The “Trotter” open‐air school, Milan (1922–1977): a city of youth or risky business?

Abstract

This article inserts the concept of risk in the context of open‐air schools and investigates its implications, capacities and limits. It is contended that applying at‐risk labels to pupils who attended open‐air schools is itself a risky business. The category to some extent constitutes an anomaly within most open‐air schools’ histories, as much of what it would come to denote, did not yet exist as such when these institutes arose and flourished. Moreover, the literature suggests that at‐risk labels are often deployed, interpreted, negotiated and resisted by children and youth to whom they are applied. The article investigates that hypothesis by means of a case study of a Milanese open‐air school called ‘Trotter’. Studied in detail is its everyday educational practice before and after the Second World War.

It is argued that open‐air schools like ‘Trotter’ indeed (re)constructed children and youth in modes similar to those related to at‐risk discourse, albeit in ambiguous and context‐specific ways. Moreover, the article shows that institutes like ‘Trotter’ themselves put their target groups at risk, giving occasion to multiple forms of an at‐risk paradox. Pupils of such a school particularly risked (but also resisted) being socially bracketed, stigmatized, institutionalized, abused and subjected to streaming.

Keywords:

• Italy
• open‐air schools
• at‐risk discourse
• streaming
• special education
• poor
• pre‐tubercular
• tuberculosis
• hygiene
• health education
• maladjusted
• immigrants

Acknowledgements

Without the help of the following people, this article would never have been here: Marc Depaepe, Ian Grosvenor, Frank Simon, Christine Mayer, Ruth and Rob Watts, Barbara Gariboldi of the Historical Archive of Milan, Maurizio Galliani, Vincenzo di Pierno and Nadia di Santo of the Civic Archive of Milan, Francesco Cappelli of Casa del Sole (‘Trotter’) of Milan. Gratitude is also due to Anna Lucia Brunetti of the Public Archive (Archivio di Stato) of Milan, Gilberto Pezzuto, and last but not least Marco and Clara of Ca’ di Cima, Castell’Arquato.

Notes

¹ The authors cite L.P. Ayres, Open‐Air Schools (New York: Double Day/Page and Co., 1910): 8–9.

² An exception is Linda Bryder’s work of the late 1980s.

³ Sally Lubeck and Patricia Garrett, “The Social Construction of the “At‐risk” Child,” British Journal of Sociology of Education 11, no. 3 (1990): 327 and 329.

⁴ Peter Kelly, “Youth at Risk: Processes of Individualisation and Responsabilisation in the Risk Society,” Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 22, no. 1 (2001): 23–25.

⁵ Jean‐Noël Luc, “Open‐Air Schools: Unearthing a History,” in Open‐Air Schools: An Educational and Architectural Venture in Twentieth‐Century Europe, ed. Anne‐Marie Châtelet, Dominique Lerch and Jean‐Noël Luc (Paris: Éditions Recherches, 2003), 18.

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ Peter Dwyer and Johanna Wyn, Youth, Education and Risk: Facing the Future (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001), 145.

⁸ Compare, for example, Annemie Carrette, “Vrijzinnig Humanistisch Pleeg‐Opvoeden,” Antenne 23, no. 3 (2005): 46–47; Willy Vandamme, “Principe 4: Scheiding Hulpverlening – Gerechtelijk Optreden,” in Naar een jeugdsanctierecht, ed. Geert Decock and Philippe Vansteenkiste (Ghent: Mys and Breesch, 1995), 71; Lubeck and Garrett, “The Social Construction of the “At‐risk” Child,” 331.

⁹ Kitty te Riele, “Youth ‘At Risk’: Further Marginalizing the Marginalized?,” Journal of Education Policy 21, no. 2 (2006): 130.

¹⁰ See, for example, Parlano i Ragazzi 1, no. 2 (1957): 2. In this number of the school paper, a particularly restless pupil is referred to.

¹¹ Te Riele, “Youth ‘At Risk’,” 130.

¹² Beth Blue Swadener, “Children and Families ‘At Promise’: Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk,” in Children and Families “At Promise”: Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk, eds. Beth Blue Swadener and Sally Lubeck (Albany: State University of New York, 1995): 22.

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ Compare Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “Open‐Air Schools in Belgium: A Marginal Phenomenon in Educational History Reflecting Larger Social Processes,” in Châtelet, Lerch and Luc, Open‐air Schools, 89; Anne‐Marie Châtelet, “The International Movement for Open‐air Schools,” in ibid., 31; Bruno Maurer, “Befreites Lernen: The Swiss School‐Building Debate (1930–50),” in ibid., 201.

¹⁵ Dekker, Straffen, Redden en Opvoeden, 5.

¹⁶ Linda Bryder, Below the Magic Mountain: A Social History of Tuberculosis in Twentieth Century Britain (Oxford: University Press, 1988), 30 and 88; ibid., “‘Wonderlands of Butter Cup, Clover and Daisies’: Tuberculosis and the Open‐air School Movement in Britain, 1907–39,” in In the Name of the Child: Health and Welfare, 1880–1940 (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 73–74.

¹⁷ Ibid., “’Wonderlands of Butter Cup, Clover and Daisies’,” 74–75.

¹⁸ John Welshman, “Child Health, National Fitness, and Physical Education in Britain, 1900–1940,” in Cultures of Child Health in Britain and the Netherlands in the Twentieth Century, ed. Marijke Gijswijt‐Hofsta and Hilary Marlans (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2003), 63.

¹⁹ [Ligue Française pour l’Éducation en Plein Air] “Ligue Française pour l’Éducation en Plein Air,” in Premier Congrès International des Écoles de Plein Air en la Faculté de Médecine de Paris (24–25–26–27–28 Juin 1922), [ed. ibid.] (Paris: Maloine, 1925), 151.

²⁰ Luc, “Open‐air Schools: Unearthing a History,” 16 and 19.

²¹ Compare Bryder, Below the Magic Mountain, 44; Michel Rainis, “L’École de Plein Air du Château d’Aux Près de Nantes,” in Châtelet, Lerch and Luc, Open‐air Schools, 371; Andrew Saint, “Early Days of the English Open‐air School (1907–1930),” in Châtelet, Lerch and Luc, Open‐air Schools, 74.

²² Chauveau, “Système Éducatif et Méthodes d’Enseignement à l’École de Plein Air,” in [Ligue Française pour l’Éducation en Plein Air], Premier Congrès International, 98.

²³ Bryder, “‘Wonderlands of Butter Cup, Clover and Daisies’,” 83.

²⁴ Kelly, “Youth at Risk,” 23–25.

²⁵ Bryder, Below the Magic Mountain, 21.

²⁶ Ibid., 119.

²⁷ Compare Swadener, “Children and Families ‘At Promise’,” 2 and 19; Michael P. Lempert, review of Children and Families “At Promise,” by Swadener and Lubeck, eds, Anthropology and Education Quarterly 29, no. 1 (1998): 137; Kelly, “Youth at Risk,” 23; ibid., “Growing Up as a Risky Business: Risks, Surveillance and Institutionalized Mistrust of Youth,” Journal of Youth Studies 6, no. 2 (2003), 166 and 175; te Riele, “Youth “At Risk”,” 129; Sally Lubeck and Patricia Garrett, “The Social Construction of the ‘At‐risk’ Child,” 327 and 331; John Welshman, “In Search of the ‘Problem Family’: Public Health and Social Work in England and Wales, 1940–70,” Social History of Medicine 9, no. 3. (1996): 451.

²⁸ Swadener, “Children and Families ‘At Promise’,” 20.

²⁹ Kelly, “Growing Up,” 171–172.

³⁰ Ibid., “Youth at Risk,” 24.

³¹ Ibid., “Growing Up,” 170.

³² Compare Lubeck and Garrett, “The Social Construction of the “At‐risk” Child,” 337; te Riele “Youth ‘At Risk’,” 138–9. The authors hereby abstract from internal differences between the two mentioned parties.

³³ Lempert, review of Children and Families, by Swadener and Lubeck, 137.

³⁴ Elizabeth Quintero and Mary Kay Rummel, “Voice Unaltered: Marginalized Young Writers Speak,” in Swadener and Lubeck, Children and Families “At Promise,” 98.

³⁵ Marc Depaepe and others, introduction to Order in Progress: Everyday Education Practice in Primary Schools, ed. Marc Depaepe and others (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2000), 10.

³⁶ Compare Dino Barra, “Una Scuola all’Aperto a Milano: dall’Idea alla Realizzazione (1907–1928),” in 1925–2005. Casa del Sole. La Città dell’Infanzia a Milano (Milan: La Città del Sole and Amici del Parco Trotter, 2005), 5; ibid., “Gli Anni della Guerra e della Ricostruzione,” in ibid., 41; Luigi Cremaschi, “Bimbi al Sole: Dieci Anni,” Bimbi al Sole May (1955; repr., 2004), 2.

³⁷ Parlano i Ragazzi 8, no. 1 (1964): 3. The epithet was meant to imply that the school was child‐centred. Self‐government, however, was never consistently implemented.

³⁸ Pier Paola Penzo, “Italian Cities and Open‐air Schools (1907–1931),” in Châtelet, Lerch and Luc, Open‐air Schools, 146.

³⁹ The former alluded to a fat‐ and carbohydrate‐based diet; the latter to a non‐vegetarian diet that was thought to induce sexual prematurity. See: Alfredo Albertini, La Scuola all’Aperto e la Colonia di Cure Naturali al Trotter (Milan: Ceretti, 1921), 6 and 9.

⁴⁰ Ibid., 1.

⁴¹ Albertini, La Scuola all’Aperto, 6 and 26.

⁴² Giuseppe Folli, “Progetto di una Scuola all” Aperto nel Recinto del Trotter nel Riparto di Turro: Relazione Tecnica, 30 Luglio 1919 (typewritten printout, Milan, 1919): 1–4, Fondo Finanze‐Beni Comunali, Fascicolo 208: Finanze, 1919–1926, City Archive Milan (hereafter CAM). Penzo, “Italian Cities,” 146.

⁴³ Compare Camillo Alberici, “Le Scuole Comunali di Milano: Estratto dalla Rivista Annali dell “Istruzione Elementare VII/III, 1932,” offprint, 1932: 7 and 13, Fondo Rivolta, Historical Archive Milan (hereafter HAM); Luigi Veratti, “Ommagio: L’École de Plein Air pour les Enfants Faibles, Rapport Présenté au IIe Congrès International de Technique Sanitaire et d’Hygiène Urbaine, Lyon, 6–9 Mars 1932, Lyon: Imprimeries Réunies, 1932,” offprint, 1932, 5, Archivietto Avv. Rivolta 27, Fascicolo 2: Scuola all”Aperto Umberto di Savoia), HAM.

⁴⁴ Veratti, “Ommagio,” 5.

⁴⁵ Veratti, “Ommagio,” 4.

⁴⁶ Compare Milano, Rivista Mensile del Comune 47, no. 7 (1931): 340; Pensiero Medico 18, no. 16 (1929): 651.

⁴⁷ Veratti, “Ommagio,” 1.

⁴⁸ Ibid., 6 and 2.

⁴⁹ Ugo Perucci, “Esercitazioni Fisiche e Ginnastica [più Particolarmente Indicate pei Fanciulli Gracili delle Scuole e Colonie all’Aperto. Relazione del M.° Cav. Ugo Perucci al Congresso Internazionale degli Amici dell’Educazione Fisica, Venezia, 11–12–13 1931/IX], Milano: Arti Grafiche Ponti & C, 1931,” working paper, 1931: 7–8, Archivietto Avv. Rivolta 27, Fascicolo 2: Scuola all’Aperto Umberto di Savoia, HAM.

⁵⁰ Ibid., 9–10.

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵² Diane Wishart, Alison Taylor and Lynette Shultz, “The Construction and Production of Youth ‘At Risk’,” Journal of Education Policy 21, no. 3 (2006): 299.

⁵³ Alfredo Albertini, Efisio Nonnoi and Anna Lagomarsino, Relazione del Servizio Medico e del Funzionamento del Gabinetto di Richerche Scientifiche della Scuola all’Aperto “Umberto di Savoia” (Milan: Patronato Generale Opere Integrative Assistenziali e Post‐Scolastiche Scuola all Aperto “Umberto di Savoia,” 1929), 34–45.

⁵⁴ Ibid., 46.

⁵⁵ “Giornale della Classe. 1 Fascicolo. Anno Scolastico 1937–1938. Classe Vm.B. Insegnante Maria Remondi Robbiati,” filled in form, School Archive Milan (hereafter SAM).

⁵⁶ Para‐scholastic activities of the ONB–as of 1937 absorbed into the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL)–were organised on the school domain on Thursday afternoons and feast‐days.

⁵⁷ Letter from Clerle to Rivolta, the then general secretary of education, 13 November 1928, Archivietto Avv. Rivolta 27, Fascicolo 3: Casa del sole, HAM.

⁵⁸ Letter from Rivolta to the then central school inspector, Alberici, 1940. Archivietto Avv. Rivolta 27, Fascicolo 2: Scuola all’Aperto Umberto di Savoia, HAM.

⁵⁹ Over the years several school principals were forced to resign allegedly for medical reasons. However, sources and works suggest that political and other reasons were behind their compulsory redundancy. Compare, for instance, Letter from Brighenti to the then fascist mayor, Guido Pesenti, 5 March 1937, Archivietto Avv. Rivolta 27, Fascicolo 2: Scuola all’Aperto Umberto di Savoia, HAM; “Atti del Comune di Milano n. 2868, Ripartizione della educazione 10 dicembre 1931/X,” Funzionamente delle Scuole all’Aperto Umberto di Savioa e Duca degli Abruzi ed Anesse Istituzioni per gli Anni Scolastici dal 1929 al 1934. 1936, Fascicolo 2, Ripartizione Educazione Prot. Generale n. 197942 – 1933, Prot. Particolare 2703, CAM; “L. Cremaschi ha Lasciato la ‘Casa del Sole’,” I diritti della Scuola 5 (1956), SAM; Hélène Leenders, Montessori en Fascistisch Italië: Een Receptiegeschiedenis (Baarn: Intro, 1999), 124–125.

⁶⁰ See, Bryder, “‘Wonderlands of Butter Cup, Clover and Daisies’,” 85 and 90.

⁶¹ Letter from Alberici to the Department of Education of Milan, May 1, 1940, Archivietto Avv. Rivolta 27, Fascicolo 3: Casa del sole, HAM.

⁶² Dino Barra, “La Scuola all’Aperto “Casa del Sole”: le Cooperative e I laboratori (1950–1973),” in 1925–2005. Casa del Sole, 51.

⁶³ In contrast to the prewar school paper, Bimbi al Sole, this paper was produced by the pupils themselves, although they were sometimes “assisted” by teachers who corrected incoming articles. This “new” educational feature has been ascribed to the influence of Freinet. See ibid.

⁶⁴ Parlano i Ragazzi 5, no. 1 (1960): 4.

⁶⁵ “Il Servizio Centrale,” in “La Scuola all’Aperto “Casa del Sole,” 1968,” unpaginated scrapbook, 1968, SAM.

⁶⁶ Ibid.

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ Parlano i Ragazzi 2, no. 3 (1958): 3.

⁶⁹ Parlano i Ragazzi 1, no. 3 (1957): 1.

⁷⁰ The cassa di risparmio, founded in the school year of 1952–1953, invited pupils to deposit their savings. At the end of the school year they could collect their money and interest. As in the case of the cooperatives, the club was run by the pupils themselves.

⁷¹ Compare Parlano i Ragazzi 2, no. 1 (1958): 4; Parlano i Ragazzi 2, no. 2 (1958): 4; Parlano i Ragazzi 3, no. 1 (1958): 4; Parlano i Ragazzi 8, no. 3 (1964): 3.

⁷² Parlano i Ragazzi 8, no. 3 (1964): 3

⁷³ Luc, “Open‐air Schools,” in Châtelet, Lerch and Luc, Open‐air Schools, 19.

⁷⁴ Wishart, Taylor and Shultz, “The Construction and Production of Youth ‘At Risk’,” 296–297.

⁷⁵ Dwyer and Wyn, Youth, Education and Risk, 145.

⁷⁶ Barra, “Una Scuola all’Aperto a Milano,” 5–7; Penzo, “Italian Cities,” 145.

⁷⁷ For more information about the origins and characteristics of the Gentilian reform and school programme, see Michel Ostenc, L’Éducation en Italie pendant le Fascisme (Paris: Sorbonne, 1980).

⁷⁸ In theory the new system would provide equal opportunities for all pupils to pursue higher studies. In reality all kinds of obstacles prevented that from happening. For more information about the 1963 Law, see Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione. Direzione Generale Istruzione Secondaria di 1° Grado. La Legge Istitutiva della Scuola Media Statale (Città di Castello: Istituto Professionale di Stato per l’Industria e l’Artigianato, 1963), 53–63; Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione. Ufficio Studi e Programmazione. L’Istruzione Pubblica in Italia. Bilancio di Legislatura (1963–1968) (Roma, 1968), 87–137.

⁷⁹ Ostenc, L’Éducation en Italie, 86, 92, 100–11.

⁸⁰ Attilio Fiori, “Programmi,” in Second Congrès International des Écoles de Plein Air, Bruxelles, 6–11 avril 1931: Rapports et Comptes Rendus (Brussels: Ancienne librairie Castaigne, 1931) : 185.

⁸¹ Ibid., 184; “Comune di Milano, Monografia della Regia Scuola Speciale già Comunale ‘Umberto di Savoia’ (Scuola all’Aperto), Milano, Industrie Grafiche Italiane Stucchi, 1937,” offprint, 1937: 26, Archivietto Avv. Rivolta 27, Fascicolo 2: Scuola all’Aperto Umberto di Savoia, HAM.

⁸² Ibid.

⁸³ Fiori, “Programmi,” 182.

⁸⁴ Perucci, “Esercitazioni Fisiche,” 14.

⁸⁵ Parlano i Ragazzi 3, no. 3 (1959): 1.

⁸⁶ Compare Parlano i Ragazzi 2, no. 3 (1958): 2; Parlano i Ragazzi 3, no. 5 (1959): 1; Parlano i Ragazzi 3, no. 6 (1959): 2; Parlano i Ragazzi 2, no. 4 (1958): 3.

⁸⁷ Compare Parlano i Ragazzi 5, no. 1 (1960): 3; Parlano i Ragazzi 5, no. 5 (1961): 3.

⁸⁸ Parlano i Ragazzi 3, no. 6 (1959): 1.

⁸⁹ Parlano i Ragazzi 8, no. 1 (1964): 3.

⁹⁰ Parlano i Ragazzi 9, no. 2 (1964), 1.

⁹¹ Wishart, Taylor and Shultz, “The Construction and Production of Youth ‘At Risk’,” 295.

⁹² Dino Barra, “Dalla Scuola Speciale alla Scuola di Quartiere: Sperimentazione Verticale, Ricerca di Ambiente, Informatica (1973–1988),” in 1925–2005. Casa del Sole, 78.

⁹³ Compare Swadener, “Children and Families ‘At Promise’,” 4.

⁹⁴ Parlano i Ragazzi 8, no. 3 (1964): 3.

⁹⁵ Mattina (Cronaca), Friday October 17, 1997, 8.

⁹⁶ “Scuola all’aperto ‘Casa del Sole,’ via Giacosa, 46, Milano. Educazione alla comprensione internazionale, Giugno 1966,” unpaginated scrapbook, Milan, 1966. SAM.

⁹⁷ See Bernard Coard, How the West Indian Child is made Educationally Subnormal in the British School System (London: New Beacon Books, 1971): 45.

⁹⁸ For a discussion of these concepts and their value for histories of education, see Jeroen Dekker, “The Fragile Relation between Normality and Marginality: Marginalization and Institutionalization in the History of Education,” in “Beyond the Pale, Behind Bars: Marginalization and Institutionalization from the 18th to the 20th Century,” ed. ibid., special issue, Paedagogica Historica 26, no. 2 (1990): 15–18; ibid., Straffen, Redden en Opvoeden, 164–166.

⁹⁹ Dekker, “The Fragile Relation,” 27.

¹⁰⁰ Te Riele, “Youth “At Risk”,” 129.

¹⁰¹ Dirk Van Damme and others, “Introduction,” in “Beyond the Pale,” ed. Dekker and others, special issue, Paedagogica Historica 26, no. 2 (1990): 7–8.

¹⁰² Jan Terpstra, “Social Employment Provision as a Marginalizing Institution,” in “Beyond the Pale,” ed. Dekker and others, special issue, Paedagogica Historica 26, no. 2 (1990): 243–245.

¹⁰³ Dekker, “The Fragile Relation,” 21–23.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid., 24.