Abstract:

The essay aims to investigate the contribution of the international outdoor school movement to the school curriculum. The need for a predominantly open-air school setting led to the search for new technological solutions that were more suitable than those of the traditional indoor school setting. Based on the existing literature on school desks in the second half of the 19th century and on open-air schools in the first half of the 20th century, several international cases of technological innovation are identified. Using commercial catalogues of school materials, unexplored archival sources, patents and photographs, the focus will be on the still little-known technological and pedagogical innovations of open-air school desks in Italy.

Keywords:
school desk; material culture of school; open air schools; school furniture