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The First Timid Educational ReformsPage 1 of 1
The most significant and lasting results achieved by Balbo and Galeani Napione in their reform work were in the field of education, due really to Anselmi, who produced two highly original complete courses for primary schools: before the dismissal of Balbo, he printed the Scuola dell'infanzia divisa in tre fascicoli di lettura e preceduta da un ragionamento dell'autore intorno all'uso di questa e della seguente scuola della puerizia. Fascicolo primo per l'età dai 4 ai 5 anni; then, just when the actions of 1821 were kicking off, he completed the work with Scuola della puerizia fatta acconcia ai due sessi da Giuseppe Anselmi prete professore alla Regia Accademia Militare. Why were Anselmi's manuals so innovative, and have such good fortune, so much that they were reprinted in Piedmont more than half a century later? Because with the traditional division of the Latin school into seven year groups, Anselmi replaced a course of tripartite studies, that distinguished between infancy, childhood and Latin letters, or adolescence. In this way, he used the stimuli coming both from the illuminated French literature, and especially Condillac and Rousseau, and from contemporary educational texts, such as those by Pestalozzi, Grégoire Girard, Marc-Antoine Jullien, Anna Letitia Barbauld and the proponents of mutual learning. Also, for the first time school texts were based on the cognitive development of students, on whose capacity the content was designed and the language defined. The first level defined by Anselmi “scuola dell’infanzia” [infants school] comprised two years and was aimed at literacy. The three years of the Latin school, from sixth to fourth, were, then, replaced by Anselmi with the “scuola della puerizia” [primary school], four years aimed at learning grammar (first universal and then Italian grammar), spelling, composition, history (religious, but also national and contemporary), geography, arithmetic and natural history. If the infant school was to teach "a conoscere ed accozzare i segni analitici ed espressivi della voce umana” [knowing and putting together the analytical and expressive signs of the human voice] and how to put together "segni e voce e pronuncia corrispondente a quei segni” [signs and voice and pronunciation corresponding to those signs]8, the primary school served to strengthen both religious feelings and the students' civic sense. The last two years of senior school were not just dedicated exclusively to the study of philosophy, but also Italian eloquence, mathematics and the physical sciences, subjects that not only would have guaranteed the effective link between the various levels of education, but would have equipped the students with the knowledge to deal with university successfully. The fact that all the Anselmi's textbooks were inspired by the normal or simultaneous method, used way back in the Lombardy-Veneto schools, but still welcomed with mistrust in Piedmont, should not be ignored. The last new element is Anselmi's attention to the way his books were used. He knew the ignorance of many of his colleagues and he knew that they would have to be helped in didactics. For this reason, before the fall of Balbo, he was called to hold a memorable method course to colleagues in local schools. Then after 1821, when there were less, not only possibilities of reform, but also experimenting with new teaching methods, he founded a journal, the “Educatore in famiglia” [Educator in the family], aimed both at school teachers and tutors, which was published for almost two years (from October 1823 to March 1825), and in which they devoted great attention, among other things, just to the conduct of lessons in class. 6 Giuseppe Anselmi, Scuola dell'infanzia divisa in tre fascicoli di lettura e preceduta da un ragionamento dell'autore intorno all'uso di questa e della seguente scuola della puerizia. Fascicolo primo per l'età dai 4 ai 5 anni, Turin, from the Stamperia Reale, 1819, 3 voll. The work was dedicated to the Prince Carlo Alberto, a promoter of mutual teaching, who had chosen to“schiudere larga vena di gratuita istruzione come a militi scelti, così a giovanetti poverell” [open up large vein of free education as much for chosen militates, as very poor youngsters]. The text was preceded by Ragionamento di Proemio alla Scuola dell'infanzia e della Puerizia, fatta acconcia ai due sessi, di Giuseppe Anselmi, prof. di retorica alla Regia Accademia Militare di Torino, Turin, at Pietro Giuseppe Pic, 1819. |
