Visiting Dr. Montarnaro at her home in 2010

Seven years ago, my first trip to Italy:

October 12 (from Karin’s daily log while in Rome Oct. 5^th - Dec. 7^th 2010)

After the 7 dead bolts on her front door were released of their duty, my trainer from San Diego, Silvana Montanaro, opened the door and greeted me. She was dressed in a blue knit blouse and skirt, very modern and fashionable. It didn’t seem like she remembered me from the 2003 training but I was cordially shown into her apartment and welcomed as one of her former students. She asked me what I wanted to do while I was in Rome and I told her my goals but she said none of them were very likely to be possible. I left with the impression that my quest would not be an easy one and that perhaps these 6 weeks in Rome would be an experience of its own creation, not following the outline I had set up. I am reminded of the advice from my friend before I left: clearly set your goals and intensions and then let go of them.

After seeing her I realized that I must work on my attitude. This visit helped me see that I am in a battle with parents, that I am trying to control parents by wanting them to do with their infants and children what it is that I think they should do. This attitude makes it impossible for me to succeed. I cannot control parents; I cannot make them treat their children a certain way. How can they do something that is not what they see and feel. I see and feel this, but they do not and so they will do what they will do.  My task is to do what I believe in, to spread the idea of “Education from Birth as a Help to Life” to the world, but in a way that is not starting from a place of judgment and superiority.

What I discussed with Dr. Montanaro was that I hoped to find a course to learn Respiratory Autogenic Training (RAT is a relaxation method for birthing) and learn how to teach RAT to expecting mothers. She didn’t think this would be possible. I didn’t understand completely what she was trying to explain. It went something like this, ‘it is taught at the university or in medical schools and you have to be enrolled in the psychology program, or as an obstetric nurse or a medical student. She did not think the Opera Nazionale Montessori offered it in their courses. When I asked her about newborn observations at the hospital, she didn’t think that was possible either since it has been so long since she has done this with her students. It sounded like this was something of the past.

Adele Costa Gnocchi and her mentor Maria Montessori



She was not aware of the current work of the Montessori Birth Center, but thought they might still be around. She said it was not Adele’s Costa Gnocchi’s birth center, rather one of her students started it [Adele began the Birth Center in 1957 (it became official in 1960). She worked closely with Elena Gianini Belotti, who acted as president and who held this position until 1980].

She showed me photos of Adele’s school where her daughter as a two-year old there was dressing herself in front of her cubby, and another photo of her daughter working in a group lesson. She said Adele never had a Nido, but only an Infant Community that took children when they were walking [One of Adele’s last projects was an in-home 0-6 opened by one of her students called the Adele Costa Gnocchi Casa dei Bambini; and after her death, the Montessori Birth Center opened several 0-3 childcare centers and began caring for children under 12 months outside the home] and she didn’t seem to understand the idea of "la Scuoletta" Adele’s 0-3 program at Palazzo Taverna being a research school.

                                   Casa dei Bambini Adele Costa Gnocchi (1966)

She looked through the papers on her table, wanting to show me the 10 points Montessori presented to a Congress in Copenhagen on how parents should be prepared before they are allowed to have children. She couldn’t find it but enjoyed talking about everything she came across along the way: speeches she had given around the world over the years, each one typed up and in her binder. One topic was “Can Montessori education end violence around the world?” to which I didn’t hear her conclusion, just a burst of jovial laughter.

So my next adventure is to go visit the Opera Nazionale Montessori and the Centro Nascita Montessori (Montessori Birth Center) to look over their books and ask about archival research. I am looking for published research results from Adele’s research school and birth center. That is my holy grail for now since it looks like newborn observations and RAT training is not a possibility.
Karin, Rome October 12, 2010