SortEditi around the counter, each with his own sandwich in front, the students measure the area and the perimeter, then with precision they cut it into triangles and go on with the calculations. In this way, the teacher says, they manage to memorize well the Pythagoras theorem, explained to the blackboard. Placed the ruler, the moment of the filling comes; The sandwiches are ready for the snack. We are at the secondary school secondary Puecher in Milan, in a bearing area between the sparkling skyscrapers of CityLife and the suburbs. The school is part of the Renewed Comprehensive Institute Pizzigoni and also includes two primaries that follow the teaching of Giuseppina Pizzigoni, Coeva pedagogist of Maria Montessori.
We make us explain the method by Anna Ferri, who with sweetness and rigor directs a reality that includes 1200 children between 6 and 14 years old, 10 percent of which with disabilities (only at the Puecher there are 25 support teachers and 6 educators). “Giuseppina Pizzigoni, as well as Maria Montessori, spoke of active schools where you learn by doing” explains the manager. “Pizzigoni loved to say that school is the world, that you learn from everything around youfrom observation, in particular of the natural environment, and from practical experience. The primary school next to it that bears her name, and that she managed to make it built by launching a fundraiser, has large windows on the garden, the interior and the outside mix. In his method he also gave great importance to theater and art; He wanted to be an actress. “
In 2008 the Puecher was combined with the renewed and the other primary, Dante, in the same comprehensive one. The Pizzigoni method is not recognized for the secondary secondary but the contamination is there and feels. Here too It focuses on practical and laboratory learning, “which in today’s school works better than the traditional, transmission one. Learning it must not be boring, but engaging. If you are operational you learn more, better and with the others. The latter point is particularly important because today the ability to work in a team is required »continues the manager.
At the Puecher school, teaching is active
At the Puecher the walls of the workshops, a former warehouse, are decorated with the murals of the students. Photo Lorenzo Pesce
Active teaching also manages not to exclude anyone; Neither the students with fragility, nor those just arrived from afar, who do not know Italian. The Puecher, from January, have been inserted 16.
The social context is complex. 30 percent of the boys were not born in Italy, many are then those born in Italy to foreign parents. «The dads and mothers who have integrated take us very much to the educational success of the childrenwho manage to achieve important school results. But even the others, those who are still trying to integrate, understand the importance of the school and enroll their children. Sometimes it is the boys who act as interpreters with their parents ».
A network with the neighborhood
We meet the principal in the atrium. On a wall there is the photo of Giancarlo Puecher, the partisan shot in December 1943 in Erba, at 20 years old, to whom the school was named. First gold medal of the Resistance in LombardyPuecher wrote a spiritual testament “that all the boys read as a positive example, in the context of education for legality”. On the same wall there are the reproductions – made by the students – of portrait of Lea Garofalo, Killed in 2009 in the nearby Prealpi square, where the school often organizes events, “because children can get used to thinking that they are their space, not of crime”.
Murals, drawings, photos: the school is full, The walls are a palette where thoughts and passions are expressed. The most sensational example is that of the workshops, a former warehouse that is used for “education” – art, technology, music – and also hosts a theater, where shows are often held open to the neighborhood (the territorial network with associations and speakers is very rooted). TOThe walls are filling the spaces that are still free with their designs; In the next room you play and sing. At the center, a group plays fo has been playing.
At the Puecher School, students’ murals continue on the stairs. Photo Lorenzo Pesce
“At the end of the hour of education, they have 10 free minutes,” says vice -presidents Francesca Tenchini, professor of art and contact person for support. “With pre -adolescents, engaged in growth, the rigid approach does not work. Averages are the time of total chaos, disharmony and disorder. If you overcome the fear of managing chaos, a thousand possibilities are opened. This is the kingdom of experiments. We have a very rich training offer that allows them to get involved, to strengthen their identity and find the passions. We do not take away work and effort, we give him the motivation. In superiors, they will be able to start from an important self -esteem “.
The school hours are the traditional one, with 30 hours per week that go up to 36 for those who choose prolonged time. There are also optional activities. «Mathematics in the kitchen, where they are cutting the sandwiches, voice to the body, of art, design and movement education, are the morning workshops, designed for the most fragile but open to everyone. In the afternoon we have literary snacks, freehand on drawing and computer science. Voice to the body was born looking at a Chinese girl who did not speak but she was very good at dancing»Says Noemi Morrone, head of the training offer. “There is also the laboratory of silence, where you work on the ability to listen and concentrate. And let’s not forget sport ».
In the corridor, a reworking of the photo of Giancarlo Puecher, the partisan shot in December 1943 to which the Milanese school was named. Photo Lorenzo Pesce
Geneva, from 2nd, who accompanies us, is regional athletic champion together with his twin sister. There are team tournaments and, at the end of the year, those of students against teachers, “where the teachers always break. But only the males, because last year we women won the football tournament and none got hurt »Irons Morrone.
Journalists in grass
The library is wide, bright, comfortable. Last year, the school won the first prize in the OSSibooki Competition of the Milanese libraries. Now some guys are preparing a video on how they see the library of the future and, surprise, they imagine it full of paper books, only with some more special effects.
The visit ends with an interview with the interviewer. The athlete Geneva, notebook and biro, manages the blog and web radio Puecher Inside (on Spotify) with some companions. The young journalists are arranged in a circle, a girl does a video. The conversation goes forward sent. Between colleagues, you understand each other. © r hyporduction rp.
I woman © RESERVED REPRODUCTION