All children are born equal; if, later, they are not equal, it is our fault and we have to find the remedy.
Don Lorenzo Milani
A conversation with Paolo Landi, author of La repubblica di Barbiana, la mia esperienza alla scuola di Don Lorenzo Milani (The Republic of Barbiana, my Experience at Don Milani’s School) and Eraldo Affinati, author of Via dalla pazza classe (Far from the Madding Class).
This talk will delve into the figure of Don Milani, popular Italian priest and leading personality of culture. He is today best renowned for his work with communities of deprived children while developing radical educational activities at a school in Barbiana, a remote village in Tuscany, despite facing both clerical and lay opposition. Among his writings, the “Letter to a Teacher” (Lettera a una professoressa) is still one of the most refined statements against an educational system too benevolent towards the well-off in society and contributing to widen the social gap between wealthy and poor people. He is now considered a foundational figure for modern education, in the same way as Montessori is.
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On the occasion of the visit to the rural village of Barbiana by Pope Francis in 2017, Paolo Landi decided to write a book in which he could describe his personal experience as a teacher in modern Barbiana and prove the effectiveness of the system inaugurated by Don Milani. “La repubblica di Barbiana” is a book imbued with messages Don Milani handed down to his students but cannot be found in his writings.
Eraldo Affinati is an Italian writer who has been nominated for a number of different prizes. With his last work, “Via dalla pazza classe” (Far From the Madding Class), he develops the themes of education and tries to understand how schooling can grapple with the complexities of modern society. He wrote in 2016 “L’uomo del futuro” (The Man from the Future), focused on the figure of Don Milani, which was nominated for the Strega Literary Award and obtained the Basilicata Literary Prize.