Lifelong Learning Programme

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TITLE OF THE PUBLICATION
Lettera ad una professoressa (Ing)
SURNAME AND NAME OF AUTHOR(S)
La scuola di Barbiana
PUBLISHER
Libreria Editrice Fiorentina
TYPE OF PUBLICATION
Book
LANGUAGE OF THE DOCUMENT
Italian
LANGUAGE OF THE REVIEW
English
THEMATIC AREA
Identification of students’ at risk
DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
“Lettera ad una professoressa” is a collective book published in Florence in 1967 and written by students of the school Barbiana under the guidance of Don Lorenzo Milani . The work reflects Don Milani’s social and teaching experience who, in 1954, had devoted himself actively in the organization of a public school. The boys then released the "Letter " which presents itself as an accusation against the selective school that, despite being "compulsory education ", determines a great social injustice.
The letter is addressed to a teacher who has rejected some Barbiana’s students. This letter offers a bitter and realistic picture of the world of the school, marked by deep social contradictions, a school that seems tailored on the rich people. In the letter the students describe the so-called compulsory school where the selection occurs but, of course, it affects most frequently the children from workers and peasants families. These children are classified as ‘different’ because they are deprived of a cultural heritage that is available only to wealthy people and they suffer deep humiliation also at school, where the social and cultural differences strongly arise.
COMMENTS ON THIS PUBLICATION
Don Milani was appointed prior of Barbiana to disagreements with the Cardinal of Florence. In Barbiana he faced a reality of isolation not only personal, but also on the part of the whole village, especially of the youths who had been rejected by mainstream schools as disadvantaged both economically and socially.
For this reason, the teaching of Don Lorenzo should form the basis of each recovery situation and integration of children with learning difficulties and inclusion in economic and social contexts at a disadvantage compared to what it was the cultural background of the students who attended schools in those years.

The situation is still true in our time, particularly with pupils who do not speak Italian, but also with students from families who don’t care about their children’s growth process: Don Milani used to define the school as "a hospital that takes care of the healthy people and rejects the sick ones."
The innovation of Barbiana experience is based on some assumptions and a unique and original principle summarized in the motto of the school I care. Don Milani’s school is an open school, where the program is shared with the students, where the ideas, put forward by the teacher, are often revolutionary and at that time considered to be dangerous, as inspired by a socialist principle (especially boycotted by the Church) which is the principle that inspires our post- reform school, in accordance with the autonomy of teaching.
Name of Compiler
Giovannelli, Grossi
Name of Institution
Istituto Sassetti Peruzzi
Role in the institution
Docenti

20 December 2014

Final Partners’ meeting

The fourth partners’ meeting took place in Florence (IT) on 15 December 2014. The meeting had the objective to check the activities carried out since the third meeting of the project and share and assess the in progress results. A special focus has been dedicated to the presentation of the strategies to solve the case scenarios.