Many meetings between graduating students and graduates are organized in high schools, but the event organized by the “Fermi-Sacconi-Ceci Former Students Association”, however, is decidedly original. The protagonists of the event were yesterday’s students, who graduated from the Ascoli Technical Institute in 1964, who had the opportunity to meet the protagonists of tomorrow’s Italy: current students of the institute. It could be defined as the meeting almost a sort of intergenerational passing of the baton between the students who will obtain the technical diploma in July and those who left Ascoli, in the sixties of the last century, with an industrial expert diploma and a great desire to find a job.
The morning begins with the greeting of the school director and president of the Ex Pupils association, prof. Ado Evangelisti, who in presenting the event underlines the importance of such a moment of comparison and authentic dialogue between generations.
The word then passes to the testimonies of former students: Giovan Battista Spalvieri, Giancarlo Tomassetti, Giuseppe Pagliacci, Paolo Raimondi, Bruno Argieri, Enrico Lucarini, Guerrino Giacomini, Roberto Massi, Gianni Silvestri, Giuseppe Di Benedetto, Gianfranco Vaineri, Piero Giantomassi, Domino Galiffa , Cassiano Malpiedi, absent (justified, as they would say in school jargon) Gianfranco Vaineri.
There were many anecdotes told during the morning of last Saturday, April 20, in the main hall of the ITT “Fermi” in Ascoli, all of which were listened to with great attention by the young graduates. Some of those boys, who left in 1964 from the then ITI (Industrial Technical Institute) Enrico Fermi of Ascoli, became technicians and employees in local companies, others became entrepreneurs or managers of large industrial groups, some of them became university professors or school director, others have taken paths away from the world of technology, even becoming musicians or directors of major sporting events. For a few hours, enchanted by the real life stories of former students, the graduating students were able to listen to very different experiences from those proposed by the various “influencers” present in the world of social media or the self-styled “easy money experts” who abound online. Some of the former students admit that they have made choices against the grain, giving up their careers so as not to sacrifice their loved ones or compromise with their conscience.
Stories from other times? Maybe yes, but they are authentic stories, which reach the hearts of the young people present who silently treasure them. The stories are suddenly interrupted by the question of a graduating student who, evidently struck by the determination shown by the “senior” graduates, asks them which is the secret to achieving these goals. The response given by the former students was clear: tenacity, determination and honesty, values that are necessary today as then to be able to achieve success without becoming slaves to it. In addition to the former students, a former teacher of the Fermi Institute also spoke: Prof. Giorgio Bagnara, who in the sixties had among his students some of the graduates present at the event. His words and his precious testimony tell of a school in which the relationship between students and teachers was characterized by trust, respect and awareness of the importance of study as a tool for human growth and professional fulfillment.
“For us, the first graduates from the ITI of Ascoli Piceno, obtaining the diploma was the realization of a dream“, says former student Giuseppe Pagliacci, before then, in fact, young people wishing to receive a technical education were forced to enroll at the Montani Institute in Fermo. The Technical Institute in Ascoli was born in May 1960, thanks to a Decree of the President of the Republic, immediately collecting many registrations from the city and neighboring towns. The dialogue between the first graduates of the ITI Fermi and the current students was very informal, some former students confessed to having had bad grades during his school career, however always demonstrating great respect for the teachers, a message became clear: the technical diploma, which allows training not only in professional subjects but also in the humanistic and logical-mathematical areas, is in progress. capable of opening many paths, as long as you get involved and take advantage of your high school period to lay the foundations for realizing your dreams and learning to cultivate them.
