For an «admirably independent» educational action: the hand of fascism on kindergartens of Ferruzzano

Abstract

Contrary to what might be expected, fascism has been a strong, oppressive and irreducible presence also in the most peripheral regions of our Country where it exercised a capillary control over the educational institutions. In Ferruzzano, a small center in the province of Reggio Calabria, the influence of fascism will be particularly hard and heavy. In particular, the local section of the National Fascism Party will impose the replacement of lay teachers with religious personnel deemed to be more permeable and available to accept the directives of the regime, which required an educational action according and in line with the dominant ideology. In the choice of the teachers, in the control of their educational role and personal conduct, there is the expression of one of the strongest features of the politics of the 1920s put in place also in the more remote and marginalised areas. A heretofore unpublished documentation supports this study, whose objective is to bring to light an interesting page of the local history which justifiably occupies a position in the Italian history of the school and education.