Poor but rich. Father Lorenzo Milani’s experience and the current debate on educational poverty

Abstract

Attention to the theme of educational poverty has grown in Italy over the last few years, mainly thanks to the advocacy of Save the Children and to the establishment of the Child Educational Poverty Fund, put in place for the first time by the Italian Government in the 2016 stability law. But what is educational poverty? Can it be considered a recent concept or have we already seen some signs of it in the history of ped-agogy, even if such syntagma were not used? Taking these questions as a starting point, this article explores the thoughts and work of Father Lorenzo Milani. We can find intuitions that precede the construction of educational poverty and ideas which are able to withstand the passing of time and still today offer valid tools for its prevention.