Young Italy Flashcards
What would children have to recite before a school day?
‘In the name of God and Italy I swear to carry out the orders of M and to serve will all my strength and if necessary, my blood, the cause of the PNF’ (recited before school)
List the characteristics that M wanted?
‘Fascist man’
Military toughness, discipline
Nationalistic, national hierachy, we are better than them, vitriolic – everyone is out to get us but we are better
Obedience and loyalty to the regime
Gratitude to the state, patriotism, devotion to the cause. Overly simplistic and fascistic version of history. Focused on the history, successes and challenges of fascism
Racist, racial hierarchy
Prepared for war
Going to school in military regalia
Starace said that the ideal young fascist tempers all enthusiasm with iron discipline, despises fear, loves the hard life, and serves the cause of fascism with faith, happiness and passion
What were the motivations behind M concentrating on the youth?
M’s dream of millions of aggressive, athletic, disciplined fascists spreading Italian power overseas led to his interest in education and the youth
M was aware that a loyal youth could help preserve the regime both in the present and the future
What was given to all students to centralise education?
Gave one standardised textbook to all students
What did M need to ensure that schools did to increase his influence on the youth?
Promoted fascism
Give a quote from M that shows what he thought schools should focus on?
‘There is no need to swamp the children’s minds with past and present learning. What is really necessary is that the schools should develop the character of Italians’
Give a quote from M where he talks about how schools must promote fascism
‘The whole school must educate the youth to understand fascism, to renew themselves in fascism, and to live with the historic atmosphere created by the Fascist Revolution
What did the school reforms of 1923 demonstrate?
The 1923 school reforms designed by the philosopher Giovani Gentile reflected the dependence M had on conservative support to prop up his coalition government at the time
What were these 1923 reforms?
The reforms focused on more rigorous examinations in the most prominent secondary schools attended by only a minority of the better-off Italian children
How did these 1923 reforms upset the radical fascists?
Radical fascists were dismayed as it took M a further two years to come up with a distinctly fascist education policy
List the things the regime did to compel teacher loyalty?
teachers of all suspect political views could be dismissed from 1925 and from 1929 all had to take an oath of loyalty to the regime. In 1931, a Fascist Teachers Assoication was set up to regulate the profession, and membership was compulsory in 1937
How was the cult of personality promoted in schools?
Teachers were ordered to stress M’s genius and were provided with sycophantic biographies to use. M’s portrait had to be hung up alongside the King.
How was absolute faith in the regime encouraged?
The Italian youth was expected to have absolute, unquestioning faith – with a compulsory textbook for 8 year olds stating that three main duties for fascist children were obedience, obedience and obedience
What did teachers say about M?
Teachers taught that M had apparently been sent by providence (God) to restore Italian greatness and that students must take pride in the Italian nation
How did fascists begin changing the books available in schools?
Insufficiently patriotic books were banned. This amounted to 101 out of the 317 history texts in schools in 1926. By 1936, a single official text was compulsory. These fascist accounts rewrote history, saying that it was Italian intervention in WWI that had saved the allies from defeat. These texts stressed that under M Italy would be restored to her rightful place
What were young people meant to identify themselves with?
Young people were to identify themselves with Italy, M and fascism, with three being seen as inseparable
What did young people have to do to rebuild Italy?
Work collectively
Give a quote from M where he talks about the similarities between the Italian and Russian education systems?
‘Here in Italy we educate them in accordance with the ideal of the nation, whereas in Russia children are brought up within the ideals of a class, The ultimate aim is still identical. Both in Italy and Russia the individual is subordinate to the state’
Who did M appoint as education minister?
M appointed the renowned intellectual Gentile as Education Minister, partly to reassure the elite
What kind of schools did Gentile favour as education minister?
As Education Minister, Gentile focused on grammar schools, which concentrated on Latin, philosophy and the humanities. If was the type of school favoured by the middle classes as it could lead to a professional career
How can Gentile be seen as elitist in the way that he viewed schools?
Gentile was not interested in technical and vocational schools and was interested in ‘fewer but better’ schools, content to see the weaker ones collapse.
What did Gentile set up to centralise the education system?
He set up a standardised system of examinations that applied to both private and state schools
What issue did Gentile largely ignore?
He largely ignored the illiteracy rate, which stood at around 30% in 1921
How did the fascists increase their intervention in education in the 1930s?
In the 1930s, the government increasingly laid down what was to be taught, especially in private schools. Hence the standardised textbook, the Libro Unico, was introduced for each school year. M said that this was in order to mould in children ‘a real awareness of their duties as fascist citizens’
What was the culmination of fascist education policy?
These changes culminated in Bottai’s 1939 school charter
What were Bottai’s goals as education minister?
Bottai wanted to establish an organic union of party and school with fascist teaching in fascist schools to create the fascist man. He wanted to break down class barriers in education and focus on science and technology. Special schools would be created for the children of peasants to incorporate the urban population, and manual work became part of the cirriculum at all levels
List the failures of the fascist interference in education
No major changes to the structure of schools were made in the 1920s
Attendence in schools dropped by 100,000 during the first four years of the regime
Gentile’s approach angered many fascists and his system was dismantled after he was removed from his post in 1924
It took until the 1930s for a serious attempt at fascistising the education system to take place
Bottai’s radical ideas alarmed many conservative members of the middle classes. His experiment was also disrupted by the outbreak of WWII
Government control over what occurred in educational institutions declined the higher up you went. For instance, in universities, it was more a case of adding courses, like in military training and fascist culture, and taking opportunities to highlight Italian and fascist achievements, rather than a wholesale reorganisation of the curriculum
The same trend can be seen with control over teachers. Control was more extensive over elementary teachers, as they were younger and easier to replace. Despite the fact that all teachers were required to take a loyalty oath from 1929, secondary and university teachers were not committed fascists. The mass acceptance of the oath of loyalty actually prevented the purge that was necessary for the regime to achieve its aims
The limited extent facsism was able to control higher education seems strange for a movement claiming to be totalitarian
List the motivations behind the fascist youth movement?
The regime was not just concerned with happened at school – they also wanted to control young people’s leisure time
Fascist propagandist Mario Missiroli talked about the aims, organisations and activities of the ONB: Said that the objective was the physical and moral education of the youth of the country carried out by continuous activity inside and outside of the schools intended to transform the Italian nation ‘body and soul’. The ONB performs its functions through the Balilla (boys from 8-14) and the Avanguardisti (boys 14-18) institutions. As for girls, the Piccole Italiane corresponds to the Balilla and the Giovani Italiance to the Avanguardisti
The Littoriali Games were designed to increase support from university students in order to create a new fascist elite
What was set up to organise the youth movements in 1926?
ONB
How was ONB membership extended in the 1930s?
By the 1930s, membership had become compulsory in state schools for all children 8 and above
What did ONB activities focus on?
ONB activities focused largely on military training and fascist ideology, but also included sport and fitness training
What kind of things did the ONB put on offer?
Regular parades and annual summer camps
What kind of activities did the ONB offer to girls?
Girls were also given some sport and ideological training, but activities such as sewing, singing and childcare indicated the traditional role fascism expected women to fulfil
What was the youth organisation at uni level called?
The GUF
What did the GUF do?
promoted fascist ideas, and further sporting and military training
What was the Littoriali Games?
A popular development was the Littoriali Games, which enabled uni students to compete against each other, initially in sports, but then from 1934, in cultural activities such as music and art
How did the amount of activities youth groups offered increase over time?
Youth groups set up a range of activities, on Saturdays and the evenings, which increasingly cut across school provision
What happened to the ONB in 1929?
It was overtaken by the education ministry
What did the regime begin to intensify in the 1930s?
Indoctrination
What happened to the ONB in 1937?
In 1937 the ONB was incorporated into a new party organisation, GIL. The law establishing this proclaimed it was the ‘unitary and totalitarian organisation of the youth of the regime, instituted in the very heart of the party’
How many ONB members were there by 1937?
7 million
Give an example of a youth activity that proved popular
The Littoriali Games
How can the youth organisations be seen as more successful than the schools?
More successful than the schools in inculcating fascist views into the youth
List some of the successes of the youth groups
7 million ONB members by 1937
Littoriali Games proved popular
More successful than the schools in inculcating fascist views into the youth
Youth groups clearly did help stregthen the regime, regardless of whether the youth were more interested in the facilities than the propaganda message
After much tension, the regime gained the dissolution of the Catholic Boy Scouts in 1928, and restrictions of Catholic Action Youth Groups
List the failures of the youth organisations
Young people were probably more attracted to them due to the facilities they provided rather than the message
Party Secretary Starace criticised the decision to transfer control of the ONB to the Education Ministry, criticising ,the influence of the lazy, bureaucratic education officials and teachers unsuited to fascism leading exercises that lacked true fascist spirit
The regime faced potential rival youth organisations run by the Church
How many history texts had been banned by 1926?
In 1926, 101 of 317 history texts were banned
What type of public employees could be dismissed by 1925?
In 1925, public employees with views ‘incompatible with the general political aims of the government’ could be dismissed
What did teachers have to do from 1934?
Teachers had to wear fascist uniform to work from 1934. Not many teachers refused because they were told it was just a formality
What did teachers do from 1929?
Teachers had to take an oath of loyalty from 1929. Teachers who were hesitant were urged to do so anyway since it was an unimportant formality
What was done to centralise teachers’ associations?
All teachers associations merged into a Fascist Association. Membership was made compulsory in 1937. It organised intodoctrination courses that teachers had to take if they wanted to be promoted
What did all teachers have to be from 1933?
Party members
What type of teachers were dismissed from 1938?
Jews
Evaluate the extent to which the regime controlled teachers
Appeared to control teachers but didn’t robustly
If they gave the appearance of support, they could stay and get promotions. Fascists couldn’t realistically expect to replace all teachers
What did the fascist do to the curriculum to gain the support of the church?
RE was prioritised; it was made compulsory in elementary schools in 1923 and secondary schools in 1929
What type of education was introduced from 1935?
Military education in fascist schools from 1935, covering history, weapons and tactics
What type of education was introduced from 1936?
Lessons in fascist culture introduced in secondary schools in 1936
What began to be taught in schools from 1938?
Anti-semitism
Describe Gentile’s ideas and why they were so bad?
Gentile is the fascist minister for education and had a large amount of say on the cirriculum. He was biased towards the most able. Promoted single sex schools. Grammar school idea. Three tiers of school, including ‘superior’ schools to praise the talented and gifted. He standardised exams. He did not prioritise the education of lower ability kids – doesn’t care about technical and vocational skills. Annoys fascists for being an intellectual snob and creating division, attendance drops by 100,000. Ignores the 60% illiteracy rate. Wasn’t trying to create a ‘fascist man’. Designed by an academic who didn’t care about fascism and created a two tier system. Replaced by Bottai with his fascist plan, but this was quickly interrupted by WWII
What kind of students were dismissed from 1938?
Jews
What happened to textbooks?
Textbooks had to conform to the fascist view and this meant that many were either re-written or banned
Describe the patriotic spin put on the curriculum
Much teaching concentrated on Italian history and literature to imbue students with a fascist sense of culture and the past
What were children taught about Italy?
Children were taught that Italy was ‘the true cradle of European civilisation’ and exaggerated claims were made about Italian achievements
What did history teaching largely focus on?
History teaching largely focused on the greatness of the Roman Empire, the Italian Renaissance, the Risorgimento and M and the fascist rise to power
What happened to history textbooks?
History textbooks that lacked adequate patriotic content were considered unsuitable and replaced with books that had less concern for the truth. For instance history textbooks claimed that it was Italian involvement that had won WWI and that it was Italy who had won the Battle of Vittorio Veneto
Why did schools place such a great emphasis on physical fitness and outdoor activity?
Schools placed great emphasis on physical fitness and outdoor activities to keep girls healthy for child-bearing and to make sure boys were ready to be soldiers
What returned to schools to appease the church?
Religious instruction and the crucifix returned to the classroom so that M could appease the Catholic Church
What was the thinking behind targeting young people?
Young people were targeted in the hopes that this would create a generation of fascists
What did the Ministry of Popular Culture ban?
The Ministry of Popular Culture banned all books considered ‘unsuitable to the Fascist spirit’
What was the name of the nursery that was set up and why was it set up?
Scula Materna, get them while they were young and impressionable
What was the consequence of Gentile’s elitist policies?
Gentile’s elitist policies meant that attendance dropped by 100,000 between 1922-6
Why was Bottai’s time as education minister inconsequential?
Bottai’s ideas about using schools to impose fascist values was cut short by the war
What were students given to promote the cult of personality?
All students were given a textbook with M on the cover and a free copy of ‘The Life of M’ by Pini
What did school days begin with?
Prayer
How often were prayers said in school?
Twice per day
Who were songs sung about?
M
What did wall posters illustrate?
Wall posters illustrated fascist achievements and attitudes
What did teachers do to promote the cult of personality?
Teachers emphasised M’s genius and superman qualities and each day began and end with chanting of slogans like ‘M is always right’
What did professors have to do from 1931-2?
Take an oath of loyalty. Only 11 out of 1250 refused. However, the others took the oath with their fingers crossed. Just did it to keep their job rather than out of genuine commitment
Why was it unlikely that professors would refuse to take the oath of allegiance?
If professors have been involved in public work for that long, they can’t dislike the regime that much
What did professors have to be from 1933?
Party members
On what condition were unis left alone?
Universities were generally left alone if they did not become involved in hostile political activity
Why were uni students already likely to be indoctrinated by the 1930s anyway?
Many teenage students were likely to be indoctrinated anyway by the 1930s as they had been indoctrinated in earlier school. Students had already been in school for 12 years under the regime. If it didn’t have an impact by the mid-1930s the propaganda has failed
Why was a light touch taken on unis?
Fascist university movement (GUF). Knew that people bright enough to be at uni would be hard to indoctrinate. Offered incentives like sports, career prospects and exemption from military service
Why could the regime not be too assertive with professors?
A lot of professors were leaving so there was a shortage
What happened to centralise school courses?
Official course plans were produced
What was banned from schools to promote the Italian language?
All dialects
What were Bottai’s ideas upon becoming education minister?
In 1939, Bottai put forward a fascist school charter designed to replace the old system, which he considered to be too bourgeious, with one more responsive to the needs of less-academic pupils. He wanted to promote ‘the eternal value of the Italian race and its civilisation’
What were the two functions of schools according to Bottai?
‘To provide cultural and professional orientation so that men capable of facing the problems of scientific research and production may be trained according to reason and needs’
‘Strengthen young people on the path of traditional religion and Italian destiny’
What ages was the Scula Materna for?
Scula Materna for nursery ages (4-6)
What three classes did Gentile separate schools out into?
Gentile classified schools as elementary, intermediate and superior
Why was it counterproductive for Gentile to ignore the lower classes?
Because they would have actually been the easiest to indoctrinate
Evaluate how well the regime created the fascist man
Talked tough but undermined their own plan
Big ideas but didn’t actually enforce the ideas on teachers
Just got people to do lip service and do the are minimum
The regime wasn’t actually that committed itself
What do the terms ONB and Ballila refer to?
The ONB/Balilla was the general name for all the youth groups covering 6-18. It was run by the party until 1929, and then by the Education Ministry. Membership was made compulsory in 1935
Which organisation covered girls and boys 6-8?
Children of the She Wolf
Which group covered boys 8-14?
Ballila
Which group covered boys 14-18?
Avanguardisti
What was the name for the group covering girls 8-12?
Piccole Italiane
Which group covered girls 13-18?
Giovani Italiane
What was the group covering 18-21 year olds not at uni?
The Fascio Giovanile del Littorio
Which group covered uni students 18-21?
GUF was for 18-21 uni students. It was PNF run
What was the ONB replaced by?
GIL was set up in 1937 for all youth. It replaced the ONB and covered all groups, it was under party control
List the male activities offered by the ONB
Sport, including skiing, riding and fitness training; particular importance was given to military drills
Propaganda rules, especially nationalist indoctrination
Parades
Sat afternoon rallies from 3.30-6 pm
Local and national competitions
Summer camps, attended by an estimated 700,000 for two weeks
Week long Campo Dux in Rome with tens of thousands of participants
Why did youth organisations have less of an impact on girls?
Girls enrolled on a smaller scale
What kind of activities did girls do?
They did some of the male activities, plus rythmic exercises, watched films, gave music recitals, and did sewing, singing, handicraft, gardening childcare, hygeine, charity work, flower arranging and doll drills
Describe the GUF
GUF was a similar body catering for uni students. Most who joined did so for career or social purposes. It organised many activities, including the Littorialia in 1934-40, annual events covering art and politics to help train a new elite. There was considerable freedom for dissent
What question do we need to ask when considering whether fascism captured the hearts and minds of the young?
To answer this question, we need to look at how extensive membership of fascist youth organisations was
