Success Stories of 7 Famous Former Students
Does it matter where you child goes to school? Does the learning method you choose for your children really make a difference? Many educators believe that it does. The Montessori method of learning is all about allowing each student to become a freethinker. It encourages students to follow their own interests. It allows students to enjoy learning in ways that best suit their personality. Below we highlight 7 famous people who attended Montessori schools and we discuss how this affected their path in life.
Jeff Bezos: Amazon & Blue Origin
Probably the most famous and certainly the richest person who was educated using the Montessori method, is Jeff Bezos. Bezos is the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin. In 2018, he was named the “Richest Person in the World” with a net worth of $150 billion. Bezos was born in Albuquerque, NM and raised in Houston, TX. He graduated from Princeton with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering. He has always been a huge proponent of space travel and even appeared in one of the Star Trek Movies.
Bezos believes that humans should move out into the galaxy and colonize other planets. That’s the reason he founded Blue Origin. This company has been successful in sub-orbital space flight. Of course, his most successful venture has been Amazon. This company first began as an online bookstore but quickly moved into online retail sales. Other companies have spun off from this one, such as Amazon Web Services and Amazon Kindle.
Beyonce Knowles: Singer/Songwriter
Beyonce Knowles is another Montessori school graduate. She’s a beautiful, talented singer/songwriter who has sold over 100 million records worldwide. She is constantly named one of the most popular singers and influential people in the world. She has won 22 Grammy’s to date. She was born in Houston, TX where she attended St. Mary’s Montessori School. There, she enrolled in dance classes and won a talent show at only 7 years old. She is a very positive person who enjoys life and teaches the concept of lifelong learning.
Julia Child: TV personality, chef & author
Julia Child paved the way for many of today’s cooking and baking shows on TV. She was an early hit with her TV program that taught people how to cook using French cuisine. Her philosophy has always been that we learn more from the mistakes we make than the successes. She teaches people to just get in the kitchen and enjoy yourself. Don’t worry about whether a dish will come out right. Julia has credited her love of working with her hands to the Montessori Method.
Will Wright: Video game pioneer
Wright created some of the best video games ever including Sim City. He enjoys developing video games that allow players to interact and really experience the game first-hand. He believes that video games should be unique to each player and allow personal interaction. He credits his philosophies on life and video games with his early experiences in Montessori schools. He fondly recalls that, as children, they were allowed free play with the toys that most interested them. He enjoyed playing with the wooden cars, boats and people and found the experience of touching/playing with wooden toys to be inspiring.
Sean “Diddy” Combs: Rapper, singer & record producer
Diddy was born in New York City. He has achieved great success as a singer and record producer. He credits his drive and ambition with early attendance at a Montessori school. There he learned the importance of learning from failures and successes. He developed the strength to push forward regardless of the circumstances. He believes in self-made success.
Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia Founder
This name is known all over the world because just about everyone uses Wikipedia. This interactive encyclopedia invites everyone to edit pages as they see fit. Wales is a proud graduate of a Montessori school in Huntsville, Alabama where he was born. From an early age, he was captivated by the power of knowledge. He enjoyed browsing through encyclopedias. Like so many Montessori-schooled children, he excelled in self-directed learning that enabled him to focus on topics that interested him.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Nobel Prize winning author
Marquez was born in Columbia and is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. He has received many honors and prizes throughout his career including the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982. He learned self-motivation and independent thinking through Montessori teachings as a child. He believes in questioning everything about the world we live in and embracing what is good. Some of his most famous works include One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Autumn of the Patriarch.
Why Choose Montessori Schools?
There are lots of good reasons to choose Montessori schools. They offer high level education programs that must adhere to a standard curriculum. And they include room for your child to grow creatively and explore their imaginative side. This helps our children develop into well-rounded adults that can build an amazing future for our world.