if tomorrow is already here

Publish date 06-05-2021

by Renato Bonomo

Can you hear me? "I didn't understand, you were talking in jerks and with the metallic deputy." "Luigi where if? Are you connected but not answering? " After 10 minutes and several attempts by the boys to communicate with their partner via chat: "Excuse me prof I could not turn on the microphone." Here is a short sample of typical distance learning jokes. Jokes that have become familiar to many kids and that have depopulated on the web in little gags that made us smile about the defects of this teaching method.


However, school remains an issue that must be taken seriously. In these lines we would like to ask ourselves two questions to try to formulate a reasoning that allows us to go beyond what has already been said on these issues. The first question is: what can the school do today, the second: what can the school do tomorrow. Before being able to sketch out the answers, it is necessary to make a premise: the current pandemic has clearly demonstrated that the school model, especially the upper secondary school, is incompatible with Covid. The list of critical elements is too long: transport issues, too many classes, not always adequate premises, difficulty in changing schedules, presence of many disciplines with a high number of teachers, problems relating to the consumption of food in the classroom, management of intervals , risk of gatherings. In short, there is a lot of talk about organization and little about teaching.

In light of this preliminary consideration, let's try to answer the questions. What can the school do today? I think it's not worth it too much to just keep complaining. The difficulties are numerous, evident, under the eyes of all. The duration of the pandemic pushes us to go further, to try to get the best out of the current situation. If we are forced to do the DAD, we try to do it well even if we know it is not the best. Technology always remains a tool, it depends on who uses it and why. It is not just a question of wheelbases, it is rather a matter of personal responsibility. It is right to highlight the limits but this criticism must not overshadow the didactic action. The teachers are still professionals who can face this difficult time as an opportunity to learn new procedures and methods of didactic relationship. It seems to me that many live this time as a parenthesis: they expect it to end up returning to normal. But are we really sure that this will be the case? Personally, I do not find it sensible to think only of the time when vaccines will allow us to return to "normality" (a completely open question that would be worth discussing). Even if things go back to "normal", we will never be the same, the kids will never be the same. We might as well begin to reflect on new perspectives.

So let's try to answer the second question. Perhaps children today will forgive adults for all these current school difficulties if adults begin to think seriously about tomorrow's school. The incompatibility between Covid and upper secondary school can be an opportunity to rethink the school from the ground up. Here we enter a minefield, full of difficulties. I have no particular skills except some experience in the world of school, but I would like to try to find some pairs of keywords on which to start discussing the rebirth of the school. I write "pairs" of keywords because single words only capture partial aspects of reality and prevent us from understanding the complex and multifaceted nature of school. So let's try to see some of them, without any pretense of completeness.

The school of tomorrow will necessarily have to train children in increasingly elaborate competency tests but will never have to give up on providing knowledge and content. On the other hand, skills without knowledge are null. Teachers will certainly have to continue to train to increase their professionalism but they will be called to keep the passion that has led many of them to choose this profession. Without passion, their techniques are sterile.

We need to help children to develop an effective and productive method, capable of guiding them with confidence in the world of new technologies but also stimulating them to creativity so as not to dry up their humanity. It is right for students to study specific subjects but it will also be important to help them maintain a universal view of reality. It is fine to train them in the professions but beauty is not neglected, that they know how to reconcile theory with experience, that they live what they study and that they study what they live. A similar discourse for teachers who have to leave the often narrow confines of their subjects to think of macro-disciplines in which more knowledge is presented together with rethought times and spaces. From the experience of the Arsenale della Pace one can take the combination of goodness and severity: that is, authority, awareness of one's role, firmness in the rules but also the ability to dialogue, listen, empathy and tenderness.



Finally: the fundamental ingredient which, however, cannot be established by law but which everyone, starting from their own life, must contribute to generating: mutual trust between all the components of the school. It is almost trivial to write it but it is true: there is no school if one of the components fails. Lately, students, parents, teachers and auxiliary, technical and administrative staff have looked more to their interest than to the more general interest of the school. Without canceling the differences of roles (which are necessary), the fight against the pandemic must push all the actors on the field to dialogue for the common good. Beyond any particularism, criticism, disillusionment, it is possible to glimpse a new horizon.


Renato Bonomo
NP february 2021

This website uses cookies. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Click here for more info

Ok