation, the ability to question and discover, ultimately the fostering of their curiosity.

Stephen Curry, NBA basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, says that he attributes his self-confidence to Montessori.

Julia Childs, famous chef, attributed her Montessori education to a lifelong love of discovery and mastery, manual dexterity and her love and joy of her work. 

P Diddy (Sean Combs) is the Grammy award-winning musician; rap recording artist and CEO of bad boy records.  Sean recalls the following from his Montessori education “I feel like I was nurtured into wanting to be somebody special.”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Nobel prize-winning author, has said his Montessori education gave him “the desire to kiss literature” and states, “I do not believe there is a method better than Montessori for making children sensitive to the beauties of the world and awakening their curiosity regarding the secrets of life.”

The list of Famous Montessori students is extensive and just to name a few more:

JOSHUA BELL – Grammy award-winning violinist and subject of a Pulitzer prize-winning media story

GEORGE CLOONEY – Academy award-winning actor, director, producer, humanitarian, United Nations messenger of peace

DAKOTA FANNING – Actor

ANNE FRANK – Memoirist & author

HELEN HUNT – Academy award-winning actor

HELEN KELLER – Political activist, author, lecturer, awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom, one of Gallup’s most widely admired people of the 20th century

BEYONCE KNOWLES – Singer, songwriter, actress and fashion designer, 16-time Grammy award-winner

YO YO MA – United Nations Peace Ambassador, winner of 15 Grammy Awards, Presidential Medal of Freedom & National Medal of the Arts

HM QUEEN NOOR of JORDAN – U.N. Advisor, humanitarian activist, memoirist and wife of the late king Hussein of Jordan

JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS – Former first lady and Doubleday editor

TAYLOR SWIFT – Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter

PRINCE HARRY AND PRINCE GEORGE – British Royals