Pedagogy Festival "Educating Ourselves to Educate"

A festival dedicated to education in the heart of the Ciociaria region

The Pedagogy Festival "Educating Ourselves to Educate" is a cultural event established in 2025 in the town of Isola del Liri, in the province of Frosinone, in southern Lazio. In a short time, it has established itself as one of the most original events in the Lazio region: not a show-based festival, but a space for shared reflection dedicated to those who educate—parents, teachers, pedagogists, educators—and those who are growing, namely children, adolescents, and young adults.

The title chosen by the organizers says a lot: educating ourselves to educate. The underlying idea is that an adult cannot accompany a child's growth without first questioning themselves, their own language, and their own vulnerabilities. This gives rise to a program made of open meetings, book presentations, dialogues with experts, and moments of direct discussion with local families.

Isola del Liri, a city of water that becomes a widespread classroom

Isola del Liri is famous throughout Italy for its Cascata Grande (Great Waterfall), which plunges about thirty meters into the town center, a nearly unique case in Europe. During the festival, the city opens its iconic venues: the "Costanzo Costantini" Municipal Theater, the Mangoni Cinema Theater, and the central squares, which are transformed into open-air classrooms. It is a deliberate choice: to bring pedagogy out of universities and into the daily life of a community of just over ten thousand inhabitants.

What to expect in the program

Each edition is organized over several thematic days, with a common thread linking school, family, and new communication languages. Recurring content includes:

• Book presentations with authors and scholars of developmental psychology and pedagogy;
• Pedagogical discussions with families, led by local pedagogists, on adolescence, rules, emotions, and domestic conflicts;
• Debates on digital risks, dedicated to the relationship between the real and virtual worlds, social networks, cyberbullying, and conscious use of the web;
• School projects carried out by the Isola del Liri Comprehensive Institute, with awards for participating classes;
• Meetings with students, designed so that the young people themselves can talk about the school they experience.

The festival has hosted figures well-known to the general public, such as criminologist and forensic psychologist Roberta Bruzzone and developmental psychologist Anna Oliverio Ferraris, alongside professionals who work every day in the province's schools.

A community project

The event is promoted by the Municipality of Isola del Liri together with the local Pro Loco, with the support of Provincia Creativa and the Lazio Regional Council. The collaboration with the local comprehensive institute and local associations is what makes the festival more than just a series of conferences: it is a journey that begins months earlier in classrooms and finds its public moment during the festival days.

Why it is worth attending

Those who come to Isola del Liri for the festival will find an event with free admission, featuring national-level speakers and an intimate atmosphere, very far from the formality of academic conferences. It is a useful opportunity for families in the Ciociaria region, but also for those visiting the Liri Valley who want to combine the discovery of the waterfalls, the Boncompagni-Viscogliosi Castle, and nearby villages with a moment of cultural enrichment. The area, moreover, is well-suited for a long weekend: from Isola del Liri, one can easily reach Sora, the Abbey of Casamari, and the mountains of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise.