Saturday, March 15, 2014
Chairman's (Omni Shoreham)
In an effort to produce a social and economic regeneration of the Italian national character at the end of the nineteenth century, Center-Left nationalist intellectuals—more anticlerical and democratic than their Center-Right opponents—sought to adapt basic Catholic moral instruction within children’s experience, introducing them not only to concepts of the nation but also to moral responsibilities toward the patria. Following the Italian government’s annexation of Rome in 1870, education became central to the Church-State conflict as each sought the hearts and minds of the country’s children. In practice there was not a clear line between the two sides. Education reformers incorporated the language and ideas of the spiritual and political institutions to tackle the commonly perceived problem of Italian degeneracy. One such reformer was Felice Garelli, a school teacher from the province of Cuneo and contemporary of Michele Coppino and Giovanni Giolitti. Published in 1880 and aimed specifically at rural children, the textbooks of Felice Garelli present the Catholic catechism as the basis of moral instruction for both boys and girls. The final objective of this inclusion was not the creation of good Christians but good Italians. The author directs the moral obligations embedded within catechistic teaching to a citizen’s filial duties toward king and country, inserting the patria as morally sacrosanct and thereby uniting the Italian people. The numerous editions of these books and Garelli’s later senatorial career under the first Giolitti administration point to a connection between the author’s efforts and the broader project of national regeneration.
