No dialects in the Italian school system, please

Bogged down in a thick forest of dialects

Most of them lowly and not without defects

Italian being the privilege of the few

The Tuscans the learned and the affluent

This country from a linguistic point of view

Was for ages in a real predicament

But now that standard Italian is the rule

One of the blessings that hard-won unity

Bestowed on the citizens of Italy

An educator would indeed be a fool

To plant the dialect forest in the school

Lamberto Bozzi