“La materia Alternativa” is released for Mondadori on March 8, the author’s debut inspired by her experience as a precarious teacher. A novel that you know as a diary
It’s not as elusive as antimatter, but it’s a little like it. And not surprisingly, in this novel, she is taught by a woman who also practices it in private, particularly in love, traveling unconventional routes to happiness or, at least, towards anti-sadness.
In the school of an unidentified suburb, in any Italian city, the protagonist draws on the diary of the author, Laura Marzi, holder of a doctorate in Gender Studies (obtained at the Paris 8 University) and, for a few years, teacher precarious of alternative matter. Here she is, the anti-chair, which materializes in the canteen of a professional institute, frequented by children of immigrants, far from the comforts of the schools of the historic center. Because the alternative subject is not only the option proposed by the Ptof, the three-year plan of educational offer (wanted by the “Buona Scuola” seven years ago), to students who, for different reasons, do not intend to follow the Catholic religion class. It is not just an effective internship against racism. It is also a kind of underground space outside the classic classrooms.
And since the alternative Matter, in addition to not having the right to a more detailed name, such as Mathematics or Geography, it requires no textbooks or homework neither questions nor final grades occupies that hole hour in which adult students (or those authorized by their parents) can leave school, and minors are left to deal with an imaginative teacher with quick reflexes in the face of unexpected events.
It also has the merit of a manual, the first book by Laura Marzi, out for Mondadori, which is called precisely the alternative matter (from Tuesday 8 March). A compelling answer to the doubt: what are we talking about when we talk about alternatives? “Let’s talk about human rights, about climate – exemplifies the writer -. I taught in a middle school, to fourteen and fifteen year olds sometimes repeating, mostly foreigners, Chinese, Bengali or Arabs. And I often had more students than my colleague at the time of religion. My PhD in Gender Studies has been of great help to me. I had the tools to talk about sexism and classism. Of course, those who teach alternative subject must also know how to improvise. But, in my opinion, he must above all know how to listen to boys. Mine will also be anti-matter, it is true, however it gives great freedom ».
To everyone. Also to Joel, who takes the liberty of explaining to the novel’s protagonist why she, when she grows up, wants to be a criminal. A perfect starting point to develop an exciting episode of Try it again, prof!, with Veronica Pivetti. «No – corrects the author -. My teacher never enters the life of her students. His duty is to try to educate Joel. And she never assumes maternal attitudes ».
Then he must listen to him, apparently impassive, while the boy enumerates his good reasons for becoming a delinquent: «First of all, because you make a lot of money, after which you have, let’s say, places where you can go quietly, that is, you command. Then nothing, you have the car, the luxury, drink. When someone wants to get in your way, you take off a finger, you don’t kill, you let others do that, maybe you cut off a hand “.
The professor of alternative subject is careful not to show horror or scandal. He ponders, asks a few more, calm questions to make sure the teenager is serious, understands his anger, and then: “I draw two arrows in my notebook, one with the word ‘criminal’ on it and the other with the word ‘ warrior”. The first leads to prison, the second to pride. I show them to him, I explain the difference between venting anger on others, on the weakest, with weapons, with threats, and instead reworking it for oneself ». It may not even be enough.
He may have to mediate, at Ramadan time, between boys of different religions in 1st A: «I enter the classroom and find Rahman yelling at his classmates not to exchange recipes. “What happens?” I ask him. “Ramadan has started today and they are all talking about things to eat, it’s not fair, doing Ramadan is difficult, but they don’t understand it“. I try to explain to the class, even to the pupils who are waiting for the religious colleague, that fasting is a demanding experience and that it is a ritual that is part of many religions, only that Islam preserves it as one of its five pillars ». She compares it to Lent and collects the glare of the holder of the chair of religion that comes at that moment and does not appreciate the invasion of the field of the “heretics”: please, the mess hall is over there.
The Alternate Subject teacher must also always be up to date. For example on the news of trap music. To be able to play on the pitch of his students. To challenge them on the lyrics of the songs they listen obsessively without asking too much about the meaning of the words. And then, of course, there is the minefield of sex: “Topics become taboo if they are for teachers,” warns the novelist. There aren’t many in the life of her protagonist. She laughs: “She has something of me, but it’s not me. I am more moderate ». Alternative, yes, but with judgment.
March 5, 2022 (change March 5, 2022 | 15:39)
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