The school in the children’s literature of yesterday and today

Abstract

Children’s literature has always featured school classrooms with stories, novels and poems full of references to the world of school. The classroom, in fact, represents an important moment in everyone’s experience and development because it is at school that girls and boys begin to grow outside of the family context, building relationships with their peers and adults other than their parents. Using examples from stories from yesterday and today, we try to highlight how the protagonists of these stories are able to offer an oftenirreverent look at this educational institution, capturing and revealing its failures and drifts.