WE ACHIEVED 30, LET’S ACHIEVE 31

Minister Gelmini’s decision to establish a limit of 30% regarding the weight of foreign students in each classroom, starting with the next school year, reignites the dispute related to the issue of foreign children’s integration in school institutions.
Undoubtedly, school plays a fundamental role in the system of immigrant services and this is because first of all it accepts Italian and foreign students, secondly it represents a meeting point not only for the students but also for their families, and last but not less important, school is par excellence the space where the new generations or the citizens of tomorrow are shaped.
It goes without saying that it would be suitable, regarding foreigners, to avoid creating a tense and intolerant climate right inside a schooling institution. Objectively speaking, this is unfortunately not put into practice, often on purpose, by the leaders (or those who are supposed to be the leaders) and by those who are (or should be) in opposition.
The minister’s idea, taking into account the above mentioned issue, might actually become factual. It is debatable the fact that a high number of foreign students may represent an inconvenience, not so much for the children as for the teachers who are not quite used to the idea of an interethnic school.
The knot of the problem is exactly the one already mentioned, that is the Italian school’s conformity to the intercultural perspective. Nowadays the arrival of foreign students is seen as being something abnormal, as an emergency to confront with; most of the time, according to decree-laws that instead of facilitating things, end up feeding a useless and less constructive disorder among various political activities.
Rather than worthlessly drawing attention to the “foreigner’s problem”, we could use a step ahead, to look beyond, to follow the idea that intercultural education, the promotion of interaction and pluralism are necessary irrespective of the presence of students belonging to other ethnic communities, in order to promote the development of critical thinking and open attitude towards change.
Intercultural perspective as worthy model: this is the winning choice. Knowing all these, it would not be necessary anymore to attract futile attempts for integration achievement with the help of the “superiors”, by means of decree-laws that most of the times would be a reason more for ideological conflict.
(di Chiara Spina e Barbara Angelucci - Traduzione di Dinca Ionela Adriana - del 2010-03-27) articolo visto 1685 volte