A brief story of «il quaderno»

In 1964, Emilio Honegger, my husband, and I decided to open a small Montessori school in Castellanza, where we lived, for our two children and three others from families we knew. In this small town northwest of Milan, which had been part of the cotton textile industry since the early 1900s, there were at that time only two nursery schools run by Salesian nuns (there is still no state-run nursery school in Castellanza today [in 2017]).

We did not agree with the educational methods adopted by such institutes and therefore we decided at first to set up a small school in our home: five children in all. In 1965 we were able to rent a pleasant villa on Via Garibaldi, in the centre of the town. On the one hand, this decision aroused the wrath of the parish priest; on the other, it garnered the quiet support of the Christian Democrat mayor, Giulio Moroni, and the approval of some families from Castellanza as well as the neighbouring town of Busto Arsizio. The school remained at the same location for about ten years, with the Children’s Home on the ground floor and, from 1967-68, a Primary School above, with the excellent teachers Ms Diana Cascio in primary, Mrs Nives Rizzotti in the nursery school and Mrs Carmela Lazzaroni for “practical life.”

The number of children increased and with them the number of teachers. From 1974 the school moved into spaces previously used by the Cantoni cotton mill, that were offered at no cost and transformed for their new destination. There was even space for a Stern painting atelier run by Mrs Lele Cancian and a woodworking workshop for the older children, run by Mr Bottalo, a grandfather.

We ended up having about 120 pupils between 3 and 12 years of age. Among them there were always children with difficulties. From 1976 we also started welcoming children between the ages of 15 and 24 months, with spaces adapted to their needs. Besides the care for the children we had an ongoing education activity destined to the teachers and exchange with the families. The school was open to many visitors, from Italy and abroad, always surprised by the activity and the calm that was present in the school.

At the end of the seventies the building was at full capacity and, unable to find a more spacious location, the School Board decided to split the school and the Children’s Home moved to a new location, about one kilometre away. Despite this short distance, the atmosphere of the school changed. “Small is beautiful” has written Ernst Schumacher regarding complex economic problems. This is also true for education situations: they cannot expand too much, or split up, without breaking up the fluidity of relationships and thus changing them. Therefore, the split was not a positive change: the natural mingling of younger and older children, the exchange and understanding among teachers and parents was no more. Wherever the climate of a real community is broken, strange alliances, jealousies, petty rivalries, tacit omissions, power statements start creeping up. What was feared duly happened: the School was becoming something else, there were conflicts, to the point that, after many years of work, in 1988 I decided to leave the school’s leadership and I did not return.¹

Four years before I left the school, a ‘Promotional Group’ was formed around the idea of producing a periodical for parents; its members included Arthur Sackrule, a creative English teacher originally from Central America; Rossana Cavaglieri, who, like me, was interested in issues surrounding birth; and Maria Teresa Fata and Enrica Tosi Marcora, who provided graphic design support. Subsequently, other friends and supporters joined and left the group in various capacities, including Carlo Alberti, Emanuele Fontana, Mariangela Gianni, Paolo Pigozzi, Mariuccia Poroli and Tiziana Valpiana… Sackrule was initially the editor-in-chief - the only one to hold the necessary qualifications for court authorisation - and remained in that role until issue no. 16, winter 1987-88.

In May 1984 we came out with the first issue [published while awaiting authorisation from the Italian authorities], which was published by the Varese section of the Opera Montessori.² It had 10 pages and, since it was not for profit, we offered a subscription to a cycle of 10 issues, at the very modest price of 10,000 lire (about €5 today!). On the back cover, the circle drawn by Paolo Ballabio, a refined and sensitive friend, effectively sums up individual growth towards independence.³

The second issue came out in September 1984 with no. 0, now 20 pages in length; then, having finally obtained the publishing authorisation in December, from nos. 1/2 (Dec.-Jan. 1985, 40 pages) we began a regular bimonthly schedule. One could subscribe starting from any issue and reprint any text as long as the Quaderno was cited; the magazine was not sold at newsstands and was only available by subscription.

Intended for practitioners of the Montessori method and to the members of the 32 sections of Opera Montessori that existed back then, Il Quaderno spread among the parents in the schools and nursery schools we knew. It was a proposal to whoever was seeking out nonviolent education (at the time Montessori was almost unknown, almost mocked by some). Here is part of one of our introduction leaflets:

Based on reporting of experience, each issue of Il Quaderno is developed around a theme, a topic for each season. It features several sections, such as Better Birth, Better Upbringing, Well-being at the Nursery, Well-being at School, Games and Songs, Trade Secrets, Let’s Build Together, Between Saying and Doing, Books for Children and the many sides of the child-adult relationship (Education and Peace, Parents How-To, Chronicle of Ordinary Violence, Nature Page, Topics of Today, …) Other sections focus on wider cultural themes (Health, Poetic Fragments, A Book or a Magazine Worth Knowing, The Feminine Side, The Duty of Remembering, News from...) and others such as Our Mentors, in reference to remarkable people from the past, who are meaningful in terms of education and Foreign School, about experiences of welcoming and studying Italian for migrant people.

Finally, it is worth noting the recurring proposal for a document - largely of a historical nature - to explore topics, figures and experiences, including those from schools far afield, whether Montessori or otherwise.

Over the years, many people have contributed to Il Quaderno (always without compensation) - educators, scientists, writers, poets, artists, parents, schools and their teachers, craftspeople, Nobel laureates, midwives and doctors, even very young children, women’s organisations, historical archives, photographers, musicians...

The images, carefully chosen by Mrs Lia da Pra (an art history expert, at the time owner of an art gallery in Busto Arsizio and mother of one of the children at the school) were never commercial or trivial comments to the texts. Rather, they were an enrichment to our proposals, suggesting ideas, also thanks to the photographs taken in the excellent nurseries of Centro Nascita Montessori (CNM) in Rome or in other schools known to us.

We drew extensively on the beautiful photographs taken in 1974 at our school by the Roman photographer Paolo Rita for an exhibition held at Castellanza Town Hall. Paolo spent several days amongst the children to capture the atmosphere of intense activity and independence they displayed, and he managed to portray in an extraordinary way the many moments that highlighted the value of a school without judgement, punishment or grades.

From issue no. 5 onwards, Lia’s arrival on the editorial team brought a wealth of highly valuable images. Given the financial difficulties involved in printing in colour, Lia undertook a meticulous search for line drawings or black-and-white illustrations, always by great artists such as Klee, Nolde, Matisse, Escher, Picasso, Bruno Munari, Luigi Veronesi, Italo Castelli, Man Ray, Lele Luzzati, Emil Orlik, Armando Spadini, Rosai, Pelizza da Volpedo, Japanese and Chinese artists, prehistoric artefacts, as well as works by African, Australian and South American artists. It also drew on drawings by Renaissance artists such as Leonardo and Raphael, and engravings by Lucas van Leyden, Dürer and Rembrandt. As well as enriching Il Quaderno with little-known works, it provided a variety of materials suitable for primary school children.

Lia’s constant presence was instrumental in shaping the magazine’s style and editorial choices.

There were numerous children’s drawings, featured mainly on the covers, from various schools: the state nursery school in Via dei Cappuccini in Como, where Marina Bianco Ballabio taught; the pupils of Mario Lodi; from the Italian-Swiss Village in Rimini, from the linocuts by the children of ‘Il Borgo di Dio’, founded in Trappeto (near Palermo) by Danilo Dolci, and, last but not least, drawings by children from our own school, first in Castellanza, then in Varese (having already been in the neighbourhoods of Cartabbia and Calcinate del Pesce). There are frequent diagrams and explanatory drawings of objects to be made, which are useful in the classroom. For many of these, following on from Mrs Fata and Mrs Marcora, we were assisted by Ilaria Biganzoli, Marina Bianco Ballabio, Fulvio Honegger and Laura Simonetti.

In its fifth year, from issue 17 onwards, under Lia’s editorship, the Quaderno settled on four issues a year, initially comprising 80 or 104 pages each,⁴ with a subscription fee of 20,000 lire, which soon rose to 30,000. Although by the end of the first ten issues we had reached 300 subscribers, the struggle to survive remained constant, despite the fact that the only running costs were (and have always been) those of printing and postage.⁵ We pressed on courageously and did our utmost to raise our profile. Our network had expanded: we had articles from abroad, as well as ideas and opinions from friends at the ‘Percorsi per Crescere’ Association, a group of trainer-educators founded in the late 1970s and funded by the Provincial Administration to provide training for nursery teachers in municipal nurseries.

‘Percorsi’ has always provided strong support for the magazine.

Always in different colours or shades, the covers were illustrated with children’s drawings, with a few exceptions. For example: issues nos. 92 and 93 feature previously unpublished photographs of Maria Montessori to mark the centenary of the first Casa dei Bambini; issue no. 100 is a collage created by children in the class led by Vanda Mazzarello; issue no. 112 features a small tree sketched on the wall of a cooperative of Indian women weavers, adopted as the logo by the Asnada association; issue no. 129 features the symbol of the universe, drawn by the Japanese Zen master Sengai.

During the training courses, we had observed just how rewarding it was for an educator to experience the pleasure of creating - with their own hands and at minimal cost - meaningful activities, whilst at the same time developing creative skills, bringing their ideas to life, and then reflecting on what they had proposed and observed with the children. The magazine has featured many of these experiences. Each issue contains practical suggestions in sections such as ‘Let’s build together’ or ‘From words to action’ (a regular feature by Marina Bianco Ballabio). We shared cake recipes to make with the little ones, along with techniques for building with recycled materials, modelling with clay or papier-mâché, folding paper (origami), and making kites, little books and matching nomenclature material. Wool and cotton offered further possibilities: weaving, braiding, simple embroidery on jute or sackcloth, and making finger puppets, balls and much more. Music, too, had its place in Il Quaderno, with short songs, lullabies and singing games. Each was accompanied by easy-to-read musical notation showing only the melody, in C or D, so that it could be played easily on a bamboo or wooden flute.

Alongside these were spoken nursery rhymes that enrich vocabulary: also drawn from the folk tradition, they encourage us not to neglect an oral heritage of considerable value, which is, sadly, on the verge of disappearing.

The Montessori world, both in Italy and abroad, has provided many documents, alongside unpublished or rare texts by Montessori herself and important studies by experts. These include Albert Joosten’s work on grammar and his excellent text on mistakes, as well as Camillo Grazzini’s studies of work in the second stage of childhood and the many possible aids to the development of the “mathematical mind”. Among these contributions was a colour special by Mario Montessori Sr. (Doc. LXIII, no. 115, 2011, courtesy of AMI). Other contributions included entertaining problems by Anna Maria Maccheroni (nos. 42 and 43, 1994) and work on arithmetic operations by the Hungarian Elisabetta Belàvary and by Daniela Valenti. Geometry was also explored, from the sensorial material to the specific material used in primary school, through to Pythagoras’ theorem and the wonderful fractals that can be drawn from it.

More recently, the reflections of Mario Valle, a mathematician and engineer who discovered Montessori through his son, have enriched the magazine with unusual insights. A great contribution to the study of the Italian language has come from the writings of Flaminia Guidi and Costanza Buttafava.

The regular section of the magazine, “On Nature’s Side”, was also broad: the planet, the sun, air and water, plants, animals, the environment and, consequently, the relationships between the living and the non-living - the many climatic, physical and chemical factors - diversity and adaptations, explored through observations and simple experiments right up to issue 133. It is this ongoing cosmic education which, at the current pinnacle of Darwinian evolution, encompasses the history of humanity alongside aspects of geography - both astronomical and physical - as well as the discovery of the places where human development has taken place: all aspects repeatedly explored in the Quaderno.

We paid special attention to the condition of women (“The Feminine Side”) and to the newborn. On the subject of childbirth and birth, we have repeatedly highlighted the work of Adele Costa Gnocchi in raising awareness of the reality of the newborn baby, as well as that of Michel Odent, Lorenzo Braibanti, Tiziana Valpiana, the Melograni group and some extraordinary midwives such as Marta Campiotti, Paola Scavello, Lorena Panaghini and Verena Schmid - mentors and guides to many others.

In the ‘Better Birth’ and ‘Better Upbringing’ projects, essential attention has been paid to how we touch and respect the very youngest children. Topics such as breastfeeding and weaning have also been covered - delicate situations that present the mother or child with changes that are not always easy to cope with.

This feature appeared in every issue in response to a variety of issues concerning children, devoting pages to children with special needs, whilst bearing in mind that in a well-run Montessori school they also receive tailored support but - all other things being equal - are given freedom of choice and every possible degree of independence, with respect for their own pace, which is often much slower than that of others. It is simply a matter of greater patience.

From the start we tried every possible way to make ourselves known, for example by organizing at the “del Barba” gallery in Legnano [town neighbouring Castellanza] an exhibition of (anonymous!) drawings and paintings by our children, and talks at the Castellanza Library and in other nearby towns: Legnano, San Vittore, Olgiate Olona, Rescaldina, Busto Arsizio and then later further afield, in Varese, Milan, Novara, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Arezzo, Rome, Naples, Foggia, Palermo...

We supported other organisations’ initiatives at a number of conferences in our Province, all of which were very well attended. The first, held in 1982 in Caronno Pertusella [North-northwest of Milan], focused on the theme Nurseries Today, and was also attended by friends from the CNM; the second, organised in 1988 by the municipal nursery in Cassano Magnago [Northwest of Milan], was on the theme “Childhood: a world to discover”. In 1986, at a seminar organised by the Opera Montessori in Chiaravalle di Ancona, we presented the magazine and a small photographic exhibition. In the 1990s, to keep the Montessori name alive - and that of the Quaderno - we organised numerous courses, seminars and conferences in collaboration with ‘Percorsi per Crescere’ and the Tuscan CEMEA branches, from whom we drew inspiration due to their excellent methods of training educators.

In 1993, we took part in the conference organised in Rome by the CNM on the theme ‘Birth and Growth: A Comparison of Experiences’, the proceedings of which were published in 1995 by ‘Il Pensiero Scientifico’ [an Italian scientific publishing house]. In 1994, we attended an OMEP (World Organisation for Early Childhood) seminar in Brussels on the themes of parenthood; in March, we attended a Forum of Mediterranean countries - including those of the Maghreb - organised by the local CEMEA branches in Montpellier on Early childhood and the spaces necessary for its development; in May, we were invited to the University of Padua to take part in a seminar on “The Montessori Method” for students of the Faculty of Education.

In 1995, an invitation arrived for a week of meetings in Paris, organised by the Montessori educator Sol Beranger. That same year, a workshop was held in Locarno, Switzerland, with the students of the Cantonal Teacher Training College, organised in collaboration with Gonzagarredi, who brought the materials to be presented to the future teachers.

Shortly afterwards, in Marly-le-Roy (near Paris), a seminar organised by the French CEMEA took place to compare different approaches to the care of very young children in Europe, with contributions from the CNM and the Quaderno. Of particular significance in the spring of 1996, again in Paris, was a gathering organised by the French section of the AMI, attended by Renilde Montessori; and in November, in Rome, an international and multicultural congress on the theme ‘Around the child, around the world’, organised by the CNM Association in collaboration with the CMTE (Centre for Montessori Teacher Education) in New York. Here, our work found its place and received genuine recognition, not least for the publications we produced for that event.⁶ In the same year, a two-day seminar was held in Rome in collaboration with RIPE (Réseau Première Enfance), led by Yvette Poli of the French CEMEA alongside the CNM; this facilitated a fruitful exchange of views on various European experiences relating to early childhood, starting from birth.

The first conference organised entirely by the Quaderno, entitled “Montessori: ever new - still waiting to be discovered”, took place in May 2002 in Milan at the Cariplo Conference Centre, which at the time hosted the event free of charge: the packed hall once again confirmed the interest in our initiatives. For several years, we held meetings at the Cariplo Centre in collaboration with “Percorsi”⁷ or AMITE (Associazione Montessori Italia Europa), founded in Milan in 2005 by Montessori practitioners from various Italian regions).⁸ These were always very lively conferences, particularly the second one, organised independently by Il Quaderno in 2007 to mark the centenary of Montessori’s first Casa dei Bambini (CdB) and which was dedicated to Flaminia Guidi, a great teacher who had passed away the previous year at the age of 101.

Initially, the Quaderno had established positive links with various branches of the Opera Montessori; unfortunately, these came to an end when they were abolished by President De Santis as part of a policy of centralisation and control, which had a severe impact on the quality of the training courses. The blowback came after 2010, when interest in the Montessori name surged unexpectedly, to the extent that today it is discussed widely on the internet and elsewhere - though, unfortunately, in a rather superficial manner - even in university courses, which have also become numerous. Our choice has been to maintain relationships with those who demonstrate consistency between what they say and what they do, whilst setting aside those who prefer simplifications that compromise a genuine relationship with children and adults.

Over the years, articles, news items and documents have reached us from across the Montessori world: from Bolzano Anna Barazzuol and Heidi Niederkofler; from Milan Antonella Binago, Costanza Buttafava, Rosa Dipierro, Anna Rosso, Federico Sorge; from Bergamo Camillo and Baiba Grazzini; from Brescia Rosa Giudetti; from Varese Elisabetta Bellini, Valentina Brahimaj, Samantha Girotto, Federico Parini; from Cortina Fabrizia Maioni Colli; from Genoa Jolanda Amendolia, Doriana Allegri, Benedetta and Pia Costa, Vanda Mazzarello, Lucia Gratarola; from Bologna Paola Collina; from Perugia Luana Gigliarelli, Raniero Regni, Laura Simonetti; from Florence Donatella Pecori; from Vicenza Maria Luisa Sala; from Foggia M. Teresa Forcella; from Rome the CNM (Anna Maria Batti, Franco De Luca, Rita and Ninny Carusi, Laura Franceschini, Margherita Vertolomo, Vittoria Fresco, Mary Villani, Flaminia Guidi and her students, Benedetto Scoppola).

A wider circle of Montessori practitioners have offered us their generous support and have continued to do so over the years: Antonella Galgano, Mario Valle, Mariangela Panzi, Francesca Triaca from Lugano [Switzerland]; Harold Baumann, from Zurich; Irene Fafalios from Greece; from France Sol Beranger, Anne Marie Bernard Gillet, Janine Toulemonde, Jacqueline Lefrançois, Marie Louise Barome Pasquier; from India Albert Joosten; from Romania Ilie Sulea Firu, his son Jon and Olimpia Lychiardopol; from Stockholm Eva Maria Ahlquist; from the United States, Ursula Thrush, Rita Messineo, Pamela Wise, Karin R. Slabaugh and the CMTE-NY with Carole Wolfe Korngold and Virginia Varga; from Amsterdam Mario Jr, Renilde Montessori and, a very recent and generous friend, their daughter and granddaughter Carolina. The most significant exchange from abroad in the last ten years has come, thanks to Elena Shishina, from Saint Petersburg with Elena Hiltunen, who has written several books, published texts by Montessori and done extensive work training educators, teachers and professors. She introduced us to Julia Fausek, a Montessori pioneer in Russia.

Over the years, collaborations have emerged from various quarters - often far apart from one another and in different ways - in a variety of contexts: from Belgium Marie Waterloos Dessicy, from France Jeannette Bouton and Yvette Poli. From Italy, first and foremost, as already mentioned, our friends from “Percorsi”: Carlo Alberti, Paolo Ballabio, Marina Bianco Ballabio, Mariangela Ferioli Colognesi, Mariangela Gianni, Angela Paulon, Mariuccia Poroli, Elisa Pozzi, Sabrina Ricci and Franca Russi.

Many others have also contributed in various ways: Andrea Apostoli, Laura Badaracchi, Cecilia Bartoli, Giorgio Bartolucci, Liliana Basile, Egle Becchi, Lucia Benini, Federico Bianchi di Castelbianco, Antonella Binago, Maddalena Bonza, Lamberto Borghi, Corrado Bortolini, Paride Braibanti, Emilio Butturini, Miranda Calliari Magni, Chiara and Marta Campiotti, Andrea Canevaro, Marco Carsetti, Nicoletta Cavazzuti, Silvia Cibaldi Lucchini, Dario Chiari, Emanuela Cocever, Francesca Cocchini, Francesco Codello, Diego Colognesi, Grazia Colombo, Vincenzo Consolo, Vittorio Corsetti, Gudrun Dalla Via, Osvaldo Da Pos, Enzo De Negri, Adriana Dossi, Judith Falck, Monica Ferrari, Goffredo Fofi, Emanuele Fontana, Sandra Forni, Roberto Fraioli, Valeria Fresco, Massimo Ghiringhelli, Federico Gobbo, Elinor Goldschmied, Massimo Grazzini, Marcello Grifò, Sara and Fulvio Honegger, Walter Kostner, Salvatore Lagati, Francesca Lago, Mario Lodi, Franco Lorenzoni, Lele Luzzati, Giorgio Macario, Lidia Magistrati, Anna Malina, Lina Mannucci, Giuditta Mastrototaro, Luigi Monti, Anna Maria Nava, Daniele Novara, Michel Odent, Fabio Pederzini, Teresa Perre, Cesare Petitti, Bianca Maria Pettini, Pina Rea, Sara Riggio, Paolo Rita, Flaviana Robbiati, Sonia Rossi, Gabriella Sacchetti, Margherita Salvadori, Giovanna Santagostino, Paola Scavello, Ruth Schmid, Chiara Scorzoni, Elena Shishina, Victor Simonetti, Gilberto Squizzato, Arno Stern, Paola Tonelli, Paola Trainotti, Marcello Trentanove, Davide Turoldo, Giuseppina Valla, Tiziana Valpiana, Francesca Vassallo, Silvia Vegetti Finzi, Gigliola Venturi, Leopoldo Verona, Gianfranco Zavalloni, Fulvia Zecca, Margherita Zoebeli...

We hope that no one has been left out! If that has happened, we apologise in advance. Some of these friends are no longer with us or, over time and for various reasons, have left the …struggle: but that does not mean we have forgotten them.

We have published reports on various 3-6 and 6-12 schools. From abroad, starting with the historic school in Laren (no. 5, 1989), the Decroly School (no. 48, 1995) by Marie Waterloos-Dessicy; the CdB in Zurich (no. 18, 1988) by Claudine Closuit Baumann; the schools in Oppem, Belgium (no. 27, 1990), and in Standberg, Germany (no. 51, 1998). the Freie Schule Mauerpark in Berlin, described by Beatrice Borri in three instalments (nos. 112, 113, 144, 2012); the fully inclusive school at the Olympic Village in Munich, founded by Teodore Hellbrügge.

In Italy, the ‘M. Fasolo’ Nursery School in Florence, founded by Lina Mannucci; the state nursery and primary school in Bagno a Ripoli (Fi), headed by Marcello Trentanove from 1962 to 1990 (nos. 97 and 99, 2008); the “Santa Croce” Nursery (CdB) founded by M. Antonietta Paolini in Perugia (no. 26, 1990; no. 45, 1995); the Villaggio alla Rasa in Varese run by Mr and Mrs Rossi (no. 37, 1993; no. 110, 2011); the Montessori school in Como (no. 40, 1993; no. 48, 1995), those in Via Bartolini and Via Milazzo in Milan, and in the Tuscolano district of Rome (Viale Spartaco, later in Via Lemonia) (no. 45, 1995; no. 75, 2002; nos. 126 and 128, 2015⁹; the school in Rimini (at the CEIS, no. 89, 2008); the Montessori school in Cortina (Centro Zuel, no. 62, 1999; no. 79, 2003); the classes run by Vanda Mazzarello and Pia Costa at the ‘M. Mazzini’ school in Genoa and, in the same city, the state-run CdB school run by Lucia Gratarola. More recently, the wonderful initiatives of ‘Il Sassolino’, which, together with the Intro Foundation, has established a Montessori centre on the left bank of Lake Garda. For teenagers: an Erdkinder school in San Francisco (USA, no. 31/32, 1991), the schools in Bressanone (no. 94, 2007), Bolzano (no. 107, 2007) and the “Riccardo Massa” school in Milan (no. 132, 2016). There have been significant exchanges with the Mammut group at the “Vele” in Scampia (Naples), led by Giovanni Zoppoli, and with Laura Cerquetta’s Italian language schools for migrants: Asinata in Rome and Asnada in Milan.

Ongoing and lively links with various nurseries: Calcinate del Pesce, Caronno, Cassano, Cardano [near Varese], Germignaga, ‘Germogli’ in Villaguardia [near Como], Bergamo, and ‘Nano nel motore’ in Legnano.

We have established contacts with publications produced by the Zurich Montessori Section led by Harold Baumann, by the CMTE in New York (‘Infant & Toddler’), with the journal ‘Montessori’ in Cologne, edited by Silke Allmann, and the other journal of the same name in Cyrillic, based in St Petersburg, as well as with ‘Le Lien’ from the French Montessori Association. We have exchanged the Quaderno with magazines covering topics closely related to our own, such as “Scuola e Città” from Florence; “L’Eco della Scuola Nuova”, the historic magazine founded by G. Salvemini; “Azione nonviolenta”, founded by Aldo Capitini and edited by Mao Valpiana in Verona; ‘Città’, from Milan; ‘Notizie’ by Salvatore Lagati of Trento, providing support for parents of disadvantaged children; ‘Qualevita’, a bimonthly edited by Pasquale Jannamorelli, Torre dei Nolfi (L’Aquila); ‘Conflitti’, by Daniele Novara, Piacenza; ‘Verifiche’, from Lugano; ‘A / rivista anarchica’, Milan; ‘Gli Asini’, from Rome, edited by Luigi Monti, Goffredo Fofi and others.

In 1993, we published a bilingual edition of the book Il materiale Montessori in cataloghi editi a New York, Londra, Bucarest, Berlino, Gonzaga tra gli anni Dieci e Trenta, which Lia De Pra and I edited. Issue No. 39, Autumn 1993, was a special issue dedicated to the activities of the CNM in Rome, featuring various contributions (Batti, Carusi, Fini, Fresco, Gambacurta, Pelizzola), which in 1995 - in preparation for the Congress scheduled to take place in Rome in 1996 - was published as three small volumes entitled Un’idea, una storia, dal 1947 a oggi: a trilingual edition, each with a different coloured cover to distinguish them, all adorned with the symbol - a sailing boat towing a small boat - created for the CNM by Francesco Pennisi, a musician and composer of recognised standing, as well as a painter and graphic designer.

To mark the occasion, we also published a bilingual series on Observations of the newborn as a person who feels and communicates / the history of the CNM from 1870 [the year Montessori was born] to 2000.

Dear Friends, as this long story draws to a close, we hope that you will continue to follow us on our website, which has been revamped with the aim of ensuring the Quaderno’s voice continues to be heard. As always, we look forward to receiving your suggestions, proposals, feedback and news. For now, thank you all.

The Editors

We would like to remember, with particular affection, a great friend: Marcello Trentanove, who passed away in Florence on 31 May 2017. An extraordinary headteacher, he succeeded in establishing - in accordance with the CEMEA principles of education for freedom and responsibility - a wonderful state school in Bagno a Ripoli [adjacent to Florence], whilst showing respect for the children, his colleagues and parents, maintaining direct communication with the local authorities and operating within the constraints set by the Ministry. With the strength and modesty that were so characteristic of him, he taught us that a different kind of school is possible anywhere.

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1. The school that today operates in the same place under the Montessori name, and that claims on the Internet to be the continuation of the Montessori school founded by Grazia Honegger Fresco, states something entirely inaccurate.
2. The section was founded in 1971: for logistical reasons, it was based in Castellanza, at the school located at Via Cantoni 73A.
3. We have used this image on several occasions in our projects, most recently for the cover of issue no. 122, 2014, and it was reworked for the cover of the new edition of Montessori, perché no?, published by ‘Il Leone Verde’ in Turin, 2017.
4. Initially, it was printed at the ‘Cattaneo’ lithographic works in Castellanza; from issue no. 5 onwards, at ‘Linea grafica’ in Busto Arsizio; and from issue no. 91 onwards, at ‘Printart’ in Lonate Pozzolo [near Milan’s Malpensa Airport], with the consistently high-quality lithography by Fogliani (now known as Spinnaker) in Olgiate Olona [which neighbours Castellanza].
5. From 2004, in order to keep costs down whilst maintaining four issues a year, we had to limit ourselves to 64 pages. In some cases, again for the same reasons, we resorted to combined issues (six times in total): nos. 9/10, 31/32; 55/56; 66/67; 70/71; 124/125. Bear in mind that until 1998 we printed 1800 copies; from issue 61 (1999) onwards, 1500; and after issue 81 (2004), we settled on 1000 copies to avoid wastage and excess stock.
6. Some of the articles, which were previously published in Montessori perché no? in 2000, are included in the new 2017 edition.
7. Percorsi per Crescere, now a non-profit co-operative, played a central role in the modernisation of the nurseries initiated by the Province of Varese and subsequently by the Municipality of Bergamo; it was within this group that we grew together, under the guidance of Gino Pagliarani, to study the dynamics of working groups. In the early days, the group comprised Carlo Alberti, Paolo Ballabio, Viviana Binda, Giovanni Daverio, Mariangela Ferioli, Grazia H.F., Maria Gervasini, Mariangela Gianni, Mariuccia Poroli, Hilde Mandelli and Franca Russi. Later, the group was joined by Giordana Maggioni, Monica Marangon, Fiorella Munari, Daniela Paoli, Angela Paulon, Mariangela Panzi, Elisa Pozzi, Marisa Ravazzani and Sabrina Ricci. ‘Percorsi’ became an ‘official’ association in 1988 and, since 2005, has operated as a non-profit cooperative, of which Mariangela Ferioli is currently the president.
8. AMITE, which was based at the Montessori School in Via Bartolini - which she had founded and directed - ceased operations in 2005.
9. From this group, we remember with fond admiration the courage and enthusiasm of Laura Mayer, who left us far too soon. We owe her, in particular, the writing of the lovely book A Journey Through a State-Run Montessori Primary School, published in 2016 by Opera Montessori.