This room houses a selection of the works – videos, podcasts, graphics and texts – that middle school and secondary school children have produced in recent years by participating in the national “Matteotti for Schools” competition.

The contest was established in 2014, on the occasion of the celebrations of the 90th anniversary of Matteotti’s death, by agreement between the Fondazione Giacomo Matteotti, the Fondazione di Studi Storici Filippo Turati and the “Direzione Generale per lo Studente, l’inclusione, l’orientamento e il contrasto alla dispersione scolastica” of Ministry of Education and Merit, to crown the historic commitment made by our institutions to Matteotti’s memory and to educating young people in the values of freedom and active citizenship.

Over the years, an increasing number of students and schools are involved in our training activities and participate in the competition with excellent textual, graphic and multimedia works that are increasingly effective and creative, testifying to the ability of the children to decline Matteotti’s moral and civic lesson of today’s language with ever-evolving expressive techniques.

Young people, their teachers and schools were also protagonists of the official commemoration of Giacomo Matteotti held in the Chamber of Deputies on May 30, 2024 on the 100th anniversary of the famous speech that cost him his life. A selection of the winning students from the 2023-2024 edition of the competition attended the ceremony in the Chamber and were honored in the presence of the Head of State of the highest republican institutions.

But beyond the awards, the desire to participate and to tell the story of Giacomo’s human and ideal adventure grows year by year in the children. The wide appreciation that continues to come from the school world encourages us and consolidates us in the values of democracy and participation. Through the experience of the contest and numerous innovative and participatory teaching experiences have been initiated in schools across Italy.

We are comforted by the thought that Matteotti’s passionate, generous interest in schools and young people is widely reciprocated by young people today. This commitment reinforces the conviction that young people and schools constitute an extraordinary civic laboratory: an immense reservoir of creativity and enthusiasm that asks only to be recognized in its value and stimulated, supported, encouraged.

Rome, May 30, 2024, Palazzo di Montecitorio, Chamber of Deputies Hall.
The students of the I B of the “Maria Gaetana Agnesi” secondary school in Casatenovo (Lecco),
winners of the first prize of the multimedia category with the film “Lesson of Freedom”