Disabled people in the classroom are a resource.” Chiara Bellini, deputy mayor with responsibility for educational policies of the Municipality of Rimini, gives checkmate to the thoughts of General Roberto Vannacci, who recently spoke out in favor of separate classes. The words of the League’s new candidate for the next European elections as leaders of central Italy and then in every constituency actually sound discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Bellini, is the school struggling because of the disabled?
“Absolutely not. The school is struggling because adequate investments have not been dedicated to it for years and because Rome has never focused on raising quality by improving both the services and the working conditions of teachers, starting with fairer salaries. Another problem is the failure to strengthen full-time classes which would guarantee quality education without distinction. Children who live in difficult economic conditions risk finding themselves parked in front of the TV every afternoon or looking after their siblings. Also increasing the critical issues is the surge in the performance commitment required of students which involves a great deal of support from families. However, not all parents have the necessary preparation to help their children, nor the financial availability to ensure that they receive tutoring. Thus the disparities increase dramatically.”
How to overcome the problems?
«By overhauling the school organization from the foundations and preferring, for example, self-evaluation to cold, numerical grades».
Is having classmates with disabilities a limitation for schooling?
«The issue of the uniqueness of people must be considered in the sense that we must guarantee the same rights and the same possibilities but also respect, as an asset, the peculiarities of each one, net of certifications. Even in the background of able-bodied kids – let’s call them that even if it’s not a term I like – there are personal or family fragilities that cause more serious slowdowns than the presence of disabled classmates. We all deal with invisible wounds, why deny it? Therefore, mutual respect is a resource for the entire class since even as adults we are constantly confronted with complexity, diversity of attitudes and different timing both in terms of learning and the internalization of experiences. But not only. What emerges from difficulties are often special and unexpected skills, which teach more than any manual, therefore I do not encounter any type of problem and indeed I point out an incontrovertible fact.”
Which?
«All certifications are on the rise frighteningly. Any data? Compared to autism, there has been a growth of 129% in the last 10 years. Same boom for DSA, (given that between the 2012/2013 and 2020/2021 school years in Rimini high schools these reports grew by 967%, going from 157 to 1675, ed.). Without forgetting a varied level of education which however does not pertain to foreign children who in Rimini, let us remember, are part of the so-called second generation who master Italian by heart. Details that converge on the same point: the class groups of the future will be characterized by an enormous number of certifications and envisaging separate classes will be effectively impossible. Instead of unleashing sterile storms, we need to rethink the management of increasingly complex classes without leaving the solutions to good will. Conclusion? Proposing the separation of classes means ignoring the fact that in the Seventies we proved to be pioneers in confining them to the attic, while they still exist in advanced countries like France. Vannacci’s idea therefore illustrates its inadequacy and the lack of study on the topic.”
Data in hand, high schools welcome fewer disabled people, DSA and foreigners than professional ones. Why?
«Unfortunately, certain situations, not all, depend on a sort of prejudice which however is less rooted than in the past. In the area, I underline, there is no shortage of excellence such as the Einaudi of Viserba which was and still is a cutting-edge school also for having adopted our proposal: enhancing the figure of the school educator. Rather than confining frailties “to the broom closet”, this institute has taken up the challenge, becoming very popular with parents based on word of mouth. Moral? During open days, the inclusive side of each school must be presented more carefully to redistribute enrolments”
The short week is taking hold, what do you think?
«I am against the idea of Saturday at home. A family of freelancers will be happy not to set the alarm clock and enjoy their children at the weekend but this is only a minority. We are playing on the theme of the right to education for the most vulnerable and the need for a protected situation. Even children with a simple learning disability get more tired if the commitment is condensed into 5 days and they lose the training routine. As for the most severely disabled, they already face reduced hours and if they have working parents they risk being glued to the TV even at the weekend or entrusted to grandparents, healthcare workers or babysitters at the cost of serious sacrifices. This is why I invite families and teachers who would prefer Saturdays off, to satisfy a legitimate personal convenience, to break away from the patterns of individualism by protecting those around them.”
