CRITICAL PEDAGOGY FROM A SOUTHERNEUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE Lorenzo Milani

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY FROM A SOUTHERN-EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE • Lorenzo Milani and the School of Barbiana University of Gdansk February 2014

Context • • • ITALY Post-war Church : site of contestation Build up towards Vatican Council II Social field: a site of contestation Church-Communist Party

Lorenzo Milani Comparetti (1923 -1967) • • • Jewish parents Agnostic High status society Upper Bourgeoisie Prestigious academic figures in family • Episodes which made him aware of bourgeois privilege

LIFE CHOICES • • • Did away with family tradition Took up art instead of university studies Took up holy orders against family wishes Mother kept regretting this Went against the grain Outspoken and a hell-raiser

LEADERSHIP AND POVERTY • Sent to San Donato di Calenzano near Florence • Faced with poverty and illiteracy • Helped in the running of a scuola serale (evening school) in the doposcuola program • Provided him with insights concerning education, leadership and power • Derived his inspiration from the Gospels – option for the poor • Felt that people required a broad humanistic education and not simply religious instruction

OPTION FOR THE POOR • • • Farmers and textile workers Working and peasant classes Capitalist exploitation Education and power Different levels of education Felt that Communist Party and Church invested more in dances to increase membership than in education.

RADICAL VIEWS • • • Friday talk/conference Did not shy away from criticizing those he invited Social issues discussed Themes included socialism Confronted landowners Too much for certain community and clergy members - sent into ‘exile’ at remote village

Sant’Andrea a Barbiana • Village or settlement near Vicchio in Mugello region –Tuscany • Lacked basic services and infrastructure • Children were ‘drop outs’ (read pushed out) of the school system • signs of the oppressed classes • Set up school, mainly for boys

THE SCHOOL • Austere approach –’we must run while others walk’, as Julius Nyerere would say. • Approx. 56 hrs a week • Made up for the ‘cultural capital’ factor • Students were both teachers and students • Older students taught younger ones • books, materials • Educational issues related to life, including political life • Did not progress to next stage until every one learnt

SCHOOL (CONT. ) • • • Collective learning No failures Caring : ‘I care’ school motto Languages from records Students sent to work and live abroad to learn languages and other experiences • Combined learning with community work • Pupils read papers together, discussed issues and wrote responses

Letter to a teacher • Experiences captured in classic text: Lettera a Una Professoressa (Letter to a teacher) • Tone of book: anger • Anger at Bourgeois politics and class biased education- world of the Pierinos and the Giannis • Also in collection of letters • In responses to military chaplains and judges re the accusation of ‘Objection of conscience’ (against military conscription)

LETTER TO A TEACHER • Tackled broad social issues such as – Gender/racial/class discrimination, – unfairness of consumption tax(on basic necessities), – privileged life of salaried teachers/right to strike – private tuition • Forcing out students after making them repeat several times – against constitution • Who pays taxes to support public education that fails working and peasant class students? • Irrelevant curricula

LEADERSHIP • Education, power, class and leadership • Leadership roles: according to class • Rigour, prolonged period of study to make up for lack of cultural capital • Education re life - relevant and just curriculum • Learning writing style • Sharing what one learns • Collective learning, decision making, leadership

LEADERSHIP • Reclaiming the word: ‘La parola ai poveri’ • Less time-wasting activities and more study, community work – making up lost ground • Investigating together: object of knowledge • Learning re reading the world –newspaper debates: Critical Literacy • Education, languages, work • Gaining a cosmopolitan dimension (experiences abroad)

LEADERSHIP • Obedience not always a virtue • Object to following false leadership – Ignoring call for unjust wars (Letter to judges, military chaplains) • Against military conscription • A number of Barbiana students became trade unionists, teachers.