The Turning Point of Italian Scientific Pedagogy in The School of Maria Montessori and Giuseppina Pizzigoni

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were several women in Italy, who gave pedagogy a new impulse. Among those women, two educationalists, Maria Montessori and Giuseppina Pizzigoni introduced new visions of the school by designing strategies that overcame the barriers to education. The first, with the structuring of a method, arose in Rome and has now spread throughout the world. The second was the creation of the Pizzigoni Renewed School in Milan. The Ministry of Education validated their proposals as innovative methods for all schools. In 1911, Pizzigoni's experimental method received official approval, and, since then, teacher training courses were promoted. The enlightened spirits of these two pioneers led the Italian school towards a new deal. The search for a method was at the basis of the scientific and experimental turning point; the method also had to taken advantage of medicine and psychology, both relevant in the preparation of all teachers. This article focuses attention on the value of the scientific research conducted by Pizzigoni, less known internationally. Pizzigoni thought, built, and defined the school and the method as a unique pedagogical act. She structured the curriculum for kindergarten and decidedly wished to turn the direction of elementary studies upside down: from Idealism to Positivism, from passivity to activity, from rigidity to creativity. In her mind children must be removed from the unhealthy places of the Milan suburbs and, instead, must be educated in a school open to the world. Hence the pedagogical elaboration of the concept of objective teaching is the keyword of the experimental method.