For a few days, as the journalist points out Wild Lucarelli in the header Tomorrow, makes discuss the news relating to the degree of Carlotta Rossignolitwenty-three years old from Verona who has the I deserve to have graduated 11 months early in medicine with a grade of 110 and honors and honorable mention at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan.
This bright student she was praised for her excellent result, for having reached it quickly and for having had a specific goal for which he struggled without giving space to anything else in life. “I didn’t waste time, I never waste time. It also helps me to sleep little, for me sleep is a waste of time, ”she told the media.
For many, however, it is one somewhat toxic narrativewhich intersects with the current debate about the merit and competitiveness at school and universitylit with the change of name of the Ministry of Education, which has become the Ministry of Education and Merit.
Is this a miraculous result?
Leaving aside the aspect related to the motivation of the girl, the Lucarelli he specified something else: “The whole journalistic bow in this story makes you smile a little, because what is miraculous in Carlotta’s story there is only the fact that someone thought of celebrating her as a virtuous example of a girl who only has merits and no privileges “.
“That she was able to graduate before the others only because she ‘wastes no time’ and not also because her privileged position gives her time, tools and opportunities. And because she is the daughter of two wealthy parents who, as she herself admits, have invested resources and expectations in an only child who (I say so) is clearly programmed to excel in every field, ”she added.
Carlottain fact, as his Instagram profile testifies, it is the only daughter of two wealthy parents, who have always supported her in her school and university career, and leads a comfortable life. It is therefore a matter of merit, undoubtedly; but can we overlook the fact that this student has always enjoyed countless privileges?
“The point is that this celebration of the miracle Carlotta Rossignoli does not take into account the starting condition of this brilliant student, that is, the enormous amount of tools she has at her disposal. Which are not the tools of any student eager to graduate in record time. Carlotta Rossignoli attended a paid high school with an international program (Alle Stimate), she graduated in English from a private university which allowed her to shorten the process, with a fee of up to 20,000 euros a year (at San Raffaele ), she attended English courses in Cambridge, travels around the world since she was a child, has all the financial means and the very high family expectations that allow her to pursue her ambitious goals without stopping, needs, worries. She certainly has never had to think about how to pay taxes or rent a room from outside the office. Her success is pursued with commitment, of course, but also with the means ”, the journalist concluded critically.
Who are really the deserving ones?
On the question merit / privilege also intervened Tommaso Gazzarriin the pages of IlFattoQuotidiano.it. “Merit must not become an additional incentive for those who are evaluated to channel them towards specialized professions not deserving. Too often the demerit coincides with a certain social origin and is only the result of the lack of means and care “, she wrote, noting that often it is especially deserving who, as in the case of Carlotta, leaves with powerful means.
“If only the children of the rich (of money and / or knowledge) are the recipients of those care that make them ‘deserving’, what is the point of article 33 of the Constitution, which establishes the compulsory schooling, but also the rights precisely of the ‘capable and deserving’ for whom it is hoped the removal of any obstacles? Instead of using the word merit crudely, it would be good to ask ourselves about the many and often indestructible links that exist between merit and privilege on the one hand, and lack of opportunities and unpromising academic results on the other. Otherwise the temptation is to believe that most of the capable are born among the rich, or as you said Don Milani, who sacrificed his life to social justice and education, that all donkeys are born in the homes of the poor “, concluded Gazzarrihoping for a change of pace.