Draft:Michelangelo Semeraro

Michelangelo Semeraro (Martina Franca, 1900 – Martina Franca, 1965) was an Italian educator and historian.

Biography
Michelangelo Semeraro was born in Martina Franca in 1900. He began his career as a primary school teacher in Locorotondo (Ba) and Martina Franca (Ta). Then he published, with Antonio Vallardi Editore, two history essays: L'ultima guerra d'indipendenza italiana (1920) e La passione di Fiume esposta ai ragazzi (1927). Later, he became the creator of an experimental rural teaching method. And from his meticulous field investigation came the work Vita rurale nella Puglia delle «casedde» (1937): an ethnographic essay created with the primary aim of providing the rural teacher with an easy overview of the cultural background of the Province of Taranto countryside. Subsequently, he held the position of Director of Rural Schools in the Province of Taranto from 1938 to 1943. Finally, in 1947, thanks to the contribution of the MP Alfonso Motolese, he founded and directed the Villaggio del Fanciullo in Martina Franca: an institute with the aim of hosting as well as educating young war orphans in life and work. He died in Martina Franca in 1965.

Pedagogy
He adapted Father Flanagan's Boys Town as well as the principles of the New Education Movement to the southern Italian cultural background. In addition, he created his original Outdoor Rural School. And during his career he conducted interesting field experiments based on School of Work. Throughout his working life in Apulian countryside, he always used and experimented innovative teaching methods. He taught the Italian language to dialect-speaking rural children using textbooks half written in local dialect. And the history, essential for the education of Italians, was told with the method of Guido Fabiani's Istruir Dilettando, which consisted of telling the national exploits as a gripping and epic tale. Likewise, sciences and math were taught through Learning by Doing.