School projects

Handwriting, Bible, optional Latin, classical music… I believe the debate that has developed on school in recent months is misleading, because I believe we need a completely different approach. School is in serious crisis for many reasons and this is not good for a country that should look ahead. I will therefore try to formulate a path thought “positively”, starting from the current themes and ideas present in the programs of the various cycles and suitable for the formation of the person and his awareness.
Obviously the example concerns the environment, but it can be applied to any other theme. The proposal is flexible and is concrete and achievable within the span of a school year.

The steps of the path:

1. At the beginning of the year a group of teachers chooses a series of complex and articulated themes, rich in connections and interdisciplinary ideas, which are able to combine people's lives with the topics of the programs.

2. All themes can be chosen, but environmental ones seem to respond better to the sensitivity of young people, from primary to high school, and allow to combine humanistic and scientific perspectives, to link knowledge and behaviors, to have a direct relationship with the territory.

3. Then it is a matter with the kids of choosing one, or more than one, based on their interests and with the aim of bringing current events into the classroom. Environmental themes can be projected at a global, European, Mediterranean, national, regional, local level: they can be addressed by consulting books, newspapers, magazines, observing one's own territory.

4. Environmental themes – air, water, food, mobility, soil, agriculture, industry and technology, consumption, forests, typical environments – can be chosen at a territorial level, starting from the specific context in which the schools are located.

5. Each chosen “environment” presents visible aspects (beauty, landscapes, nature, fauna and flora, humans who live and work) and invisible aspects (microorganisms, functioning of living beings, substances, etc.). Any “ecosystem” must be seen as a complex reality that involves the study of contents from various disciplines.

6. Nature meets – and often clashes – with human systems, sometimes in a balanced way, other times not. Then, we can discover where natural systems and human systems conflict to avoid worse stresses, capable of altering the ecosystem services that nature offers us for free and that endanger future conditions.

7. The overall vision suggests that environmental issues have economic and social implications; it trains us to see cause/effect relationships, consequences, to compare different positions and ideas with method, through the elements of scientific and humanistic debate.

8. It is possible to organize work groups in and outside the classroom in order to divide tasks and roles, acquire new knowledge, plan educational trips, and meet experts.

9. This proposal is above all about research. New technologies can have unexpected results if they are first addressed and used at school in laboratory activities, tests, and summary products, ranging across all languages ​​and forms (from writing to videos, from images to graphics, from surveys and questionnaires to documentation).

10. It is important that educational work has a clear final objective such as an exhibition or display in the school, to involve other classes, teachers, parents and citizens. Collective work produces an increase in knowledge and awareness.

11. Within projects of this kind there are many important moments, such as setting up laboratories to reproduce the discoveries achieved. Then, participatory methods require the presence of tutors among the students for visitors. Then, moments of in-depth study with experts and professionals outside of school are appropriate, also because so much new knowledge has not yet arrived in school books.

12. In short, professional skills, critical spirit and awareness can be spread, dedicating a part of the curricular activities to a path that can enlighten the eyes of students, which combines digital and virtual innovations with traditional teaching methods.

Conclusion. Of course, everything requires effort, creativity, new skills in teachers before in students, but it is worth it.


Carlo Degiacomi
NP March 2025