The request remains to have all the boys come back, even those in high school. The sign: “Either all or none”
ivrea
For one day, Piazza Ottinetti becomes Piazza Castello d’Ivrea: an open-air school, where teachers, parents and students interact, however, not with each other, but through the remote teaching screens.
From 8 to 14 on Wednesday 31 March, the last virtual bell before the royal holidays, the members of the Priority School Committee (Pas) Eporedia met there. The largest sign is undoubtedly the one in front of the teacher Sara Galetta, which reads: “At school or all or none”. With her there is also another teacher. «We have all joined this day at a national level – explains the teacher -, because we are convinced that second and third secondary schools and high schools in attendance should also reopen. It can be seen in terms of the psychophysical health of the children who today, unfortunately, are increasingly distant ».
But Sara Galetta is not alone. Together with her there is also Francesco, the young student of Gramsci who was the first, in Ivrea, to do Dad outdoors in protest. He had done so in January, when the outside temperature was minus three degrees. After two days alone, he preferred to go home, so as not to get sick. But with his example he had lit a spark: in fact the next day boys from Botta and Olivetti had followed his protest in front of Gramsci.
This time, however, he is very focused on his lesson and we do not dare to disturb him. We disturb, however, two Botta students, both in the first year, who sit behind him, Lucia and Francesca, who have a few minutes’ break. For both, the return to school is far away: no one knows when and in what percentage the high schools will return to attendance. “Of the school I miss most of all the feeling of normality – explains Lucia -, the direct contact with classmates and teachers, the comparison that can be done with them is different”. «To me – says Francesca -, I like the ten-minute interval. In those ten minutes the confrontation that can be had is totally different ». At home, in fact, all he has to do is look out the window to get some air.
A little further on there are Silvia Perri and Maria Elena Bovolenta. Two mothers with their respective daughters, both of whom are in the seventh grade. Witnesses of a broken cycle, that of the upper secondary school, where only girls and boys of first degree will be able to return to the presence. What they lack, too, is above all interaction with schoolmates and teachers. It is the whole school system whose disconcerting absence is felt, a simple truth. “Unfortunately – explains Perri -, the discomfort is perpetuated and they will not be able to return to school after Easter”. “The interaction – adds Bovolenta – is very important, but it is difficult to have it at home”.
We leave then an Ottinetti square with a dozen screens on and many signs that testify to the discomfort. One is imprinted with the wandering rhymes of Bruno Tognolini which have now become a symbol of protest in the Canavese area: “At home I am – says the verse -, at school I become”. –