Few, very few, not even thirty percent. And often alone in the classroom, without friends and without companions. “The inclusion of disabled children in schools in the red zone has remained a project on paper. Some institutes are open but what we feared is happening: in those classrooms there are only disabled students and those who assist them, without teachers, without lessons, sometimes in complete solitude. This is not didactic, it is not inclusion, it is discrimination again ”. Use serious words Giuseppe Argiolas, president of the Italian coordination of support teachers, ten days after the almost national closure of all schools of all levels. After the tragic first lockdown of 2020, in which distance learning has turned into a real apartheidby law, school doors were to remain open to disabled people, along with small groups of classmates. With curricular lessons, workshops, in short, with a “real” teaching method.
It didn’t happen. In fact, many parental committees denounce a failure of inclusion. Antonella Perini, Gianluca’s mother, 12, last year launched a petition on Change.org to denounce the loneliness of disabled children, their regress day after day. Gianluca has Sturge-Weber syndrome, he is in a wheelchair, but for some time, says Antonella, “he has started taking very small walks”. “We live in Spinea, in Veneto, my son is alone in class, assisted by a health and social worker. His is a very serious disability, with severe cognitive impairment. He has always had a special program, but for him school is a stimulus, a relationship, I’m sure he misses the voices of his classmates, their greetings. In those four and a half hours in which Gianluca is at school I can work, take care of the other child, of course if the school manages to activate small groups Gianluca would be happy, this is not the real incusive teaching.
Even Matteo, 12 years old, an autistic child with a passion for music, second grade at the “Tullia Zevi” in Rome, is alone in class. “Attend from 9 to 12.30 with the support teacher. No, his companions are not there – explains his father calmly, Marco Sabatini Scalmati – it’s a halfway achievement, at school we were told that the groups were not formed due to organizational problems. Maybe, who knows. I am convinced, however, that there was no resistance from the families of Matteo’s classmates, on the contrary, the best moment of his day is when he enters the classroom and meets his friends ”.
In Antonella’s discreet words, Marco’s effort emerges to find a positive thread to make sense of inefficiency, of the (superhuman) commitment of managing the disability of a son or daughter. “The fatigue of families is such that even a few hours away from home, even in an empty classroom, are a help. An understandable but bitter statement. Is this the real inclusion? Or is it a disguised exclusion? In the classroom there should have been the curricular teachers – insists Giuseppe Argiolas – the disabled children and some classmates, plus the support teacher. The ministry’s mistake was to entrust school administrators with the organization of face-to-face classes for fragile students, while precise guidelines would have been required. Not only do disabled people find themselves alone or with other disabled people, that is, in real differential classes, but they are denied the relationship with the curricular teacher ”.
Because this is the crux. To be together. The relationship. That intangible asset (friends, companions, laughter, voices, movement, smells, humanity) which constitutes the essential value of the school. Even more so for children and young people whose condition actually leads to isolation. Internal, physical.
And in some schools there is now an open war between parents and school leaders. “In our institute. “Piersanti Matterella” in Rome, the principal has forbidden the formation of small groups to accompany the presence of disabled children. Indeed, to the parents who protested because their children were alone in the classroom, he replied with a post in which these families, mentioned with name and surname, were mocked and mocked on Facebook “. Alessandro Liberti, Red Cross worker, father of Anita, classmate of an autistic boy, is furious. “In our class, that child is an asset and my daughter’s best friend. We were already organized to form micro-classes, the manager blocked everything saying that there were no security conditions “. The mother of one of the pupils she attends in solitude relaunches: “Only those who live in this condition know how much without the relationship our children suffer and regress. And it is a sad scene to see that only disabled students enter school in the morning ”.
However, there are some positive experiences such as at the comprehensive “Francesco Saverio Nitti” Institute in Rome. Tell it Federica Morelli, energetic and positive mother of Francesco, 13 years old. “My son has a very severe form of autism, absolutely incompatible with distance learning. Our school, however, thanks to an excellent manager, has implemented real inclusion projects even in normal programming. When the red zone arrived, within two days the groups of disabled and non-disabled children were already formed, workshops are held at the school in which the children who make up the “class” that day take part in it. Francesco is happy and so are his companions ”. IS Viola Vitali, Martino’s mother, also with autism, from the comprehensive “Parco della Vittoria” Institute, underlines the indispensable value of the relationship. “The comrades’ families had joined immediately, enthusiastically, It was the school that was not ready. But now the small groups have left. The right to study is individual, but it can only be practiced within a community. Martino is a non-verbal child, but the word “friends” makes his eyes shine “. Some light in the shadows of a substantially failed integration project.
Michele is 14, lives in Lugo di Romagna, and is a brain-damaged boy. Patrizia Sarzani, the mother, has a tired voice. “He was a healthy child, then an encephalitis at three and everything fell apart, changed forever. However, I already consider it a gift that my son is still alive. Michele goes to school every day with another small group of disabled people. And I confess that I see him happy. For us it is a relief. Of course there are no other classmates, but in the face of the loneliness of the house, this is also a help ”.
Chronicles from the difficulty. Chronicles from pain. Extreme situations that Carlo Braga, dean of the “Gaetano Salvemini” Technical Institute of Casalecchio di Reno, at the forefront of inclusion, knows well. “We have 80 children with even very serious disabilities, some even bedridden, which we manage to get to attend. Our students are guaranteed the entire school hours, together with small groups of classmates, in full compliance with anti-Covid regulations. The children are in the classroom with the curricular teachers, the others connected from home. However, we have been organizing ourselves since November, indeed since last spring when after the tragedy of the lockdown it became clear that the school had to remain open for fragile children. But all this cannot be improvised. Behind an inclusive teaching like ours there are years of work and dedication to the weakest. Today we can say that we have made it ”.
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