At 85, Wilma Mosca still wants to take a seat on the small chairs used by her children. On the other hand, her role has always been that of her, among her students: «I never wanted to observe them from another perspective, my place is to be together with them». But after more than 50 years of activity, his “Boys’ Club” is closing its gates. No one has taken up her baton, and the apartment will be returned to the owner.
The last day of the kindergarten which has become a point of reference in Municipality II, an example of cutting-edge primary education, is scheduled for Friday 28 June. Among his students also the writer Niccolò Ammaniti and the director of the Municipality of Rome and former general director of Istat Tommaso Antonucci. But there are hundreds of faces who have passed through the school, like that of the actress Emanuela Fanelli who taught in the “Boys’ Club” for ten years. She was also there yesterday at the party organized to say goodbye to Wilma and her children.
THE PARTY
In Via Belluno 1, in front of the green-painted gate, hundreds of local residents and former students arrived to hug Wilma again throughout Sunday. A double celebration, for the teacher who also blew out 85 candles yesterday. But beware of talking to her about retirement: “I don’t know what it is,” she jokes, “this is my passion, and I won’t stop passing on the enthusiasm of growth to the little ones.” This, in fact, is the secret of Wilma’s teaching: «we approach children by considering them for what they are: people. We wonder about their emotions. The nursery period is the most important time because it is there that you discover who you are and who the other is. Here children learn to be together, with their diversity. We teach them to relate to each other and alternate moments of free play with moments of learning.”
HISTORY
The project was started in 1973 by Wilma Mosca and her husband Vincenzo Recchia. Born in Via Panisperna, the kindergarten then moved to via Forlì, finally arriving in the historic headquarters in via Belluno 1. The activity continued even after Recchia’s death, but today Wilma has chosen to greet her students with an event that gathered hundreds of friendly faces around the school, also thanks to the enthusiasm born with a post on the Facebook group “Quelli di Piazza Bologna”.
MEMORIES
Emanuela Fanelli, winner of the David di Donatello for her role in “There’s Still Tomorrow”, taught in Via Belluno from the age of 22 to 32. «Here I was simply “Apple”, that’s what they called me. They were very important years of my life. And many things I learned here have also accompanied me in my work. The greatest lesson I take with me is learning to present myself honestly, with children as well as with the public.”
Even for many of the former students who came to say goodbye to Wilma, what remains is “a human approach that remains imprinted inside you”, explain Guglielmo, Pietro and Irene. All three are twenty years old, and were students of the “Boys’ Club”. «We met here when we were two years old, and today we are still friends – they comment – Wilma treated us children like little adults. She tried to understand our emotions by giving value to our feelings. Thus, bonds were created that still continue, despite the years.” Today the school closes, but there is no room for melancholy: “there is only emotion – explains Wilma – there is nothing more beautiful than being able to say goodbye to everyone for a job that has lasted 50 years”.
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