okayyyy, let me try and explain something that is happening at my school that legitamitly took me 2 days straight to understand. i mean at least i think i understand now...
THE MAIN CONCEPT:
so every student in italy is absolutely furious right now because the government is trying to pass a "reform" in which basically private schools get more government funding and public school's funds are cut. at the begining of the year we had a ton of strikes. almost every week we had "uno scipoero". but they didnt hear us. so we have moved to more extreme measures. illegal measures. i love this country. anyways: instead of trying to get their attention by NOT going to school. we have decided to get their attention by GOING to school. and by going to school i mean that we (the students) go to school, lock all the teachers out and hang signs, sing, yell, blockade the doors and windows with chairs and tables etc. then we just kind of chill inside the school and have fun. some people sleep at the school (which is illegal) but then again so is the "occupation" as this is called. this could go on for two weeks they told me today, which would run us into winter break and would mean we wouldnt have lessons until the middle of january! and no school would be added in summer.
WHAT WENT DOWN:
woke up in the morning...feelin like p diddy. got ready, went to school and hour early and waited outside the school while the vice president stood on a table and yelled at us. then we entered the school and locked the gates. during the first hour everyone was making signs, yelling, singing, blockading. it was great. then after that we kind of just hung around, we played cards, walked around etc. oh! a pulsating ring of the school bell meant that the police were arriving and a long buzz of the school bell meant that the police had arrived. when the police finally arrived they just congradulated us on our organization and went on their way. i will say this again: this is illegal. but were in italy annnddd, its like this. towards the end of the day one of the kids brought his dj equipment and blasted music in the gym. there were a list of rules posted: 1. dont break things. 2. dont bring alcohol/ drugs in the school. 3. dont play soccer inside. 4. students from other schools are not permitted to enter. 5. security is not actually responsible for security. tomorrow the upper classmen will start various courses to keep us occupied at school, such as: self-defense, how to play different card games etc.
LETS COMPARE:
in america there is a set way of dealing with problems, you start from the bottum and work your way up to the most powerful person. if a group of people are angry they start a petition, they write a letter to their representative, they file a complaint, fill out a form. procedures dont exist here, if you are upset about something you dont sit down at home, pull out your nice stationary and write a kind letter to your representative in order to be heard. you occupy your school, lock your teachers out and hang signs from the windows. if i could sum up the italia after the currents events: passion
From Dad...I would sum things up as...anarchy! While you are on strike maybe you could attend a class on punctuation and spelling. You could organize a spelling bee. :)
ReplyDeletePlease keep us posted on this. It is really funny and fascinating. If the carabinieri show up please be careful. Those guys don't mess around and they're packing uzzis.
In junior high (1971, the previous century) my best friend and I organized a walk-out of the entire student body (~2K students) to express our collective distain of proposed change in school policy. As the organizers, my best friend and I were eventually punished with suspension... her name? Scalabrini (an Italian!)
ReplyDeleteanche la scuola di mia sorella, รจ occupato. mia, no, ma oggi ho fatto una manifestazione!
ReplyDeletethen I would sum things up as: a really freedom of expression. (: and anyway, it doesn't exist in Indonesia, high-school students occupy the school or even do such a demonstration. nice writing, Lucia! ci vediamo alle 4.15 di pomeriggio! :D
Students in Rome made front page in NYT this morning:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/11/30/world/20101201_PROTESTS-2.html
gea! yes, good lessons :)
ReplyDeletepolonia! no way! also, that link was really cool! thanks :) ill have to tell my firends that made us news!
You should interview the organizing students and get the real story. Students so engaged that they occupy the school and kick the teachers out, wow.
ReplyDeleteWhat a powerful image of a of students on the road in Bologna: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/11/30/world/20101201_PROTESTS-3.html
ReplyDeleteJenVit has terrific point - what is THE real story. What informs/inspires individuals to be passionate and speak as a single voice (like the river of humanity in image/link above?) Could students in US ever be this unified?
Hey Lucia!
ReplyDeleteI love reading your blogs ~
fun, interesting and entertaining.
Glad you're having fun!
xoxoxo
lucy
We used to do stuff like this in the 60's. It was a lot worse actually. There were bombs and riots where people threw rocks through windows. From about 1965-1970, on most pleasant afternoons and evenings at the University of Iowa campus you could find several thousand people congretating to protest the Vietnam War and just about anything else people were honked off about. We didn't actually ever occupy buildings at University of Iowa that I can remember, though once something like that sort of happened. However occupational type things happened at a lot of college and university campues across the country.
ReplyDeleteI used to protest a lot against the Vietnam War and sometime I'll tell you about things I did to protest back then. We can trade stories.
And yes, students were indeed very unified about their opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1960's.
Spero que studi un poco quando abiti in Italia.
Ivana K.