BY FRANCESCA MORRELLI
Is it true that cultivating one’s dreams and passions slows down aging? If so, then Michele Giorgio is destined to remain young for a long time to come.
In fact, a few evenings ago, in the setting of the Alzheimer Center of the Giovanni XXIII Foundation, this illustrious Bitonto Principal presented a work curated from his memories and his pen, entitled “From Puglia to Friuli Venezia Giulia. Diary of a principal”, (Adda Editore). The text, which describes his experience as Headmaster – and not as Headmaster, as underlined several times by those present, given that Giorgio conceives the school as an open laboratory of minds -, retraces his professional experience in the north in 1984, times in which social inclusion for southerners was extremely difficult. However, Principal Giorgio, with his empathetic and patient manner, with his docile yet decisive manner, managed to be appreciated even in difficult environments and to overcome the most difficult situations.
These gray, yet very bright times for the career of Michele Giorgio, were reviewed during the meeting, coordinated by Marino Pagano, director of the Research Center, and fueled by the dialogue with Senator Giovanni Procacci, the journalist Valentino Losito and the director of “from Bitonto” Mario Sicolo.
After brief speeches by Nicola Castro, director of the host structure, who recalled the author’s past commitment to the foundation, and by the Mayor Francesco Ricci, who thanked the principal for his tireless commitment to the community and the protection of a collective memory, Giovanni Procacci underlined the educational role of the school and the teacher for the formation of the person and personality, paying particular attention to the teaching of civic education and to ‘difficult’ students.
Valentino Losito – “there are jobs like journalist and teacher that never end and continue to smell human” – highlighted how much there is a factual and operational gap between education and training, and it is the latter that the author has always aimed at. Finally, Mario Sicolo, editor of the preface, saw in this memorial a sharing of philosophy, history, memory, poetry, but above all of the truth of human relationships and history, because it is a witness of the times and a hymn to the freedom of man, in the possibility of knowledge of the other.
In short, what could a man of great caliber such as Principal Michele Giorgio have added to such beauty? He only gave a supreme and humble thanks.
