Italian School Activities

Italian school smocks
Figure 1--This photograph was taken in Cucugnano, a coastal village near Rome. This teacher has taken her pupils to the nearby beach for an outing. The boys all wear the smocks required by the school. They only took off their footwear so they could paddle on the beach. The photo is undated, but could have been taken in the 1950s or 60s. An Italian reader tells us, "Really it's a strange situation. I never saw children on the beach wearing their school smocks. Cucugnano is a coastal village, perhaps the teacher suprised the children with a little walk or an excursion to look for sea shells as part of a class project." Click on the image for a fuller discussion.

We do not yet have a great deal of information about Italian school activities nor images illustrating activitiesat school. Italian state schools after unification in the late-19th and early-20th century had an important social task in Italy. One report indicates that at the time of unification with the proclamation of the Italian Kingdom that 78 percent of the Italian people were illiterate (1861). Catholic countries like Italy were slower to create public school systems thn roestant countries. As aesult, this was a much higher proportion than Protestant northern Europe. This was not the only problem. Most Italian families were very poor, especially in the south, and nutrition and hygiene relatively poor. This of course significantly affected children. To address the hygine problem, many schools installed showers so the children could bathe. Thus bathing became a school activity in Italy. Italy is a predominately Catholic country. The Catholic Church has played a major role in Italy's education system. There were religious lessons even in the public schools taught by priests. I'm not sure what the current policy toward religion is in Italian schools. First Comminion was a major event in an Italian child's life. Most Italian children did their First Communion as a part of a school group. The boys and girls dressed up in special outfits for the event. As far as I know, they never wore their school smocks. We note some private schools that had uniforms, had the bnoys wear their uniforms rather than new suits, sometimes with special collars. There may have been other changes such as white socks. The girls as far as we know always had special outfits, even at private schools with uniforms.

Coming and Going to School

Most Italian school children walked to scool Rgis was primarily the case of primary school children. Schools at first weemostly in cities and children lived in wlking distance of their primary schools. The youngest children might be accompaned by older siblings, but until after World War II not usually by their parents, There was an eception for the really young children in nursery school. Here parets did commonly walk with them to school. As We nore with the development of cars and traffic the aoption of safty patrols, especilly after World war II. Even in rural areas walking to school was common. This is because many rural people lived in villages rather than isolated fmily farms as in America. We beliee that more Italian parents walk younger rimary children to school today than was common earlier. There is a precived greater risk today than was the case earlier. We are not sure to what extent this reflecs relality. Some parents may even drive them to school, especially at private schools where the distances are longer. We see some school buses, but these were commonly for private schools. we are less sure about secondary schools, especially before Word War II when most children did not continue their education beyond primary schools. As a result most children lived much further from secondary schools than primary schools. We are not sure how common bikes were. Before World War II, relatively few children had bikes.

Classrooms

We do not yet have many classroom images from Italian schools. Italian state schools after unification in the late-19th and early-20th century had an important social task in Italy. One report indicates that at the time of unification with the proclamation of the Italian Kingdom that 78 percent of the Italian people were illiterate (1861). Catholic countries like Italy were slower to create public school systems than Proestant countries. As a result, the proprtion of illiterates was much higher in Catholic southern Europe than Protestant northern Europe. br>

Hygene

Ilitercy was not the only problem. Most Italian families were very poor, especially in the south, and nutrition and hygiene relatively poor. This of course significantly affected children. To address the hygine problem, many schools installed showers so the children could bathe. Thus bathing became a school activity in Italy.

Religion

Italy is a predominately Catholic country. The Catholic Church has played a major role in Italy's education system. There were religious lessons even in the public schools taught by priests. I'm not sure what the current policy toward religion is in Italian schools. First Comminion was a major event in an Italian child's life. Most Italian children did their First Communion as a part of a school group. The boys and girls dressed up in special outfits for the event. As far as I know, they never wore their school smocks. We note some private schools that had uniforms, had the bnoys wear their uniforms rather than new suits, sometimes with special collars. There may have been other changes such as white socks. The girls as far as we know always had special outfits, even at private schools with uniforms.

Recess


Sports


School Trips

We notice Italian children taking school trips, mostly as class groups. This photograph was taken in Cucugnano, a coastal village near Rome. This teacher has taken her pupils to the nearby beach for an outing (figure 1). The boys all wear the smocks required by the school. They only took off their footwear so they could paddle on the beach. The photo is undated, but could have been taken in the 1950s or 60s. An Italian reader tells us, "Really it's a strange situation. I never saw children on the beach wearing their school smocks. Cucugnano is a coastal village, perhaps the teacher suprised the children with a little walk or an excursion to look for sea shells as part of a class project." Click on the image for a fuller discussion.






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Created: 10:35 AM 7/13/2009
Last updated: 1:21 AM 7/20/2014