“Giuro di essere fedele al re e ai Suoi Reali successori”: il giuramento degli insegnanti elementari e medi tra legittimità e illiberalità - The oath of primary and secondary school teachers between legitimacy and illiberality

Abstract

The oath of loyalty to the fascist regime of University professors in 1931 was preceded by the obligation of oath imposed in 1924 and 1928 respectively on primary and secondary school teachers. But while the first one is in fact an oath of loyalty to the fascist state, the other two can be regarded as “office legal acts” taken to the Italian State, its institutions and its laws, by civil servants. In this context, the problem arises of the attitude of anti-fascist teachers in primary and secondary schools to the oath imposed on them (an oath that may be illiberal but fundamentally lawful), compared with the choices of University professors who refused to swear, facing all the consequences on their careers and lives.