The right to outdoor education at the beginning of the Twentieth century: reflections and practices from the pages of a Milanese journal (1911-1923)

Abstract

In the early Twentieth century in Europe there was a very lively debate about the need for an outdoor education for boys and girls, linked to the more general sensitivity to the issue of the protection of children’s rights: many associations, movements, thinkers underlined, in fact, how boys and girls should have enjoyed the right to health, education and dignified growth. Among these, the Società Umanitaria (Humanitarian Society) in Milan stood out: it took an active part in the debate on teacher training and the reform of children’s institutions, playing a fundamental role in the propagation of the Montessori method; this institution also disseminated original reflections on the right to outdoor education and initiated innovative experiences centred on contact with the natural environment, both because this theme was a fundamental part of the Montessori proposal, and because more generally it responded to the ideals based on healthy life, on education in nature, and on the recovery of juvenile discomfort through contact with the natural environment. This contribution, therefore, aims to investigate the role played by the Società Umanitaria in promoting the right to outdoor education, analysing the issues of the magazine “La Coltura Popolare”, with a particular focus on the activities carried out to promote holiday camps and recreational facilities: this is a still unexplored research path, which brings to the attention of scholars a magazine that offered important spaces of exchange for the most innovative pedagogical experiments and the most stimulating reflections of the time.