The object of the paper is to describe the history of ANIMI (Associazione Nazionale per gli Interessi del Mezzogiorno d’Italia), an original italian associative experience in the field of teaching education and the struggle against the illiteracy in Italy through the first XX century. ANIMI was born as a service made on a volunteer basis during Messina (Sicily) earthquake in 1908. In 1921 obtained from the ministry the task of work for disseminated primary school in different regional areas of southern Italy, like Basilicata, Calabria, Sicilia and Sardinia, in particular directing action to the dissemination of the culture and the increase in educational works. In addition to opening kindergartens, school libraries and popular, evening, festive, daily schools, supply of teaching materials and tools, significant attention was paid by ANIMI to the choice and care, pedagogical, educative preparation of male and female teachers. The educational and cultural was deployed on several levels: through the organization of educational conferences; culture courses for rural teachers (including those in education and child hygiene education); permanent educational exhibitions at the regional offices; an intense editorial publication (Connection sheets for teachers; Rules and instructions; Teaching programs). Among the key factors in the proposal of new teaching methods, include the specificity attributed to new schools and the evaluation of the environmental and cultural living conditions of the southern part of Italy. In this work of “differentiation teaching” that is given to the places, the central figures of rural male and female teachers, as well as to an appropriate manuals for schools, lies much of the effectiveness of education and teaching, promoted by local delegates.