Education and Freedom in Ada Prospero Marchesini Gobetti

Abstract

Within the context of the complex debate on educational issues in post-Second World War Italy, the figure of Ada Prospero Marchesini Gobetti emerges as one of particular interest. A partisan and deputy mayor of Turin in the aftermath of the Liberation, as well as a journalist and translator, Ada developed a pedagogical vocation already during the years of the Fascist regime. From the outset, this vocation found expression in an intense commitment to civic and cultural engagement, carried out in her roles as a politician and as an attentive and self-aware educator, primarily oriented towards human emancipation and, in particular, that of women, girls, and boys. This commitment is emblematically reflected in her contributions to Educazione democratica,
the journal she co-edited with Dina Bertoni Jovine, as well as in the field of parental education, as witnessed by the founding
and editorship – maintained until her death in 1968 – of the periodical Il Giornale dei Genitori. Equally significant are her two works for children, Storia del Gallo Sebastiano (1940) – a genuine tale of freedom and a symbolic space of cultural resistance during the years of Fascist censorship – and Cinque bambini e tre mondi (1952). This article aims to examine Ada Gobetti’s contribution to reflections on the relationship between education, civic responsibility, and freedom, with particular reference to her conception of childhood and to her representation of women’s role within the
family and democratic society.