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Maria Montessori and 10 famous graduates from her schools

6. Jimmy Wales

Charles Platiau/Reuters
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales attends the opening session of the French employers' body MEDEF union summer forum on the campus of the HEC School of Management in Jouy-en-Josas, near Paris, August 29, 2012.

If you want to learn more about Montessori – the woman or the teaching philosophy – you can always turn to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia run by Montessori graduate Jimmy Wales. 

"As a child, Wales was a keen reader with an acute intellectual curiosity and, in what he credits to the influence of the Montessori method on the school’s philosophy of education, 'spent lots of hours pouring [sic] over the Britannicas and World Book Encyclopedias,' " says Mr. Wales' own Wikipedia entry. "There were only four other children in Wales’ grade, so the school grouped together the first through fourth grade students and the fifth through eighth grade students. As an adult, Wales was sharply critical of the government’s treatment of the school, citing the 'constant interference and bureaucracy and very sort of snobby inspectors from the state' as a formative influence on his political philosophy."

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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