Front-12
The story of Chelo and his family is true, though I have not told the half of
it-It is typical, in some ways, of most poor families. Persons in several parts
of the world who are poor or know the poor, on reading Chelo’s story have
commented, “It could have been written here!”
I have told you Chelo’s story so that you might understand the events that
have moved us to include in this book ideas and methods that might be called
‘political’.
What I have tried to say here has been said even better by a group of
peasant school boys from Barbiana, Italy. These boys were flunked out of
public school and were helped, by a remarkable priest, to learn how to teach
each other.*
The Italian peasant boys write:
Whoever is fond of the comfortable and the fortunate stays out of
politics. He does not want anything to change.
But these school boys also realize that:
To get to know the children of the poor and to love
politics are one and the same thing. You cannot
love human beings who were marked by unjust
laws and not work for other laws.
*Letter to a Teacher, by the school boys o1 Barbiana. For more ideas of these school boys, see p. 16-16.