The College: the principal Paolo Bosisio talks about today’s kids

The Dean of the College: Paolo Bosisio

Headmaster, tell us some anticipation on the new season of The college?
To begin with, let’s go back to a time when there was no single middle school, but two very specific and separate paths, the middle school with Latin and the vocational training school. Then, another big news is that 98% of the cast has been renewed (in addition to Bosisio, Professor Andrea Maggi has also remained, ed). I can say that there are professors very different from the previous ones. Some are very interesting, others less so, but I will not mention.

And among the overseers?
There are also the “historic” Lucia Gravante, from the first edition and Matteo Caremoli, who intervened last year as a supervisor and then confirmed: he is very good and measured, an excellent interpreter. And also the location is still the Regina Margherita College of Anagnibut renewed and even more beautiful.

In 1958 there was the introduction, by the will of the then Minister of Education Aldo Moro, of civic education. How much would it take for today’s kids to have a good refresher?
Unfortunately, many young people lack any education and the slightest sense of respect, some of them horrify me. But in this year’s group we have at least three students to really commend from every point of view. Unfortunately, however, in general these young people have not understood exactly how the world is made, they believe that the world is their tuft, swear words, bullying, visibility. What consoles me, however, is the fact that this program has a hold on young people. When I am in Italy I am stopped on average 5/6 times a day by the boys. I expect them to tell me that I am bad, a bastard, instead they thank me, they appreciate me.

The boys of this edition of The college

Can you give us an overview of the guys in this edition?
They come from all parts of Italy, and there are also some not of direct Italian origin. Some are chosen because they show talent in producing spectacle in meetings with authors. They arrive having in mind to make a career, with their little character that they have studied, prepared, etc. Unfortunately for them, however, we are there too, and within a few days we dismantle their character trying to understand who they really are ».

What did the kids miss the most during filming?
Amazingly I felt they were less mobile dependent. Some miss family, others absolutely don’t. I had the feeling of a greater immersion of these guys in that era, more integrated than in other editions ».

And the parents of these kids, what are they like?
I believe that the slip began in 1958, precisely with the abolition of differentiation within the school and the progressive decline in the quality of school teaching. The parents we are talking about today are children of 1958, mothers and fathers who arrive at school defending their children against everything and everyone. School in my day was a forge in which we trained, and parents would never have dreamed of competing or arguing with the school.

Can you tell us some borderline cases of your students at the College?
There was a student who in the family was called “the princess”. Once we called her parents because she was behaving badly: the father was a normal and measured man, he wanted to understand what was happening, while the wife immediately put her hands on saying that the daughter was “a bit peculiar”. At one point the mother tells me: “You see, my daughter, when we are at the table and she wants salt, she sends me a text message”. Until I asked for please, I got nothing from my mother: courtesy is not a formality, but it is substantial. Along with respect, it is the basis of life.

Paolo Bosisio, never “the top of the class”

Let’s go back to when you were a student: what child, and what boy was he? Do you remember what she dreamed of, her passions, her aspirations?
I went to school in 1956 for the first time. I was a good and bright student, I had fun, but I never wanted to be top of the class. I didn’t have much luck with the elementary school teachers: I changed one a year. But I had a teacher in the second grade, a certain Franco Paletta, who did not want to teach: so he made us do the mimes. My first performance as an actor dates back to when I was eight. From there my passion for the theater was born.

And in middle school?
My literature teacher, Maria Campi, taught me to love Italian and writing as well as teaching me Latin. I wanted to go to the classic, like my classmates. But at the end of the eighth grade, my father put me in the Carlo Alberto military college in Turin, a period that has remained like a “hole” in my life. All my classmates went to Berchet high school, while I joined them in the fifth high school. Then there was the University: I was a working student, and then I embarked on a university career. I also worked as a principal in reality for a dozen years.

The collegewhere is happiness?

A question to conclude, a little provocative. In your opinion, were the boys of ’58 happier or those of today?
Hard question! From a belief point of view, living in the past is a big mistake. Progress, especially that of the last 120-150 years, has changed our lives in a prodigious way and I, who have witnessed these changes, can only speak well of it. Honestly, however, I cannot grasp in these young people that joy of life, curiosity and anxiety to experiment that characterized our youth. To me these guys seem less enthusiastic, while I went crazy with joie de vivre, I would have thanked my mom every minute for bringing me into the world. I spent most of my life in the countryside, with the local children we played with wire and crazy chestnuts. Today kids have machines, bicycles, scooters, rockets, drones… And yet, if I could choose, I’d still go back to the garden to play with those chestnuts taken from the ground.

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