Few people have had as dramatic an influence on modern ideas of child education as Maria Montessori. Born in 1870, Montessori was an Italian physician and educator. Maria drew on her own experiences working with children as well as insights from her Roman Catholic faith to pioneer a new way to help children learn. Her approach, known as the Montessori Method, continues to be used with great success today. In the preface to Maria Montessori's treatise on childhood learning The Secret of Childhood, Maria's son Mario clearly articulates the vision that his mother shared. In the first words of this preface, he writes: "Today's problems with regard to youth and childhood are the most patent proof that teaching is not the most important part of education. Yet the delusion persists that teachers form the person through their teaching of the child." At the center of the Montessori way is an understanding of the child as a person worthy of respect. She writes, "I have come to appreciate the fact that children have a deep sense of personal dignity. Adults, as a rule, have no concept of how easily they are wounded and oppressed."