La terra migliora l’uomo. Le colonie agricole per la gioventù "irregolare" nell’Italia del secolo XIX

During the 19th century, wide debates and experiences in Europe revealed the increasing appreciation for agricultural education of the poorer classes, especially for young people that were imprisoned. After this phase, the usefulness of agricultural education emerged as a mean to solve the problem of all abandoned and orphaned children coming from rural areas. The essay deals with the phenomenon of agricultural schools for poor children in Italy from the '40s to the WWI (beyond which the war orphans became the main focus of attention). Firstly founded in the regions better linked to the international search for an alternative re-education system of the “derelict” young people (Piedmont, Tuscany, Lombardy, Lazio), immediately after the Unification these institutions were developed principally by the Benedictines, an order threatened of disappearing for the hostility of the Italian State. But actually the State began to create a new youth detention system, where the cooperation of private institutions was essential. At the end of the century, mainly the new religious institutes (Salesians of don Bosco, Congregation of Saint Joseph - Murialdines, Servants of Charity of don Guanella, etc.) promoted many agricultural schools for poor youths, males and females, developing suitable vocational teaching methods. Sometimes this commitment was conceived as a way for maintaining the stability of the rural equilibria, coping with the menace of the industrial change.