“C‘it is a persecution against the school, it seems that it is responsible for every social emergency and that it must solve every problem. But it is not possible ». Maurizio Parodi, former headmaster and author of the lucky one No more homework! (Probe), come back now with a new book, The school is exhausted (edizioni la meridiana), which is both an indictment and a cry of pain, in the hope that something will be done while there is time. But why is the school exhausted? We let the author explain it to us.
“The school is exhausted because it takes responsibility for any social emergency, because it seems that the solution of all problems is up to this institution”, explains Parodi. “The I just don’t know how school leaders manage to survive the daily frenzy, those who are not inside have no idea of the immense work they do, so much so that often they cannot even go on vacation. Those I know are capable administrators who manage to promote the quality of the training offer in difficult situations, e they would deserve quite another consideration than they enjoy today.
“There is a crazy bureaucracy, a huge amount of formal steps to follow, and autonomy ends up staying on paper. In the past the processes were more fluid, today there is a burden that ends up blocking the service ».
The cover of The school is exhaustedby Maurizio Parodi.
Speaking of educational offer, reading the PTOF (the three-year educational offer plan of a school), sometimes the head is spinning, due to the quantity of projects proposed. “And indeed there is a kind of supermarket with offers of all kinds, and not always of quality. But in the end, despite the glowing promises, most of them remain on paper and we end up teaching the same way all the time ». Here is the crux of teaching: each of us, during the years of school, had to deal with exceptional teachers, but also mediocre ones.
The school is exhausted and you just have to see the results
They are the ones who make the difference: «That’s right and it’s serious that they are always considered the same way. But in our country it has never been possible to talk about the evaluation of teachers, because the union has always built a wall. The result is that as leaders, we can only hope that teachers who hurt students go and do damage to other schools. We do not have other possibilities of intervention ».
Parodi’s accusation is strong and detailed: “We can see that the Italian school is sick from the results: just think of the levels of functional illiteracy of graduates who, when they enroll at university, must follow preparatory courses not to be too far behind. Not to mention the early school leaving, from an uncivilized country“.
The problem, according to Parodi, is that although the National Indications are appreciable, in practice the opposite is done: the teaching is not welcoming, the approach is notional, students are being indistinct. Everyone has to learn the same things in the shortest time possible and the responsibility is passed on to them, through homework. Not to mention this frenzy of anticipation, when in Finland, a country at the top of international school rankings, children play up to 7 years.
Authentic motivations must be valued
Maurizio Parodi’s proposal – and he talks about it in the last pages of the book – is to overturn the paradigm: put the student back at the center, think about contents and methods. For instance: move from an extrinsic motivation, based on rewards and flattery, to an enhancement of authentic motivations; from relationships based on domination to relationships based on respect; from the organization of activities by pre-established groups to the possibility of autonomous aggregations. But also from a traditional layout from the classroom to another articulated, from an evaluation that punishes and creates rankings to an enhancement of the commitment and progress of each student.
In short, the school is exhausted. But maybe we have time to revive her, if we put in the effort.
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED