L' applicazione della Riforma Gentile nei primi anni del Liceo scientifico “Augusto Righi” di Bologna (1923-1929)

The application of the Gentile Reform in the first years of the “Augusto Righi” scientific high school in Bologna (1923-1929)

Abstract

As part of the set of royal decrees and circulars that reorganised the school system between 1922 and 1924, known as the Gentile Reform, a scientific lyceum was introduced at secondary school level, a true novelty born out of the suppression of previous schools and intended to prepare for access to university faculties of a scientific nature. This contribution explores the application of the regulations issued for the launch of the scientific high school, which was not planned for the entire Italian territory, but only at the request ‘from below’ of the local realities, an element that constituted one of the further forms of selection of the Reform, connected to the rationalisation of the school supply in the country. Archival and printed sources are used to outline the reasons for and the activation process of the “Augusto Righi” scientific high school in Bologna as well as the initial phase of its cultural, pedagogical and didactic organisation in terms of school culture.