dthe right to study, school as a social elevator and, above all, the recognition of the great value of education. Starting from the relevance of the message of Don Milani and the Barbiana school, Alex Corlazzoli, teacher, wrote a Letter to a teacher of the new millennium (BUR) together with eight students. A book that looks ahead but also wants to keep the memory. Not surprisingly, it comes out on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of don Milani.
“I believe that the letter to a professor from Don Milani was little read and little applied by those who teach”, says Corlazzoli. «Today, new graduates in education sciences know neither Don Milani, nor Mario Lodi, nor Gianni Rodari. They stop at Maria Montessori. Instead, the prior of Barbiana is still very current».
To rediscover it, and carry on its requests, Corlazzoli, who is a member of Don Milani Foundation, worked throughout last winter involving eight students (the same number as those who collaborated for the first Letter) between 16 and 18 years of age, from different social and family backgrounds. «We made long distance connections, for hours, in the evenings, at least twice a week. The compass was always don Milani and the message always addressed to a professor who, instead of listening, rejects. «The boys are wonderful but they have no space to express themselves. Some of them never talked about the war in Ukraine in school. This book wanted to give them a voice.
Alex Corlazzoli: «Today don Milani would use the internet»
“The theme of inclusion at the time concerned the children of farmers, for whom education was the greatest opportunity for redemption,” says Corlazzoli. «Today the problem of the school is the kids it loses. Once, those who didn’t go to school worked in the fields, today we don’t know: some close themselves at home, others go to the bar, do not work and do not study. And no one takes care of taking them back. Today’s problem is “absolute cultural poverty, the fact that parents don’t even care whether their children go to university or not”.
Some topics are new: orientation (although always to do with the sense of study), the Hikikomori, the Invalsi, the environment. Others have never changed: newspapers weren’t read at school in the 1960s, much less read today. “As far as technology is concerned, I am convinced that today don Milani would use the internet and educate his students to use the net in the best wayis the master’s opinion. “He had a gramophone, he had the boys develop the photographs, he used the astrolabe. He was an innovator in this too ».
The cover of the book by Alex Corlazzoli.
Evaluation at the center
Another theme was very important then and still is: evaluation. According to Don Milani, the school had to go ahead at the rhythm of the bottom of the class, and it would have been the comrades who helped those who remained behind and spurred them on, creating a virtuous behavior of solidarity. The education peer to peer ante litteram.
This is discussed in the last chapter of the book, dedicated to the “reforms we would like to make education useful for life”. Among these proposals is the abolition of votes, because “we dream of a school that doesn’t evaluate us but values us, that doesn’t judge us but loves us”. Also, students would like the introduction of sex education, law time and current affairs. And the reform of cycles, because choosing the secondary school at 13 is a leap in the dark, and sometimes it’s difficult to remedy a mistake in orientation.
The goal is always the same: rekindle the passion for studying, motivate students. And this concerns all adults, teachers and parents. They should be motivated first.
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