L’educazione all’igiene infantile in tarda età giolittiana: l’asilo come «frontiera»

Given the key educational importance attributed to teaching hygienics in elementary schools at the turn of the 20th century, this essay examines the corresponding role of infant schools within a broader drive for the health-related, moral, and social regeneration of Italy. Analysis of the first ever ministerial kindergarten program, which was introduced in 1914, shows that it institutionalized health education conferring it with an all-pervasive and transversal role. In order to assess the impact of the 1914 measure on the implementation of health practices in infant schools, I review the contents of education journals published in the period immediately following the announcement of the program. These publications, both secular and Catholic, clearly grasped the reformatory thrust of the new curriculum. They shared the vision of the kindergarten laid out in the new program: namely, a place of encounter and cooperation between school and home. These sources also imply that, in fulfilment of their mission to enhance health practices, infant schools were required to become frontier zones asneeded, acting similarly to a customs authority by only admitting children who were clean and tidy and confiscating any unhealthy foods contained in their lunch boxes.