Well over a century ago, an Italian woman named Maria Montessori began snapping gender barriers when she enrolled in an all-boys technical school to become an engineer. By the time she was barely out of her teenage years—and the year itself was 1890—she had already graduated with a certificate in Physics. Initially seeking to become an engineer, she swerved into an even more unusual field for women during the time and studied medicine. She faced scrutiny from her male peers for bending from the norm yet this did not stop her. She graduated with honors, and then years later, incited an educational movement now widely adopted by both private and public schools. Montessori schools seek a child-centered education based on scientific observation on the student. They provide smaller classrooms, more specialized coursework, and a curriculum that caters to individual students.