"Where does Montessori place herself before the pedagogical bequest of Rousseau's Romanticism?" This is the question that Catherine L'Ecuyer asked herself in her work of research that she defended last June 21 at the University of Navarra and graduate: "Maria Montessori before the pedagogical bequest of Jean-Jacques-Rousseau's Romanticism".

In it, the researcher explains that "the philosophical background of Montessori's pedagogical ideas has a surprising affinity with the thought of the classical philosophers, especially Aristotle".

She also presented her analysis of the main features of Romanticism, concluding that Montessori did not share the Romantic approach in terms of rebellion against rationality, empiricism, the importance of feelings, productive imagination, freedom and discipline, naturalism, the role of the State and militant culture. He also added that the pedagogue did not share the romantic definition of "progress".  

L'Ecuyer concluded that for Montessori, "the discipline is not an obstacle to freedom, but its sine qua non" and that it is "the teleology of the human being that inspires and nourishes the vision that this pedagogue has of the person and of the Education".

Catherine L'Ecuyer's work , which obtained A cum laude, was directed by Prof. José Ignacio Murillo, professor of the School from Philosophy and Letters and member of group Mind-Brain of the high school de Cultura y Sociedad (ICS), of which L'Ecuyer is also a collaborator.

The panel was made up of the Dean of the School of Education and Psychology Concepción Naval; the professor of the same School, Javier Laspalas; the professor of the University Abat Molina CEU Marin P. Kazmiercza; Ignacio de Bofarull, professor of the International University of Catalonia; Pablo Pérez, professor of the University of Navarra; and Eugènia Arús, professor of the University of Barcelona.