LATINA – A work on welcoming diversity and against all forms of violence. It is a project carried out by the middle school of the Giuseppe Giuliano comprehensive institute led by the director Cherubina Ramacci, which involved over 170 students and many teachers who were able to create a working and mutual support team to create a video, which will be screened at the Supercinema of Latina in June, with sign language.
Professor Maria Carmen Cogliandolo is at the head of the work team and by putting together her nine classes, she managed to involve the students in an exciting job that the students themselves greatly appreciated.
She told us about it herself
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The teacher also underlined “I thank all my colleagues from the D and EG courses who gave up a few hours to allow the rehearsals and filming to take place, in particular I thank Professor Corbi and the art professor for their technical assistance during the rehearsals. Lavinia Cestrone who created a wonderful scenography based on Frida Kahlo with the children. I thank the parents and representatives for their collaboration and for the words of esteem they expressed towards the project. But the biggest thanks goes to the children who showed interest and enthusiasm for all the activities carried out, who lived this experience to the full, socializing with the students of the other classes, learning many things while having fun together. Another special mention for Giorgio Serra, the videomaker who has worked with me since January to prepare the projection and audio bases that we used on May 7th to have the kids perform, furthermore on the 7th he filmed the entire event with 4 cameras and now he will take care of the editing, which I will take care of directing, and which will be screened at Supercinema”.
A fundamental part of this project are the two LIS experts Miriam Mastroianni and Matilde Castellani, “who followed the students from February to May, preparing videos of the topics covered during the lessons and the songs and poems translated into Lis – explains the teacher – which I sent it to the kids on Classroom to allow them to review. Some girls have become so passionate that they have also learned the songs of the other classes, because a bond has also been created between the third graders and the second graders, and so also for the first graders.”
And, as we were saying, the kids responded very well, many thanks, and one in particular which moved the teacher because “it fully expressed the meaning of what this journey was”, she said.
The message, which you can read and listen to here, is from student Chiara Nardin
At the beginning I don’t deny that there were conflicting emotions, between the fear of failing, of making mistakes and of recovering, between the joy of learning new things and enriching myself more and more.
I was scared because everything was new, new faces, a new language and even poems and songs to memorize between one note and another, I don’t even deny that I failed more than once, but I managed to recover and this showed me that I can do it, to never give up and to always continue despite everything.
In fact, this show did not only teach us sign language but gave us real life lessons and made us understand that each of us is special as we are, with all our differences, our defects and our merits.
I remember one day, when it all started, she showed us a video, it seemed banal initially, it was a video of a girl performing in a TV programme, nothing strange, right?
But shortly after that girl herself began to tell her story, a story that was not at all easy but her courage and tenacity, so young and small, were to be admired.
From there, emotions were unleashed in me that I can’t even put into writing, it made me understand that not all things in life are simple and it doesn’t matter how many problems you have… it matters how you choose to deal with them.
This show was not easy, between one change and another we had to identify ourselves in different but very important contexts: between a scarf, a banner and another we had to recreate a small stadium, yes it was small but we worked hard to ensure that seemed very great, between one flower and another we honored a very great woman: Frida Kahlo who can be an example for all of us because she gave us so much strength and courage, between one shirt and another we found ourselves faced with a very delicate but also very strong: The Shoah, talking about the horror and disgust it was.
She was able to take us by the hand and manage everything, despite the enormous difficulties she succeeded and she must be proud of this.
Having said that, the only thing I personally feel like saying to you is the simple THANK YOU
