The education of the "Republican citizenship" during the Reign of Italy

Short after the World War II, Italy became a Republic. However, also, during the Reign of Italy (1861-1946), the Italian Republicans promoted a program for the secular and republican education of the people. In particular, the Italian Republican freemasons, in the first decades after the unification of Italy, promoted the popular education as a means for the construction of the "new citizen". They attempted to eliminate the hegemony of Catholic education and lead Italy towards secularization and modernization, as well as, happened in the other European states, such as France. During that process, great influence had the thought of Mazzini on the Grand Masters of Grand Orient of Italy (Frapolli, Mazzoni, Petroni, Lemmi, Nathan and Ferrari). For Mazzini, young people had to be trained in accordance with religious and a-confessional aims that made them capable of obeying without perceiving the duty as an external imposition, to improve themselves and consequently the society. The school had to be an instrument of progress and democracy, opened to all and, at least in the elementary grades, accessible to all. Equally important was to improve civic and professional training of the people and women to make them active players in history. Along this direction, the Italian Freemasonry was engaged to direct action in Parliament and in local government, through its representatives, and financed the creation of schools, "educatori", recreation centers in opposition to the Catholic schools and oratories. The Grand Orient of Italy (GOI) financed also libraries, night schools, charitable institutions, sports associations and cultural clubs; moreover, GOI supported the "League for the education of the people" (Lega per l’insegnamento popolare), founded in Belgium in 1860 and, after, widespread in France, whose main business activity was to establish itinerant libraries for the people. References Conti, F. (2004). Massoneria, scuola e questione educative nell’Italia liberale [Freemasonry, school and educational issues in the Reign of Italy] (pp. 11-27 ). In L. Pazzaglia (Ed.), Annali di storia dell'educazione e delle istituzioni scolastiche [Annals of history of education and educational institutions]. Brescia: Editrice La Scuola. Foschi , R., & Cicciola, E. (2007). Le discipline psicologiche e la massoneria a Parigi e Roma all'inizio del Novecento [Psychological sciences and Masonry in early-twentieth-century Paris and Rome]. Hiram, 1, 83-94. Isastia, A.M., & Visani A. (2008). L'idea laica tra chiesa e massoneria: la questione della scuola [The secular idea between church and Freemasonry: the issue of the education]. Roma: Atanor. Levi, D. Programma massonico adottato dalla Massoneria Italiana ricostituita, presentato al G.O.I. nella seduta dell’anno della V.L. 5861 dal Gran Segretario D:. L:. [Masonic program adopted by the Italian Freemasonry reconstituted, submitted to GOI in the session of the year of True Light 5861 by the Grand Secretary D:. L:.] (1979), Rivista Massonica, 5, 237-243. (Original work published 1861). Mazzini, G. (1860). I doveri dell’uomo [The Duties of Man]. Londra: Biblioteca popolare. Minutes of meetings of the board of the Grand Orient of Italy, sitting of 4 February (1874). Archivio Storico del Grande Oriente d’Italia. Nathan, E. (1898). Il compito massonico. Discorso inaugurale del Gran Maestro Ernesto Nathan alla Conferenza Massonica Nazionale. Torino, 20 settembre 1898 [The task of Freemasonry. Inaugural address of the Grand Master Ernesto Nathan to Masonic National Conference. Turin , September 20, 1898]. Roma: Tip. Civelli. Popkewitz, T. (2008). Cosmopolitanism and the Age of School Reform: Science, Education, and Making Society by Making the Child. New York: Routledge. Ricreatori [Recreation centers] (1877), Rivista della Massoneria Italiana, 11-12, 337-339. Rocca, G. (2004). Istruzione educazione e istituzioni educative della massoneria a Roma dal 1870 all'avvento del fascismo [Education and educational institutions of Freemasonry in Rome from 1870 to the advent of fascism] (pp. 29-75). In L. Pazzaglia (Ed.), Annali di storia dell'educazione e delle istituzioni scolastiche [Annals of history of education and educational institutions]. Brescia: Editrice La Scuola. Tomasi, T. (1980). Massoneria e scuola dall'unità ai nostri giorni [Freemasonry and the school from the Reign of Italy to the present day]. Firenze: Vallecchi.