Conservatives’ middle school: Right-wing opposition to the 1962 reform

Abstract

In 1962, right-wing political parties in Italy opposed the law establishing the State middle school. The reasons for this dissent were advanced during the parliamentary debate: by the liberals, the neo-fascists and the royalists. There were varied opinions, but they converged on some fundamental traits, also common to some exponents of the major government party, namely the Christian Democrats. Through the analysis of these arguments, an alternative school model to the one proposed in the reform emerges: unitary but not unique, with a strong humanistic imprint, in which spiritual values were the main foundations of a European identity, an alternative to Soviet and American materialism. They wanted a selective school, which would reflect the natural inequality between pupils, in terms of ability and will. It is a profile that can be defined as conservative, shared in the main aspects by many teachers wary of the reform.