ABSTRACT
In the heat of the strike the pupils worked out an idea of the school and school authority which was strongly conditioned by the conflict through which they were living. At the same time this new perception proved extremely effective, as a psychological means of identifying and also directing their new situation. Thus the oral evidence allows us to go further: through it people can reconstruct the mental processes which brought this new perception, and discover how individual contributions combine and fragment to make the myth. The stories of ‘escapes’ told by Donato, Domenico, Salvatore, Aldo, and Angela are significantly different from the true ‘escapes’ of Cenzino and Vincenzo. If their names are repeated, it is not with the aim of recalling their exploits, but to exaggerate them. The escapes were all the more important because they helped to give confidence to the strikers; they spurred on the revolt and made it seem both possible and natural.
