T.re months of summer holidays, after two and a half years of school in fits and starts due to the pandemic. It seemed that it was finally all over and we could start again. But no. Is there a vote on September 25 and where, if not at school? For years there has been talk of finding an alternative for seats, but nothing has ever been done. For WeWorld And Mammadimerda: “The school is not just a polling station” and launch the social campaign #scuolaNOseggio to raise awareness among institutions and politicians to put school back at the center of their agenda.
For WeWorld and Mammadimerda, “the school is not just a polling station”. This is why they launched the #scuolaNOseggio social campaign.
Sarah Malnerich, who with Francesca Fiore created the Mammadimerda blog, born as a satire against stereotypes on motherhood and gradually more and more engaged on social issues concerning women and children, explains: “We began to deal with the school calendar when the schools started to reopen, after Covid. We asked ourselves: have our children lost so much, especially in terms of relationships, and now they have to stop all over again? Many exasperated parents have started writing to us; for families, the 3 summer months are a nightmare that also exacerbates social differences: those who can pay for weeks and weeks of summer camps, those who cannot leave their children in the middle of the street“.
The Italian school calendar, the only one to foresee three uninterrupted months of stop, dates back to the end of the nineteenth century, «When the Casati law introduced the compulsory nature of the first two years of elementary school. Since at that time the children worked in the fields, it was decided to leave three months of vacation to allow them to help their peasant parents ». An inexplicable anachronism, if not with the granitity of a system which, it must be remembered, it is based on the assumption that mothers are housewives: otherwise, those who take care of their children for three months?
WeWorld and Mammadimmerda: “School is not just a polling station!”
“Everything evolves, the school does not,” adds Malnerich. The campaign started by Mammadimerda has now received important support: it is that of WeWorld, the non-profit organization that has been defending the rights of women, girls and boys in Italy and in 50 countries for 50 years. The president Marco Chiesara adds: «We are receiving thousands of testimonies of mothers who leave their jobs because they do not know who to entrust their children to, of exhausted grandparents, of couples exasperated by the cost of summer camps. The school needs a profound change, which puts children and families at the center“.
We World and Mammadimerda: «The school is not just a polling station!». Getty Images
According to Malnerich, the campaign is also supported by many teachers: «They tell us that the pupils arrive in June very tired and that when they start again, in September, they have forgotten everything». And the criticisms of the proposal? Always the same: “They tell us that changing the school calendar is impossible because it is too hot in the summer: it is a pity that many schools are transformed into summer camps, and remain open even in July. And in any case we should take advantage of the funds of the NRP for school building and ecological transition. Would tourism be affected? No, indeed, it would spread bettermaking it more sustainable for the territories “.
To this torment of the unscratchable calendar is added the novelty of the autumn elections: “Seats are everywhere abroad; in pubs, supermarkets, churches. In Italy, too, some municipalities are gearing up: in Bergamo, for example, voting takes place in senior centers and museums. Some seats have been transferred to Genoa. But they are single initiatives, when a general change is needed. Is it possible that polling stations should always be in schools? Is it possible that school is never the center of attention and programs of politicians? “
So why not join the campaign?
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