Below is the letter in which Barbara Pellegatta bids farewell to IPC Verri:
Dearest students,
it seems like yesterday that I met you to greet you for the start of a new school year, and I shared with you my idea of school, declaring that I firmly believe in you, in your ability to dream and face life with determination and its challenges.
It seems like yesterday that I met your representatives, who brought me your voice, your needs and your requirements and I assured them of all my commitment and passion to give concrete answers to your requests.
It seems like yesterday…and yet a year has already passed: the teaching activities are almost coming to an end, and I am here to send you my greetings ahead of time.
Unfortunately, I am forced to be absent, as I have already had to do during the year.
But now it will be for a long period, as I have been forced to also request unpaid leave.
Before going, however, I wanted to greet you through these few lines (even if I would have liked to do it in person, as at the beginning) and tell you that, this year, I have tried with all my commitment, and with the collaboration of many of your teachers, to give you what you asked for, but unfortunately in the Institute I did not find the conditions to help you as I would have liked.
I’m sorry that I had to concentrate all my energies on bureaucratic activities, and that I had little time to meet you, to share your difficulties, to respond to your requests for help. With your teachers we have successfully organized some events and carried out some important projects, I have authorized several educational outings and visits, a few weeks ago I took steps to identify the figure of a psychologist who can support you at least a little, but I would have liked do much more.
And now that I am forced to leave, I say goodbye to you with a bit of bitterness in my heart, but I renew my trust in you: do not stop believing that an honest and clean world exists, where everyone must be respected, protected, recognized for what what he does; commit yourself personally, with correctness and loyalty, to build this world, without being frightened by those who do not have these values as a reference; have the courage to express your ideas, and to rebel against what is not right and true, because you will be the ones who write the pages of the future of our civil society. We need a better society, and I never stop believing in your strength and abilities.
I ask your parents, whom I take this opportunity to greet on this page, to support you in this difficult task that awaits you.
Dear teachers,
Through these lines, I would like to express my gratitude to those of you who have accompanied me this year: to those who, more closely, with me have worked with passion and a true spirit of dedication, to guarantee the functioning of the Institute despite amidst the thousand daily difficulties, and to those who, in the classrooms every day, worked with seriousness, responsibility and equal dedication, to provide students with tools, skills and examples of life.
I’m sorry that I also had little time to dedicate to you to support you in your educational efforts, and that I was only able to partially guarantee you that planning, that transparency and that respect for the work you do every day, which I assured you at the time of my settlement.
I could only do as much as I was allowed.
And therefore I also greet you with a bit of bitterness in my heart, but with a wish, which I also feel is mine: let us never be discouraged, let us continue to educate the new generations and educate them in legality and active and responsible citizenship, even when the institutions they disappoint.
Let us be guided by the thoughts and example of a 17-year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai, who at the United Nations in 2014 spoke of quality education as the only real weapon to change the world.
Let’s not stop believing it.
A warm greeting to all of you, and a wish in particular to the students who are preparing to face their high school diploma: good luck…
Barbara Pellegatta
Head teacher
