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Grazia Honegger Fresco (Rome, January 6th, 1929 - Castellanza, September 30th, 2020) was an Italian education scholar and practitioner. A disciple of Adele Costa Gnocchi and Maria Montessori, she dedicated her life to the observation and study of children, especially between birth and the age of three. During her career she has written and spoken about Maria Montessori's theories and she also published a detailed biography of her. She promoted educational initiatives in Italy and abroad, mainly focussed on early infancy and parenthood.

Life and career
Grazia Fresco was born in Rome in 1929. She became fascinated with the newborn in 1947 when Mrs Adele Costa Gnocchi, a close assistant to Maria Montessori, invited her to join the first class of the new AIM, or School for Assistants to Infancy. Between 1951 and 1951 she worked with Ms Costa Gnocchi in the Children's Home “la scuoletta” at Palazzo Taverna, Rome. She attended the last course held by Maria Montessori in Italy in 1950-51 and became assistant to Ms Giuliana Sorge for the Montessori courses that followed. With a passion for natural sciences, she studied biology at Sapienza University of Rome, but she gave up her studies with just before graduation in order to dedicate herself entirely to the newborn and the study of children. Nevertheless, all her life long she had a keen interest for environmental issues, the care for our ecosystem, and this became a fundamental side of her pedagogy, which was deeply secular and attentive to diversity.

Since 1953 and for over thirty years, she contributed to the revue “Vita dell'Infanzia”, edited by the Opera Nazionale Montessori (ONM).

In 1953 she also joined Mr Danilo Dolci in Trappeto, in Sicily, because she wanted to participate to the activities and non-violent social and economical struggles that he supported. There she met Mr Goffredo Fofi, Ms Gigliola Venturi and Mr Lamberto Borghi.

In 1960 she married Mr Emilio Honegger, whom she had met through Mr Dolci and she moved to Castellanza, north of Milan. She started a small school in her home for her children and those of some friends. This school evolved into a Montessori School including from nursery to primary school and Grazia managed it until 1988. Her experience and her extraordinary ability to bring people together - while promoting ideas and actions capable of significantly innovate educational activities with early infancy - motivated her to set up, together with Mr Paolo Ballabio, Mr Carlo Alberti, Ms Franca Russi and Ms Mariuccia Poroli, the Percorsi per Crescere (Paths to grow) group. The group offers adult learning and training activities, using methods that are the result of a careful research and continuous testing. The objective remains the same: quality work that focuses on the children, their abilities and needs.

Grazia was active in Italy, Europe and the United States. She has educated childcare workers, healthcare professionals and parents. She has brought Montessori's principles into nurseries, kindergartens, Children's Homes and primary schools.

From 1981 to 2003 she was President of Centro Nascita Montessori (Montessori Birth Centre), becoming then Honorary President until her death.

In 1984 she founded the quarterly journal “il quaderno Montessori”, which she edited together with Mrs Lia de Pra Cavalleri until 2017.

In 2008 she was awarded the Unicef Award ”Dalla parte dei bambine”.

Full of energy and generous until her death, she edited, between 2019 and 2020 a collection of books “Gioca e impara con il metodo Montessori” (“Play and learn with the Montessori method”), published by Corriere della Sera. Her last book was “I bambini e l'ambiente secondo il metodo Montessori, (“Children and the environment according to Montessori”) published by Solferino in 2020.

Works
Most of Grazia Fresco's books address children education and the role of parents and teachers.


 * Due pescatori siciliani raccontano la storia del Borgo di Dio, Quaderni «Il Gallo», Milano, 1954
 * Questi nostri bambini, (con Giulia André Gorresio), Armando, Roma,1966
 * Il neonato con amore, Ferro edizioni, Milano, 1970
 * Prepariamo i bambini alla lettura, 1976
 * Il piacere di fare, proposte di educazione sanitaria, Nicola Milano Editore, Bologna, 1979
 * Essere genitori. Le cose più importanti da sapere per essere o diventare un genitore magnifico, 1980
 * Il primo legame. Riflessioni sul parto e la nascita, Emme Edizioni, Milano, 1982
 * Per ogni bambino una risposta, (con Carmen Soru e M. Lusia Canderle Sala), Ferro Edizioni, Milano, 1988
 * Il materiale Montessori, in cataloghi editi a New York, Londra, Bucarest, Berlino, Gonzaga tra gli anni dieci e trenta, ed. Il Quaderno Montessori, Castellanza 1993
 * Abbiamo un bambino. Dalla nascita ai tre anni: la nuova guida pratica e completa, red edizioni, Como,1994
 * Essere nonni. Che cosa vuol dire essere genitori di genitori, red edizioni, Como, 1995
 * Un bambino con noi. Guida pratica dalla nascita ai tre anni, red edizioni, Como, 1997
 * Montessori: perché no? Una pedagogia per la crescita (a cura di GHF), FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2000 (new edition: Il Leone Verde, Torino, 2017)
 * Una casa a misura di bambino (con Sara Honegger Chiari), red edizoni, Como, 2000
 * Radici nel futuro. La vita di Adele Costa Gnocchi (1883-1967), La meridiana, Molfetta (Ba), 2001
 * Senza Parole. Accogliere il bambino da 0 a 3 mesi, La Meridiana, Molfetta (Ba), 2002 (2015)
 * C'era una volta. Filastrocche, favole, racconti, 2003
 * Essere genitori. Come prepararsi ad accogliere un bambino e poi educarlo con amore e intelligenza, 2003
 * Facciamo la nanna: Quel che conviene sapere sui metodi per far dormire il vostro bambino, Il Leone Verde, Torino, 2006
 * Un nido per amico. Come educatori e genitori possono aiutare i bambini a diventare se stessi, 2007
 * Facciamoci un dono. Come giocare con la prima infanzia, (with Silvio Boselli) La meridiana, Molfetta (Ba), 2009
 * Dalla parte dei bambini. La scuola dell'obbligo all'oblio, l'ancora del mediterraneo, Napoli, 2011
 * Una casa a misura di bambino, 2011
 * Accogliere un bambino. Da 0 a 3 anni proposte per genitori ed educatori, La Meridiana, Molfetta (Ba), 2013
 * Maria Montessori, una storia attuale. La vita, il pensiero, le testimonianze, Terza Edizione, Il Leone Verde, Torino, 2018
 * Maria Montessori, una storia attuale. La vita, il pensiero, le testimonianze, Terza Edizione, Il Leone Verde, Torino, 2018
 * Da solo io. Il progetto pedagogico di Maria Montessori da 0 a 3 anni, La meridiana, Molfetta (Ba), 2018
 * I figli, che bella fatica. Il mestiere del genitore, Edizioni dell'Asino, Roma, 2019
 * I bambini e l'ambiente secondo il metodo Montessori, Solferino, Milano, 2020