No last-minute defections: yesterday morning all 37 (there were many registrations) male and female candidates showed up in the Aula Magna of the San Benedetto Institute for the preliminary rounds of the Oratory Challenges held for the first time in this edition of the Festival of the Word also at middle schools in Parma.
The themes proposed by the participants were numerous and original, very good and convincing in their presentations, despite the thrill of performing with a microphone in front of their peers and teachers (for many it was the first time). Difficult for the jury of the Word Festival, led by prof. Giorgio Triani (creator of the initiative), select, among so much quality, the most deserving. And the themes? The most disparate: the pros and cons of cell phones (at school, in relationships between kids), the glorification of sport (table tennis, horse riding, football) even in disability, gender issues (equalization of salaries in US basketball, women in F1), school (no to school Saturdays and grades), the use of machines to replace human work, the importance of literature, respect for rules, psychology, doing homework alone, the advantages of multilingualism or living in a country and then magic (the good kind), Pinocchio’s dilemma and other themes that we don’t all discover now.
To know them, all you need to do is be present at the Convitto Maria Luigia on Thursday 30 May, on the opening evening of the Word Festival 2024, during which the finals of the Oratory Challenges (middle and high schools) will take place. The jury will also include Vera Gheno and Marco Balzano, protagonists with Emma Manghi and Umberto Guidoni of the colloquial meeting “Words in movement”, with free admission (no reservations) while places last.
Info: www.festivaldellaparola.it
