“My six-year-old told me: ‘Mom they are yelling and banging on the table.’ The 14-year-old added: “Yes, it’s crazy that they use the whistle and shout”, and then: “I know English better than the English teacher himself”. What was I supposed to do?” Elin Mattsson is a Finnish mother of 4 children (aged 15, 14, 6 and 3). She is a 42 year old painter, her husband is 46 years old and he is an Information Technology Manager who works remotely. Attracted by Sicily, last August, the Mattsson family decided to move to Syracuse and enroll their children in school. But she found herself faced with a school system totally different from the one experienced so far, in Finland, in Spain but also in Great Britain. So, after just two months of Sicilian life and classroom lessons, the Mattssons decided to leave. They left Italy, but first they wrote an open letter – collected and translated by Roberta De Stefani and published on SiracusaNews – to illustrate the reasons why they do not want their children to study in Italian schools. Better Spain, where they had already lived before.
The painter: absurd, a kindergarten without games
The Mattsson family’s doubts began on the first day of school, when they presented themselves to formalize enrollment: the noise of the classes was too loud even to concentrate and, peeking inside a classroom, the painter was shocked seeing a 7-year-old boy doing an exercise in front of an angry teacher. Amazement also for the breaks: short and made in the classroom, where one is already seated for hours. While in Finland, the letter explains, students have a 15-minute break between one lesson and another and leave the classroom to play together in the garden or on the patio, “supervised” by the teachers. The perplexities then increased when the mother accompanied her youngest son, 3 years old, to kindergarten: “I was worried when I saw the garden. Nothing to play with? Where were all the things to climb? I mean, I’ve seen equipment for kids to play in city parks, so they sure know how to get it. Shouldn’t children play in kindergarten too? No, there was just an empty garden around the perimeter of the building. She didn’t fit. Kindergarteners are mostly sitting inside, still around a table doing little things with just their hands. Having outdoor experiences is essential for every learner. Kindergarten teaching should come from play. In Finnish kindergartens the children go out every morning between 9 and 11, they can play freely (they have toy cars, climbing objects, sandboxes to play with, all kinds of toys similar to those found here in the parks). Once the lunch hour arrives, you enter inside. Subsequently, indoor activities take place and then outdoor play again in the afternoon from 1 to 4 pm (dresses according to the weather) », Elin Mattsson points out in his letter.
The choice of Spain
The family on the run also disputes the pedagogical methods of the teachers, the screams, but also the life always on the run and the traffic in the car. In Finland, he says, children (7-12 years) go to school on their own, use the bicycle or walk, and if they live more than 5 km from the school they can take the school bus and go home alone when the school day is over. “In Spain they had older children who stood at intersections with neon lights and stopped traffic in the morning and afternoon when the younger ones crossed – concludes the mother – In Finland you teach your children how to behave in traffic so they can go to alone. Bye, bye Syracuse and hola Espana».
The mayor of Syracuse: things already known
The mayor of Syracuse Francesco Italia cannot and does not want to go into the merits of the issues related to the specific relationships of the teachers with the Mattsson family, but comments on the story as follows: «This letter certainly does not serve to evaluate the differences between the Finnish and Italian school systems , given that the former is recognized as one of the best in the world. I can only say that in the system in which they are inserted, the teachers, in Syracuse as in the rest of Italy, work wonders with ridiculous salaries and that governments should invest much more in the school, offering full-time in primary school, and enhancing the continuous training of teachers and staff. As far as we are concerned, thanks to the Pnrr and the use of other regional funds, we are investing more than 10 million euros in school construction including energy efficiency works, gyms, canteens, but it is quite clear that the mayors have not no knowledge of programs, curricular and extra-curricular activities”.
January 9, 2023 | 10:58
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
