The school as a place of “promotion” and not of “social selection”, an instrument and “leverage” to “combat poverty” whose primary objective is “the elimination of all discrimination”. The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, retraces the teachings of Don Lorenzo Milani and does so from Barbiana, the village in the Mugello forest where the prior founded a popular school in 1954 to teach the children of the region with an innovative pedagogical method. “Teacher, educator, guide for the young people who grew up with him, coherent and uncomfortable witness for the civil and religious communities of his time” and “pioneer of a culture that fought against privilege and marginalization, that understood knowledge not only as a right for all” as defined by Mattarella, in his speech on the occasion of the celebrations of the centenary of his birth. “School belongs to everyone. School has to belong to everyone” because “a school whose selection destroys culture”, stresses the head of state, referring to the author of the ‘Letter to a teacher’. A conception “full of modernity, far ahead of those who dabbled in models that diverged from constitutional provisions”. Thus, a reflection on “merit” – which became the “subject” of the new Ministry of Education led by Giuseppe Valditara – which “is not the expansion of the advantage of those who already start as favorites” but rather “giving new opportunities to those that does not have”. And that “to not let Italy lose talent: precious – he adds – if he finds the possibility to express himself, as everyone must be guaranteed”.
The school at Barbiana, where Dom Milani taught the children of peasants in ruins, without electricity or paved roads, “lasted the whole day. It tried to instil a desire to learn, a willingness to work together. things of the world with a critical spirit”. All of this “without ever running away from confrontation, without intending to silence anyone, much less – adds the president – a book or its presentation”. There was a clear reference to the story of the minister of the family, births and equal opportunities, Eugenia Roccella, contested last Sunday at the Book Fair in Turin by a group of young activists and feminists. A defense, that of the Head of State, “much appreciated” by Roccella herself, who commented in a publication on social networks: “Critical spirit and freedom of expression are values that our young people must learn to cultivate together”.
Returning to Don Milani, the priest-educator, who died at the age of 44, “had a very strong political sense” and “the Constitution was his lay gospel”, recalls Mattarella. In short, a “great Italian” “who, with his lessons, invited us to exercise active responsibility”, to the point that his ‘I care’ “became a universal motto: the motto of those who reject the selfishness and indifference”. , the Head of State pays homage to him. This expression “was accompanied by another, less well-known expression. It said: ‘As long as there is effort, there is hope’”, recalls the Colle tenant in closing. Hence don Milani’s final lesson: “Society does not improve without the effort of compromise”.
Source: IL Tempo

Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.