Lorenzo Milani

[2] In June 1943, after a period of study at the Brera Academy, Milani converted from agnosticism to Catholicism, perhaps after a chance conversation with Don Raffaele Bensi, who later became his spiritual director.

There he established his first school of the people (scuola popolare),[3] The fact that it served children from both believing and non-believing families scandalized conservative Catholic circles.

Working for a year with his pupils, Milani coordinated the production of Letter to a Teacher (Lettera a una professoressa), which denounced the inequalities of a class-based educational system that advantaged the children of the rich over those of the poor.

[15] In 1967, shortly after the publication of Letter to a Teacher, Milani died in his mother's house in Florence of leukemia.

[2] In 2008 Helena Dalli, an MP and member of the Malta Labour Party, summarized Milani's life and work: "Milani's ideas were considered dangerously radical and his bishop sent him into a sort of exile to a small mountain village north of Florence called Barbiana, thought too remote for him to cause problems.

The aim was to educate them to analyze events critically so as to face life without fear and to solve problems with determination and awareness.

"[16] A documentary film from RAI describes Lorenzo Milani's educational project and its impact on Italian society.