BLACK BOARDS
twelve o’clock, March 13, 2021 – 21:39
Bulgarians and Romanians, Italians, Moroccans and Tunisians. Muslims, Catholics and Buddhists. Together in the classroom. Here integration takes place in the literal sense of the word
of Giancarlo Visitilli
Clike the school of Barbiana and Lorenzo Milani, who went a long way to reach it. Thus the headmaster Sergio Russo, of the comprehensive Alfieri Garibaldi institute in Foggia, with a branch in Borgo Mezzanone, every morning makes the journey from Naples to Foggia, to reach the main office of his school. Borgo Mezzanone not only ghetto. Because the school that is here is a reality unto itself, compared to any other. Here the active pedagogy takes place, a laboratory of humanity. Among the approximately 780 residents, the school has a population of an extended family: 48 primary school children, mostly permanent, born in Italy. Then the foreign children, who arrived to rejoin their parents. 30 middle school teenagers. Classes of 10, 12 students. Bulgarians and Romanians, Italians, Moroccans and Tunisians. Muslims, Catholics and Buddhists. Together at school. Here integration takes place. The experience of doing school every day as if it were the last – says one of the historical teachers, Dina Diurno – because it happens that children go away, they stay only for a short time. It’s nice when I see them grow up, because Diurno teaches in every kind of school in Borgo. Here we experience what is not news – says the principal – learn from those who are foreigners. Three Bulgarian children have recently arrived. The parents had been in Italy for four years. The attention and care for their children is enviable. They are very attentive: the positive thing is that schools in Bulgaria have a high level of education and preparation. We found that they had been doing distance learning in Bulgaria for years.
The afternoon initiatives
The Borgo school is the one where the birthdays of less fortunate pupils are celebrated, who have working parents in the countryside, so they often have no way to be with them or forget about birthdays: they wake up at five and come back in the evening. Various afternoon initiatives are organized at school to allow parents who work in the countryside to leave their children at the canteen and after school. But school is not enough – explains the teacher – The presence of the Municipality of Foggia is missing: Italian families should be followed more. Often they also come to school to ask for what is needed and we organize collections to help. Here there is no other place for social gathering. During the Covid emergency it was tragic: the parents completely entrusted themselves to us. It was a huge job. Emiliano’s requests on Saturdays and Sundays and on Mondays you had to be ready at school. What does the president Emiliano know that here not only is the network missing, with a bad signal that punishes primary school children ?.
The gloss of the teacher
Professor Basciani, on the other hand, is excited to tell the difficulties: I started schooling in the garages of the yellow, popular houses, and now seeing what this school has become helps me to say that being in this place makes me a better woman and teacher. .
March 13, 2021 | 21:39
© Time.News
