Between war and peace. The pedagogy of war and re-education for peace in the class journals of the 'Perasso' school in Brindisi (1943-1947)

Abstract

The fund of the Gian Battista Perasso male primary school, kept at the State Archives of Brindisi, preserves a vast documentation, mainly composed of Class Registers, fundamental for the historical-educational reconstruction in the former Terra d'Otranto.

The present contribution aims to investigate, through the analysis of the institute's Class Registers, how within the State school the continuation of the Second World War promoted and spread images and concepts that could be defined as a true 'pedagogy of war' and how, following the cessation of hostilities, the school was a vehicle for a new education for peace. The pedagogical reflection will move from the differences, which emerged from the chronicles and teachers' observations, between the state of war and the rediscovered peace, and from the need to restore a renewed critical spirit and an openness to dialogue and diversity to the school, steeped in the policies of fascisation