Italian education was more successful at the secondary level in the towns, where the "technical schools" and "technical institutes" taught science, engineering, and accounting and had high prestige among urban parents.
The institute teaches some 150 young people, about half orphans and street hawkers, Mr. Sarmast said.
The institute teaches 3,200 students a year from the military services in 24 languages.
The institute teaches a rigid hierarchy where God comes first, men come second, women are third and children are at the very bottom.
The workshops were an outgrowth of basic literacy classes the institute teaches to prepare union workers for career opportunities in or out of the industry, which is undergoing seismic contraction and disruptive technological change.
Mr. Gunther said he planned to seek full academic accreditation for the courses the institute teaches and especially to open up many of the programs and activities to the general public, including lectures and walking tours.
For instance, the junior docent after-school program trains teenagers how to give tours to their peers, and a summer journalism institute teaches them how to write about art.
Philip Bobbitt, whose book "Terror and Consent" is reviewed on this issue's cover, is a senior fellow at a University of Texas research institute, teaches law at Columbia and also runs Columbia's Center for National Security.
The institute teaches pianists about the Taubman Approach, a method conceived by the pianist Dorothy Taubman that centers on coordinate movements; proper alignment of fingers, forearm and hand; and forearm rotations that reduce the need to twist and stretch in awkward positions.
The institute teaches a deeply conservative strain of Islam, preaching that wives should obey their husbands.
