La selezione scolastica della Riforma Gentile: nascita e diffusione di un concetto

The selectivity of studies has been of the most important legacies of the Gentile Reform and it took its roots from a debate originated from the very first years of the Twentieth century. That debate has been triggered by increase in pupils’ enrolment in post-elementary schools between 1896 and 1913. This unanimity of opinions allowed Gentile to claim the closeness of his reform to the cultural debate originated before the First World War. The paper aims at analysing how Gentile Reform elaborated that debate and how it exerts its influence on the following decades.