Il Preside Vito Mercadante. Un pioniere dell’educazione alla legalità nella scuola siciliana del secondo Novecento

Abstract

Vito Mercadante was headmaster at two mafia-dense schools: Montelepre and Palermo. A man of multifaceted interests, he was first and foremost an educator, a promoter of many initiatives aimed at building an anti-Mafia culture in Palermo's schools. He understood that in order to achieve genuine democracy in Sicily, it was necessary to study the mafia phenomenon from its origins and counter the ‘disvalues’ of the mafia subculture with targeted educational practices. The author of many letters published in newspapers, books of fiction and essays on the mafia, his commitment was constantly directed towards the school as a laboratory of education to legality where to transform the living conditions of the humble and create a more just society.