A KNIGHT NUN OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC FOR THE MERIT OF EDUCATION WRITES TO THE PRINCIPAL OF THE LEONARDO DA VINCI SCIENTIFIC HIGH SCHOOL IN FLORENCE

When she decided to write to her students, I imagine and hope that he intended to address them without making any attack on the Italian State, to the legitimately elected Government, to the persons of the Ministers. His writing was probably misunderstood both by those who felt called a fascist and by those who felt absolved as a communist.

.

Author
Anna Monia Alfieri, I.M.
Knight of the Italian Republic

.

.

.

.

PDF print format article

.

The summary of the story can be found in this service offered by The Nation of Florence

.

Dearest Principal,

First of all, a cordial greeting, hoping this one of mine finds you well. Allow me to write to you, because I'm worried about what's happening lately in Italy. I am a religious, I belong to a Congregation whose Founder, around the mid-nineteenth century, he thought of renewing society through the education of women. Extraordinary intuition that still materializes today, through schools and other educational institutions present throughout the national territory and beyond. My choice of consecrated life led me, Consequently, to dedicate myself to young people, to students, to their parents, to teachers, to the school. That's why I decided to write to you, with humility and grace, just as I would have written to one of the school principals managed by the Institution of which I am the Legal Representative.

As I said, I'm writing out of concern: the controversies, physical violence, the scuffles evoke in me sad and dramatic echoes of a past in which many young people lost their lives in the name of ideology, anarchist, communist or fascist.

When she decided to write to her students, I imagine and hope that he intended to address them without making any attack on the Italian State, to the legitimately elected Government, to the persons of the Ministers. His writing was probably misunderstood both by those who felt called a fascist and by those who felt absolved as a communist.

I did not glimpse an ideological reading in his writing nor even an invitation to the kids who beat up their comrades in the right-wing collectives to do worse to avoid the fascist danger that none of us sees. She, as an experienced principal, I think he intended to calm the students' minds, everyone, teaching that ideas are not asserted through violence, quite the opposite. Every form of ideology has brought about death, material and spiritual destruction. It goes without saying that all our right-wing politicians have distanced themselves from fascism, how our left-wing politicians distanced themselves from communism. Same faults, same wrongs that need to be acknowledged, to apologize, report. I am sure that the intention of his writing was precisely this, although I must admit that it was not easy to fully understand it and not read the letter as an accusation against the Government of being fascist. It would not be behavior worthy of a school director, moreover a public official.

Dearest Principal, faced with certain images of violence, the dream of a school that is truly free and freed from party politics takes root in me more and more, from the imposition of an ideology, by teachers who present partial visions to their students. To politics, said Saint Paul VI, son of an anti-fascist deputy, it is the highest form of charity: How wonderful it would be if our young people were brought to know those shining examples of men and women who have given themselves to politics to want to give freedom to their fellow citizens: Aldo Moro, Enrico Berlinguer, Giuseppe Dossetti, Tina Anselmi, Nilde Iotti. Often, Dear principal, you will agree with me that at school we talk about politics as a contrast, right and left to clash, proselytizing actions are carried out, indoctrination e, maybe, perhaps students who think differently are discriminated against. He comes, as, the figure of the teacher who takes advantage of his role is debased.

I invite you and all your fellow Principals to verify that teachers' freedom of expression does not turn into lines of thought imposed on students but rather is a tool given to them to help them orient themselves. I don't know if all this happens in Italian schools. I hope so. Maybe times have changed since I was a student. I remember the wonderful lessons of the Literature teacher, so much so that I took Italian to my high school diploma (it was called that then) but I also remember his personal left-wing political considerations. And unfortunately, if in the themes, I was expressing personal considerations far from his vision, Alas, the vote was seriously insufficient. I then decided to choose less dangerous tracks: a good analysis of the poetic text was certainly the safest way. In the wake of all this, the belief that Italian schools must be free took root in me, that there cannot only be state public schools but also private public schools. It's no coincidence that Law 62/2000 who established the public education system, done by state public schools and private public schools, bears the signature of Berlinguer, Luigi, not Enrico, Certain, but still a communist, a true communist, add. The risk is, indeed, the educational monopoly is always the antechamber of the regime. I have always wondered how a teacher can impose his ideas on young students, resorting to a real abuse of their power. Definitely you, Preside, he will never have committed similar acts and will have prevented them among his teaching staff. In the same way it will ensure that authors such as Dante are included in Italian literature programmes, Tasso and Manzoni enjoy the place they deserve and are not considered outcasts to make room for more modern visions, to move with the times.

I am convinced that the events that occurred in your city they can be a golden opportunity to free our schools, our Universities from distorted readings, ideological and entirely personal. I ask her: can we educators endorse the ideology, endorse the partial and untruthful vision? We can endorse violence and justify it? We can foment it? The answer is “no”: we must not, We can not, we don't want. I dream of a free country, citizens capable of respecting the institutions, not to use their role, of the reality that should be used to fuel the guerrillas to the sound of like or signatures collected.

Dearest Principal, we need educators, we need teachers with culture, the real one, one that presents a historical period, the thought of a philosopher, an ethical topic objectively, having the courage to say your opinion without imposing it, without discriminating, without mocking. This is the school Italy needs. Otherwise the imposition that generates the desire for revenge will continue, hate, overwhelm.

Let's collaborate so that the school returns to being a laboratory and hotbed of ideas, respecting everyone's vision. This is the school's job, of always. Whoever made it become a means of spreading the dominant idea has corrupted it and made it meanly supine. Let's avoid falling back into the same mistakes of the past.

Milan, 26 February 2023

.

.

.

______________________

Dear Readers,
this magazine requires management costs that we have always faced only with your free offers. Those who wish to support our apostolic work can send us their contribution through the convenient and safe way PayPal by clicking below:

Or if you prefer you can use our
Bank account in the name of:
Editions The island of Patmos

n Agency. 59 From Rome
Iban code:
IT74R0503403259000000301118
For international bank transfers:
Codice SWIFT:
BAPPIT21D21

If you make a bank transfer, send an email to the editorial staff, the bank does not provide your email and we will not be able to send you a thank you message:
isoladipatmos@gmail.com

We thank you for the support you wish to offer to our apostolic service.

The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

.

.

.

.

.

.

.