L’aula scolastica tra Otto e Novecento

This article focuses on the classrooms of the past. Although classrooms are immediately recognizable, and
because their signs and symbols are so familiar, it is easy to assume that they have always remained the
same. In reality, the history of schooling has witnessed many different models of teaching and use of space.
Based on an analysis of journals, government reports and teachers’ notes, this article illustrates changes in
the classroom as a space for national and civil education between the nineteenth century and early twentieth
centuries. In particular, by paying attention to the heating and lighting of the classroom, an explanation
is developed of both material changes in the classroom as well as shifts in teaching that accompanied the
creation of the modern school.