Italian education reform? Just look outside

Educating children in the great outdoors is not new. “Forest schools,” as they’re known, first appeared in Denmark in the 1950s. But on paper, Italy — which historically has taken a conservative approach to education — didn’t appear likely to embrace the idea.

Ostia, a small coastal town close to Rome, is home to one of Italy’s first outdoor schools. The institution started with a kindergarten five years ago, and has since added a primary school and introduced classes for secondary school students.

But to say the school has “classes,” in the traditional sense, isn’t entirely accurate. Students are divided into groups based on their interests, rather than their age, and are given “reality homework,” says Paolo Mai, the school’s founder. Lessons at the school start with practical experience; not abstract concepts.

The outdoor play area of La voce del Bosco, a primary school and kindergarden in Sassetta, Italy | All photographs by Rocco Rorandelli for POLITICO

A teacher helps two girls with environmental observations at La voce de Bosco.

Though their popularity is rising, forest schools still represent only a tiny fraction of Italy’s education system.

Fabrizio Bertolino, a researcher in general pedagogy at Università della Valle d’Aosta, estimates there are about 30 schools across 12 regions of the country “where children, regardless of the weather, experience a different, more open idea of school.” At the moment, most forest schools are private, but the public school system has shown interest in their novel approach to childhood education.

Italy’s traditional public schools face their fair share of challenges: The majority of school buildings fails to meet seismic regulations and attendance is dwindling in smaller towns and villages as families move away. One example is the small public school in Sassetta, a town in the Tuscan hills.

More traditional settings surround students at the Sciascia Comprehensive Institute, in Palermo, Sicily

The gym at the former Istituto Comprensivo Sciascia (closed for 14 years now) becomes the playground for vandals.

An attempt to bring the outside in? Children at a kindergarten in Spinete, in the province of Campobasso, have been housed in “temporary” buildings since an earthquake in 2002.

In another example of closed schools in Italy, this classroom sits empty after it was damaged in a 2013 earthquake.

As the number of students tapered off, the school was at risk of being shut down. So, “we looked at what we had around us,” says Donatucci Donella, a teacher in Sassetta.

The school couldn’t make a case for a new library, or a swimming pool, to attract new students but it was already surrounded by nature so it started a one-year, experimental open-air program. Parents were initially skeptical, but have since embraced the effort. For the first time in years, the school’s enrolment is growing.

“Our grandparents used to make a living from wood products,” says Donella. “Now the forest has saved our school.”

Francesco, 10, learns how to measure distances (and convert measurements) outside of a classroom, with a string rather than a ruler.

Students look at a chestnut tree that predates them by decades during a field trip.

Back to the real world: La voce del Bosco students pile into a van after a day spent learning in the forest.

The school may have concrete slabs behind it, but one glance at the vistas just beyond shows just how accessible the forest is here.

Francesco browses books at the school’s miniature library.

“The woods in the winter”: Students collect leaves and natural objects to study the change of seasons.

At La Piccola Polis, a primary school on the coast about 25 kilometers from Rome, there are already three classes in the forest school. Starting next year, there will also be a middle school.