Mario Lodi, the teacher who learned from children

“I learn many things from you every day!”. In these words addressed to his students lies all Mario Lodi, teacher and writer for children who made a great contribution to the renewal of the Italian school in the twentieth century.

Born a hundred years ago, on February 17, 1922, Lodi in the classrooms where he worked for decades and in his books laid the foundations for a real cultural revolution. In fact, he always placed at the center of his attention as an educator and writer an interlocutor who had remained in the shadows for a long time: the child. He saw in the youngest not simple "containers" in which to transfer notions, knowledge, rules and precepts but individuals with whom to relate and deal with. Individuals to take care of, but after having recognized their dignity, intelligence, diversity and rights.

A real Copernican revolution in the educational and pedagogical field, celebrated in this 2022 with a series of events organized by the Organizing Committee for the Centenary Celebrations, a committee which includes intellectuals, families from Lodi and the Board of Directors of the Casa delle Arti e del Gioco - Mario Lodi, an association he founded in 1989.

As part of the celebrations for the centenary, the publishing house Einaudi Ragazzi has decided to propose for the first time in the bookstore the theatrical version of two literary classics by Mario Lodi, “Cipì” and “Bandiera”. Thus was born the volume "Cipì e Bandiera in scena" (2021, pp. 96) in which two of the most beautiful stories of Lodi were, as happens in the most classic of fairy tales, unearthed in a drawer by Cosetta, the writer's daughter . And they were then dusted off and refurbished by a man of the theater like Giorgio Scaramuzzino.

For the few who do not know Cipì and Bandiera are stories that have excited generations of readers. Cipì tells the story of a sparrow that already in its first days of life appears strong and courageous, capable of facing adventures and dangerous encounters, up to saving an entire tribe of birds from a cruel and ruthless predator.

Bandiera is a very sweet story that tells the vicissitudes of a courageous leaf, precisely Bandiera, which resists with all its strength and courage the bad weather and the wind that try to tear it from the highest branch of a large cherry tree.

In short, two stories that are both light and profound at the same time, which address the theme of growth in a symbolic and metaphorical way. Two tales capable of encouraging curiosity and courage, fundamental elements to accompany children on the journey of life.

The theatrical version proposed with the adaptation by Giorgio Scaramuzzino is not limited to dusting off the characters we loved reading the stories of Mario Lodi. Rather, it aims to revive them on the tables of a stage or in a classroom. As Scaramuzzino himself writes at the opening of Cipì and Bandiera on stage: “If you want to play with these stories, do it with great freedom. We are sure that Mario Lodi would be happy to see you play by changing, replacing, cutting and mending. So consider the script as a pretext, a basis for your theatrical work. You are allowed to subvert the order of scenes, invent new characters or eliminate others, change lines and write new songs. Do it according to the number of actors available, the skills and talents of each. Without fear of making a mistake, but with the joy of playing one of the most beautiful games in the world: the game of the Theater ".

A game that sees children as absolute protagonists, in the best tradition of Mario Lodi.