including a fight in which he injured an older classmate with a knife, resulting in his demotion from the fourth to the second class. In Faenza, Benito experienced an unhappy period marked by strict corporal punishment from the Salesian friars and frustration over his family's modest social and economic condition.

With his mother's assistance, Mussolini continued his studies at the secular Royal Carducci Male Teacher Training School in Forlimpopoli,