Chronicles about School Life between Intimate Diaries and Educational Documentation

This contribution intends to investigate the historiographical relevance on the space reserved for the chronicle about school life in school registers, where teachers had to write down news, data and facts relating to school life. Through the analysis of the chronicles by Giovanni Lucaroni, a teacher at the primary school of Mogliano, in the province of Macerata, from 1910 to 1956, we intend to demonstrate how these sources can be useful in decrypting that “black box of schooling” to which educational historiography has repeatedly referred in recent years. In fact, in these chronicles, the teacher did not punctually reported only what was prescribed by legislation, but he shared personal observations and comments about his pupils and matters relating to school.