Texts

"The Call of Education: Psycho-pedagogical Journal" represents the initial endeavor of the Montessori movement to establish an international communication platform. It is a multilingual journal featuring articles in English, French, Italian, and German. Three issues were released in 1924, followed by an additional three in 1925. The first two issues were published by H.J. Paris, while the latter three were overseen by Van Holkema en Warendorf, which included several Montessori titles in its catalogue. It's important to note that a formalized international organization did not yet exist: the AMI was founded only in 1929 and headquartered in Amsterdam from 1935 onwards.

The Dutch city has been a part of Montessori's influence since 1914 when Jo Werker established an initial educational service after attending a course in Rome, followed by Montessori's first visit. By the winter of 1923-1924, Montessori had already made her fourth visit, a prolonged stay dedicated to training new educators. Acknowledged with all honors by the authorities, she also traveled to the United Kingdom to receive an honorary degree from the University of Durham on December 11, 1923. All these events are duly documented in the inaugural issue of the journal, which emerged almost as a celebration of Amsterdam's recognition as the international hub of the movement.

Within its first decade, Montessori's presence in the Netherlands had significantly expanded and diversified. It engaged with the typical manifestations of the country's cultural pluralism reflected in its educational and school institutions. Montessori found a receptive audience, resonating with the sensibilities of various ideological backgrounds, including liberal, social democratic, secular, Catholic, or Protestant affiliations. As early as the 1920s, part of the local elite in Amsterdam received education in a Montessori lycée. The municipal elections of 1919 introduced the first female councilors, predominantly from the Social Democratic Party, many of whom had a specific focus on educational services in their political careers, demonstrating sympathy for the Montessori approach and advocating for its expansion to working-class families through a network of public services.

This context was already stimulated by the transnational dynamics of the Froebelian movement, where the circulation of new educational models had enduring political and cultural implications. The pedagogical mobilization of the local bourgeoisie gravitated towards Montessorianism, allowing for a dialectical approach (for a reconstruction of the context, see Schirripa, Una rivista internazionale per il movimento montessoriano: The Call of Education 1924-25, in “Educació i Història: Revista d'Història de l'Educació”, 40, 2022, pp. 55-81; Christine Quarfood, The Montessori Movement in Interwar Europe. New Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2022). 

In The Hague, for instance, a more eclectic Montessori nucleus emerged, open to comparisons and hybridizations with other contemporary pedagogical innovations, such as the Decrolyan approach from neighboring Belgium: in 1924, Ovide Decroly himself wrote about it in "Pour l'ère nouvelle," a journal of the Ligue internationale pour l'éducation nouvelle, announcing the birth of "The Call of Education" as an expression, instead, of the core of the closer Montessori observance present in Amsterdam.

Furthermore, the traditional role of the Netherlands as a haven for exiles from across Europe was experiencing a new phase, politically unfavorable yet culturally fertile. One of the two scientists who joined Montessori as co-editors of the journal was Géza Révész (1878-1955), representing Hungarian Jewish intellectual emigration after the rise of the Horty regime - in 1932, he acquired citizenship and became the first chair of Psychology at the University of Amsterdam. 

His is a family of intellectual exiles (his wife being Magda Alexander, an art historian and daughter of the philosopher Bernhard) who will find channels of expression in Montessorism (including the journal) and integration into the host society. The other is Jan Carel Lodewijk Godefroy (1883-1957), also a psychopathologist, active in the theosophical movement, married until 1931 to Maria Remmina van Mill (1884-1979): in the journal, she is attributed an ancillary role, but she will be the most prominent figure in the Dutch Montessori movement among the three.

"The Call of Education" is a reference point for examining how Montessorism becomes a movement, activating a social fabric particularly inclined to identify in the commitment to modern and child-friendly education a duty connected to social status, following the tradition of the eighteenth and nineteenth-century pedagogical movement. The pages of the journal lend themselves to be used as an index of the nodes within an international network where multiple affiliations intersect, with a stratification between the Montessori world and additional contributions – for instance, the professional interlocutors of the two co-editors who are not all internal to the movement but collaborate with interest on the journal. These scientific contributions, even when juxtaposed with the pedagogical issues of the Montessori world without engaging in much dialogue with it, underscore an accreditation that supports the movement from the outside, complementing the efforts of the editors in providing educators with models of pedagogical practice and disseminating news from Montessori institutions worldwide.

We express our gratitude to the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and the Maria Montessori Archives (Amsterdam) for making available the 1924 issue 3-4 of "The Call of Education" (https://montessori-ami.org) and for their support in our research endeavors.

Credits: Vincenzo Schirripa

“L'Idea Montessori” was published from May-June 1927 to August 1929. The magazine was the official publication of the Opera Nazionale Montessori (ONM) - established by Royal Decree no. 1534 of 8 August 1924. Montessori founded the magazine, with Ferdinando Negrini as its director. The editorial office was located at the Società Umanitaria in Via San Barnaba 38, Milan. 

In an article from October 1927, signed by the editorial board, it is stated that the magazine “does not merely aim to serve as a propaganda organ for the Montessori thought and Method, but also as a hub where all those who derive tangible and substantial benefits from this school of thought  and Method by applying it to children in schools can converge”. Teachers were invited to contribute to the magazine by sending their writings and photographs so that it can be "the arena for their ideas, their achievements, their doubts, their enthusiasm, in short, the whole of their life as educators." Teachers responded enthusiastically. Substantiating them in their educational work were the writings of Montessori and her students, including Anna Maria Maccheroni and Lola Condulmari, who were present at the Course in Scientific Pedagogy held in Città di Castello in 1909; Claude A. Claremont, who attended the first international Montessori course in Rome in 1913; Lili Roubiczek, who attended the international course in London in 1921 and founded a Casa dei Bambini in Vienna in 1922; and Giuliana Sorge, a student of the Montessori since 1924 and her close collaborator in the Milan course in 1926.

“L'Idea Montessori” is published for the first time after the teachers’ course for the Children's House and primary schools - the first authorised by the Ministry of Education - held from February to August 1926 at the Società Umanitaria. After the course was completed, a three-year experiment in Montessori teaching differentiation began in the first three classes of the primary school. Given the importance of this period, “L'Idea Montessori” followed this experimentation closely. In fact, it seems that this was its actual purpose, as the magazine effectively ceased publication at the end of this experimentation and after also covering the establishment of the Royal School of Montessori Method, established by Royal Decree No. 781 on February 5, 1928.

The contributions published in “L'Idea Montessori” focus on the principles of the Montessori Method its international dissemination, and document the complex relationships with contemporary culture – Idealism and Catholicism – and Fascism. The front page of the 1927 issues states that the President of the Honorary Committee is Benito Mussolini; among the committee members is the Hon. Giovanni Gentile, president of the ONM since 1926.

Starting in 1924, there was a dialogue between Montessori and Mussolini, motivated by the scientist's desire, expressed as early as the 1910s in L'autoeducazione nelle scuole elementari (The Advanced Montessori Method, Vol. I & 2), to see her method and schools spread in Italy, to have stable research and training structures, preferably in Rome, where the method was born. Various motivations can be identified in the government's open attitude, including Montessori's international fame as an expression of Italian genius and the possibility that the method could be an aid in the fight against illiteracy. After 1931, the dialogue became progressively more difficult. Since 1932, Montessori had been reflecting on the relationship between education and peace, which she will dedicate numerous conferences in Europe. Government authorities began to influence the pedagogical management of the Royal School of Montessori Method; Mario and Maria Montessori started to be monitored by the fascist political police. In 1933, they resigned from ONM due to disagreements with the new president, Emilio Bodrero, regarding the management of the institution. In 1934, they left Italy and returned in 1947, invited by the government through Hon. Guido Gonella, Minister of Public Education.

In her writings published in “L'Idea Montessori”, Montessori not only focused on the age group of three to eleven but also looked at infants, with pages that would later be found in Il bambino in famiglia (The Child in the Family). The magazine also featured the signature of Mario M. Montessori, who writes on the theme of the adult-child relationship, to illustrate the characteristics of the Association in memory of Renilde Montessori, and later, with a brief comment on an article about children with learning delays. Subsequently, in 1932, he would return to have his voice heard in the "Montessori" magazine, with the aim of coordinating the international Montessori movement and monitoring any misrepresentation in method implementation.

We express our gratitude to the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and the Maria Montessori Archives (Amsterdam) for making available the 1927 issue 1 (https://montessori-ami.org).

In 1931, the monthly journal “Montessori” commenced publication - the official organ of the Opera Nazionale Montessori (ONM). The following year, it transitioned to a bimonthly publication, releasing a total of six issues annually. In 1931 Montessori herself served as the director, while Nazareno Padellaro held the position of managing editor. The headquarters for its direction, editorial work, and administration was located at Via Monte Zebio 35 in Rome, within the ONM premises, and the publisher was Alberto Stock.

The periodical's inception coincided with the XVI International Montessori Course held in Rome from January to June 1931. The inauguration of the course took place at the Campidoglio, in the presence of local and national political authorities, as well as Giovanni Gentile, who had previously served as the ONM president. In February 1931, Emilio Bodrero succeeded Gentile. Concurrently with the international course, a national course for teachers of the Children's House and primary schools was also conducted. Among the participants in the international course were notable figures such as Ilie Surea Firu, who would later become a key figure in the Montessori movement in Romania, and Vittoria Gorresio, who, in the 1930s, taught at Adele Costa Gnocchi's Children's House at Palazzo Taverna in Rome, contributing to the reconstitution of the Montessori movement in Italy after World War II.

The journal closely followed the proceedings of the course through detailed articles authored by Giuliana Sorge, who had been a student of the Montessori since 1924 and her  assistent in the management of the Royal School of Montessori Method in Rome since 1928. Montessori herself contributed ten pieces (articles, a poem, brief reflections bearing her signature, etc.) to the journal, some of which dealt with the topics covered in her initial lectures during the international course.

An article titled La pagina bianca (The Blank Page), authored anonymously but likely written by Montessori, outlined the journal's objective: “active social action to better understand the child and advocate for his/her rights and protection”. The “social question” concerning the child “knows no limits of caste, race, or nation. The child is attached like a non-functioning social appendage to all individuals living on Earth”. Instead, his/her primary and most important function is to “create, nurture, and perfect his body and construct his/her mind”.

The 'psychological discovery of the new child' was interpreted in the journal in moral and social terms, not just in terms of education and teaching. The journal addressed not only teachers but also parents, seeking to explain the nature of their child, his/her needs, how to assist him/her, and dispelling any prejudices held against childhood. Additionally, through 'stories' of children, the journal provided examples of how to handle minor family conflicts. These themes were particularly explored in the articles by Halka Lubienska (Hélèna Lubienska de Lenval, who had attended the international Montessori course in London in 1921), who also discussed the use of the method with deaf children.

Continuing its mission to elucidate 'the child's soul' and the 'radical difference between them [adults] and children,' the journal published three articles by Roberto Assagioli, a physician and psychiatrist initially associated with Freudian psychoanalysis but later developing a new method of psychotherapy known as psychosynthesis. A fourth article by Assagioli appeared in the January 1932 issue of “Montessori”, when the journal transitioned to a bimonthly publication. In the same issue, there was a contribution on Alfred Adler, a former student of Freud and founder of individual psychology, underscoring Montessori's scrutiny of the psychoanalytic movement and the attention of the latter, along with its various proponents, to the Montessori pedagogical proposal.

Credits: Paola Trabalzini

In 1932, the publication of the magazine "Montessori" continued and transitioned to a bimonthly format. Maria Montessori served as the director, while Enrico Castelli assumed the role of editor in chief. The editorial office was located at Viale Angelico 22, within the new headquarters of the Opera Nazionale Montessori (ONM), while administrative section was housed at the F. Le Monnier publishing house in Florence.

The 1932 issue continued the trajectory set by the previous issues, placing significant emphasis on the moral and social aspects that emerge from observing children in environments where they naturally engage in self-education. Notably, the advocacy for children's rights was considered the cornerstone of a comprehensive societal reform, one that envisioned a reconstruction of human and social relationships, moving away from concepts like possession, competition, and humiliation towards collaboration, respect, and interdependence.

Montessori herself contributed twelve articles to the journal, including one titled Educazione sociale (Social Education), published in the May-June 1932 edition. This piece was based on her lecture, La paix et l'éducation, delivered in Geneva and subsequently published by the Bureau International d'Éducation with a translation by Adolphe Ferrière. The same periodical, in its November-December 1932 edition, featured a brief essay by Ferrière titled Che cos'è la scuola attiva (What is active school). Other Montessori-influenced voices included Claude A. Claremont, Halka Lubienska, and Giuliana Sorge. Since 1932, Montessori held numerous conferences in Europe on the subject of education  as a means to build peace, all while being under the watchful eye of the fascist political police.

The journal's Program, signed by Montessori and published in the second issue, served as a "manifesto" proclaiming pedagogy as the "natural science of human formation". The journal expressed interest in publishing articles on the Montessori method and related studies, such as psychoanalysis, nutrition, and biology. Contributions on the Montessori method encompassed six main areas: psychological, educational, and social theories; clarification on materials' use within educational institutions to aid Montessori teachers; reports on school activities, descriptions of educational achievements, and even the curative outcomes of functional abnormalities; news on school and society foundations, statistics, legal changes related to the Montessori movement, and more.

Another aspect covered in the journal was criticism of traditional schooling, examining aspects such as environmental organization, teaching methods, and disciplinary approaches that relied less on punishment. The final area addressed the often critical examination of other educational renewal methods. Additionally, the journal provided updates on children's social organizations, supplementary activities like theater, and the educational applications of cinema. Lastly, the journal included specific reports on scientific advancements in relation to contemporary societal developments, highlighting discoveries and innovations that transcended geographical barriers and enriched human life.

Each issue featured the "Notiziario Montessoriano" (“Montessori News”) documenting the international endeavors of Maria Montessori and various national associations, along with updates to the bibliography of works by and about the scholar. The January-February 1932 edition of the "Notiziario Montessoriano" included photographic evidence of Mahatma Gandhi's visit to the Opera Montessori and the Regia Scuola di Metodo (Royal School of Method) in December 1931. The July-August 1932 issue featured a report on Gandhi's speech at the inauguration of the International Montessori Course in London in 1931.

Credits: Paola Trabalzini

In 1933, “Opera Montessori”, a bimonthly Bulletin of the Opera Montessori” is founded. Maria Montessori is neither the founder nor the director. On 15 January 1933, she resigned from the Opera Nazionale Montessori (ONM) - Mario M. Montessori resigned on 16 January - following disagreements with the president of the Opera itself, Emilio Bodrero. Bodrero was vice-president of the Camera dei deputati and member of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Corporazioni. He, in turn, resigned on 24th January 1933, and was succeeded by Piero Parini, Minister Plenipotentiary and Director General of Italians Abroad. On 21 February 1933 Maria Montessori also resigned from the Royal School of the Montessori Method. In 1934 Maria Montessori left Italy after the conclusion of the 4th International Congress, held from 3rd to 10th April in Rome.

In 1933, Italo Sulliotti served as the editor of the bulletin, while, in 1934, Gianna Spargella, the secretary of ONM, took on this role. The editorial and administrative office was located at the ONM, in Viale Angelico 22. The first issue of 1934 was published by Le Monnier publishing house, while subsequent issues only mentioned the name of the "Pietro Feroce" printing press in Rome where the journal was printed.

Only one issue is known to have been published in January 1933. An editorial note presented the publication as the second year of the periodical "Montessori”, a bimonthly Magazine of the Opera Montessori, thus continuing the journal from 1932. This is somewhat inconsistent with the cover page of the January 1933 issue, which reads "Opera Montessori”, a bimonthly Bulletin, Year II, No.1. This discrepancy suggests a change that may have occurred during production, possibly when the issue had already been printed, in a period of uncertainty and confusion following Maria Montessori's resignation from ONM on January 15, 1933. No further issues are reported for the same year.

In the January issue, Maria Montessori contributed with two articles, consisting of extracts from her previously published works in English and German. The texts were The Mass Explained to Children, published in 1932, and Das Kind in der Familie, from the 1929 edition. The issue also featured a "literary experiment" regarding the approach to introducing children and preadolescents to the Divine Comedy. The article, titled Dante con i bambini, was authored by Maria Federici Agamben, a Montessori teacher and lecturer at Italian Institutes of Culture abroad, who would later be elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946.

In the second issue of 1934, several contributions from the IV International Montessori Congress on the theme Spiritual, Scientific, and Social Problems of Education were published. The main topic of the congress was Deviation and Normalization, which Montessori addressed in four lectures held on April 4, 5, 7, and 10, 1934, under the surveillance of the fascist political police. Giovanni Calò also presented a report at the Congress, titled The Child and Social Ideals. Piaget, invited to participate, is listed in the program with a paper on Le développement de l'espace chez le petit enfant, but the report is not included. Since 1932, the psychologist had been the President of the Swiss Montessori Association.

The purpose of the journal was "to be known, read, and studied by all those who dedicate their lives to the practical application of the Method [...]: every Schoo has tol participate in its life, with an active exchange of ideas, observations, reports, and photographs." Maria Montessori contributed six articles: four related to her lectures on Deviation and Normalization, and two on religious education. These latter articles were extracts from the book "The Mass Explained to Children" and the text "I bambini viventi nella Chiesa," published in 1922.

With Maria Montessori's resignation from ONM, her distancing from the regime, and her decision to leave her homeland, the story of Montessori journals in Italy in the 1930s came to a close in 1934.

We would like to thank the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and the Maria Montessori Archives (Amsterdam) for providing the January 1933 issue of the Bullettin “Opera Montessori” (https://montessori-ami.org).

Credits: Paola Trabalzini

In this section it is possible to consult issues of “Vita dell’infanzia”, the journal of Opera Nazionale Montessori, in particular the monographic issues, starting with the one dated May–July, 1952 commemorating Maria Montessori’s death on May 6 of the same year. The next monographic issue was published in 1962, and from then on, one monographic issue was published more or less every year. All monographic issues have titles under which they will be published gradually. Issues published without a title, such as the first one of 1952, will be given one taken from the information in the table of contents and placed in square brackets. All monographic issues can be consulted page by page or with the help of the search engine, which makes it possible to find all the occurrences of a given term in the whole text including the image captions.

Maria Montessori designed “Vita dell’infanzia” as a sort of house organ of Italy’s Montessori educational movement. Its editor-in-chief from 1952 to 1996 was Marziola Pignatari, who also held the office of Secretary general of Opera Nazionale Montessori from 1965 to 1976. In that capacity, Mrs. Pignatari coordinated all of ONM’s activities and supported its President, the Hon. Maria de Unterrichter Jervolino, who held that office from 1948 to 1975. Since 1996 the journal’s editors-in-chief were the subsequent Presidents of ONM. In the first issue, dated Jan. 15, 1952, President Jervolino wrote: “This periodical’s foremost goal is promote the widest knowledge of Montessori’s thought with respect to education and childcare, two areas that are closely connected by their shared purpose: the formation of man”.

Since its creation in 1952, this publication has been for its readers an effective guide to the knowledge and understanding of Montessori’s thought and work on childhood and many related topics. At the same time, the journal has contributed to the theoretical and practical development of educational institutions. Drawing on the ideal sources of Montessori’s educational approach, “Vita dell’infanzia” has systematically engaged in debates with all other pedagogical trends and their interpretations by Italian and foreign scholars.

Credits: Paola Trabalzini