Innovative teaching was tested by the students of the VA of the scientific high school of the IIS Don Peppino Diana of Morcone yesterday in the multipurpose room of the Benevento prison.
The book “Parlami inside. Beyond prison, letters of (r)existence”, conceived and edited by Dr. Marilù Ardillo, born from a project of the Vincenzo Casillo Foundation which generously made the text available for the students and some guests of the Benevento prison involved in a reading project.
Thus, taking up Ardillo’s brilliant intuition, the even more captivating idea of an exchange of letters between students and prisoners was born, an exchange which came to fruition this morning through the reading of what the protagonists confided in each other.
What emerged was a deeply involved meeting, an experience of great emotional and relational empathy but, above all, an invitation to reflect on the fact that the “culprits”, after all, are the first victims of a malfunctioning system; otherwise prisons would have no reason to exist because prevention would, by all means, divert people from crime.
A moment with great educational value; a transversal and unusual way of teaching, specifically civic education, allowing students to have a strong experience, an invitation to reflect on how necessary it is to orient life towards choices that always put the person first – in particular its relational dimension – respect for the rules and the common good, which is nourished by gratuitousness and reciprocity.
The arduous task entrusted to teachers is to train aware and responsible citizens, educate them in citizenship but a broad and articulated citizenship, made up of a sense of legality, of ethics of responsibility, of critical thinking, of the ability to argue, to discuss and to share experiences with others regardless of cultural, social, linguistic, religious, racial, opinion and political affinity.
Educating for citizenship, therefore, cannot be limited to the mere knowledge of legal norms and principles, it cannot only involve the cognitive sphere, knowledge, knowledge but, above all, it must involve the ethical, relational and affective dimension, providing students with tools to interpret the information, stimulate them to take a critical view, induce them to ask questions rather than settle for pre-established answers, provide a toolbox that can be used in any context. And today’s meeting certainly achieved these objectives.
A strong thank you goes from the entire school community of the IIS Don Peppino Diana to Dr. Gianfranco Marcello, director of the Benevento prison, for his availability, to the President of the Criminal Chamber, the lawyer. Simona Barbone, accomplice in a fruitful and consolidated collaboration in the realization of the project on legality, to Dr. Marilù Ardillo, creator and editor of the text “Parlami inside. Beyond prison letters of (r)esistenza”, to the Vincenzo Casillo Foundation, for the indispensable contribution to the realization of the project, to the educators, to the penitentiary police and to all those who contributed to the success of the event. And then, a special and heartfelt thank you goes to the guests of the penitentiary for generously and courageously wanting to share their life experience with the students.
