Dr Maria Montessori (1870-1952), saw the child as a 'spiritual embryo' naturally gravitating towards a state of 'normalization' through the evolving discovery of a 'cosmic task' that emerged from inquiring into one's identity and role in the universe. Although she laid a philosophical framework for this 'educating of the human potential'; she never openly discussed sexuality and sexual knowledge as a necessary part of this development. Dr Riane Eisler is a contemporary feminist systems theorist whose 'partnership model' of sexual politics embraces (and, in fact, openly endorses) the tenets of the Montessori approach.