Chapter 3 Summary: Inaugural Address for the Children's Houses

The Context: San Lorenzo Quarter's Poverty

• A district born of greed and speculation - Built during the 1884-1888 building fever without regard for human welfare

"The district of San Lorenzo sprang into being between 1884 and 1888 at the time of the great building fever. No standards either social or hygienic guided these new constructions."

• The evil of subletting creates exploitation - Poor tenants become exploiters of the even poorer

"The evil of subletting the most cruel form of usury: that which only the poor know how to practise upon the poor."

• Darkness and despair characterize living conditions - Children are born into "a world of gloom"

"In speaking of the children born in these places, even the conventional expressions must be changed, for they do not 'first see the light of day'; they come into a world of gloom."

• Modern isolation of the poor is unprecedented - Unlike historical poverty, the poor are now segregated

"A new fact which was unknown to past centuries, namely, the isolation of the masses of the poor."

The Roman Association of Good Building's Reform

• Comprehensive transformation approach - Not mere charity but systematic reform for mutual benefit

"Only such an organisation, as, working for the good of others, shall itself grow and prosper through the general prosperity which it has made possible, can make a place for itself in this quarter"

• Physical improvements create moral transformation - Better housing conditions lead to better behavior

"The moral importance of this reform as it stands to-day is tremendous, for it has done away with those evil influences and low opportunities which arise from crowding and from promiscuous contact"

• Tenant responsibility system - Clean houses maintained by residents who take pride in their care

"The tenant who receives a clean house must keep it so, must respect the walls from the big general entrance to the interior of his own little apartment."

The Children's House Innovation

• Earned through building maintenance - Parents earn the right to the school by caring for their building

"The 'Children's House' is earned by the parents through the care of the building. Its expenses are met by the sum that the Association would have otherwise been forced to spend upon repairs."

• Conditions for participation - Parents must maintain standards and cooperate with education

"The mothers are obliged to send their children to the 'Children's House' clean, and to co-operate with the Directress in the educational work."

• A cultured teacher lives among the people - Not just teaching but modeling a different way of life

"Among these almost savage people, into these houses where at night no one dared go about unarmed, there has come not only to teach, but to live the very life they live, a gentlewoman of culture"

Revolutionary Educational Principles

• School within the house - Eliminates the traditional separation between home and school

"We have put the school within the house; and this is not all. We have placed it within the house as the property of the collectivity"

• Scientific pedagogy in practice - Anthropological study combined with practical education

"The physical development of the children is followed, each child being studied from the anthropological standpoint. Linguistic exercises, a systematic sense-training, and exercises which directly fit the child for the duties of practical life"

• Environmental influence acknowledged - Cannot educate children without improving their living conditions

"Scientific pedagogy will seek in vain to better the new generation if it does not succeed in influencing also the environment within which this new generation grows!"

Social Revolution Through Education

• Democratization of privileges - Working mothers get the same advantages as wealthy women

"To-day the women of the people who live in these remodeled houses, may say, like the great lady, 'I have left my son with the governess and the nurse.'"

• Communizing maternal functions - Collective care replaces individual struggle

"We are, then, communising a 'maternal function,' a feminine duty, within the house. We may see here in this practical act the solving of many of woman's problems"

• First step toward house socialization - The home transforms to compensate for working women

"The 'Children's House' marks still another triumph; it is the first step toward the socialisation of the house."

Vision for the Future

• Transformation of tenements into centers of civilization - From places of vice to educational hubs

"Thus the tendency will be to change the tenement houses, which have been places of vice and peril, into centres of education, of refinement, of comfort."

• Comprehensive community services - Imagines communal kitchens, infirmaries, clubs, and libraries

"The transformation of the house must compensate for the loss in the family of the presence of the woman who has become a social wage-earner."

• Model for broader social reform - The Children's Houses demonstrate what's possible for society

"We have in the 'Children's Houses' a demonstration of this ideal which is unique in Italy or elsewhere. Its significance is most profound, for it corresponds to a need of the times."