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Jeff Bezos, financial analyst, founder, AMAZON.COM
Elizabeth Berridge, actress (Constanze in Amadeus)
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Cofounders of GOOGLE.COM
Google and Montessori
So what do Google and Montessori have in common?
During this past ABC Entertainment program season with Barbara Walters, co-founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin commented on the fact that it wasn't only their parents who influenced them. Both agreed that their Montessori School experience helped them develop the ability to be self-starters and self-directed. Their school experience taught them to: collaborate with others in a creative way, to be keen observers, to follow their own interests and most importantly, to learn how to learn.
Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Larry Page and Sergey Brin are not your typical billionaires. In fact, if you type billionaire into Google, the picture that emerges - fancy cars, private jets, mansions, jewels, and supermodel girlfriends - isn't anything you'd find in the lifestyle of the Google guys. Page drives a Prius, which costs around $21,000. Brin gets around for the most part on in-line skates, and he still lives in a rented apartment.
Since taking Google public earlier this year, each is worth an estimated $6 billion. Even the way they took their company public was innovative. They let ordinary people bid on shares in their initial public offering, not just the big banks, because they thought it was fairer. In fact, they see their work as more of a vocation than as a means of getting rich. "We feel like we're making a difference in the world - giving people information that they want really quickly and effectively," Page said.
Notables who attended Montessori School as children:
T. Berry Brazelton, noted pediatrician and author
Julia Child, famous chef, star of many TV cooking shows and author of numerous cookbooks
Kami Cotler, actress (youngest child on long-running series The Waltons)
Katherine Graham (deceased), owner/editor of the Washington Post
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (deceased), editor, former first lady (John F. Kennedy)
Prince William and Prince Harry, English royal family
Anne Frank, famous diarist from World War II
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize winner for Literature
Melissa and Sarah Gilbert, actors
Famous people who chose Montessori schools for their own children:
Stephen J. Cannell, TV writer-producer-director (The Rockford Files and many others)
Patty Duke Austin, actress
Cher Bono, singer-actress
John Bradshaw, psychologist and author
Yul Brynner (dec.), actor
William Jefferson & Hillary Clinton, former president/senator, NY
Michael Douglas, actor
Shari Lewis (dec.), puppeteer
Yo Yo Ma, cellist
Dick Ebersol and Susan St. James, television executive and actress
Others with a Montessori Connection:
Alexander Graham Bell noted inventor, provided financial support directly to Dr. Montessori. Helped establish the first Montessori class in Canada and one of the first in the US.
Bruno Bettelheim noted psychologist/author, was married to a Montessori teacher.
Erik Erikson anthropologist/author had a Montessori teaching certificate.
Jean Piaget noted Swiss psychologist, made his first observations of children in a Montessori school.
Alice Waters, restaurateur and writer, is a former Montessori teacher
Thomas Edison, noted scientist and inventor, helped to found a Montessori school
Mister Rogers, children's TV personality, strong supporter of the Montessori method
