Giuseppe Vico, professor of social pedagogy at the Catholic University of Milan, maps out in his book The Disadvantaged: What Education? (Vita e Pensiero, 1977) a wide-ranging account of the challenges now facing schools and society regarding disadvantaged and maladjusted students.
Beyond the daily debate over integrating the disadvantaged into schools and communities, Vico finds in the real work of educators on the ground the conditions necessary for building a new educational reality—one from which words like "different" and "normal" would disappear, replaced by genuine encounters of experience and openness.
His argument pursues the fullest possible development of the disadvantaged person's personality, taking on specific problems along the way: learning, socialization, communication, play, leisure time, and vocational placement.
Rather than offering solutions—which lie beyond the scope of pedagogy and education and demand commitment from society itself, at the level of structures, resources, and ideals—Vico outlines multiple perspectives and possibilities.
The book includes a substantial bibliography on special education and related pedagogical issues.