#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #SICILIA #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Italy, #Sicilia Libertaria: EDUCATION AND MERIT, THE FALSE CONCEPTS (First part) (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 For a few weeks now we have had a new ministry, that of Education and Merit. Some

Solon from the pages of the establishment newspapers immediately pontificated how
only in Italy is it necessary to reaffirm the value of Merit, being in his
opinion completely taken for granted. ---- But we who are simple souls, albeit
with some reading behind us, ask ourselves the question: "What is merit?". But
also: "Who are the deserving and why can they be defined as such?" and, again:
"Does the[alleged]merit give the deserving any rights or even duties? Which?".
---- Hegel argued that "Everything that is known is not known", meaning that any
apparent evidence, precisely as such, is not investigated. Therefore, the "known"
is not really known and a more rigorous analysis does not turn out to be so
evident. This is exactly what happens with the notion of merit.

There are military decorations such as La Croix pour la mérite or various war
merit medals. In this case the meaning of merit is quite evident. Behavior that
has significantly harmed the enemy or prevented him from harming him, in an
equally decisive way. One is always deserving of something, but the "sniper" who
has killed dozens of enemies, deserving of a Medal of Merit, for the other party
is a "sniper" on whom a bounty is placed.

In our case, speaking of Education, to what and to whom does the merit refer?
Perhaps to the three main actors of education: students, teachers and, it must
not be forgotten, politicians who establish the programmatic guidelines, the
disbursement of funds for structures, school construction and maintenance of real
estate assets, the hiring of teachers and so on.

The current picture of school education is not reassuring: an inadequate number
of attending students, a significant number of dropouts, a not exciting
percentage of students who enroll in university from high school. On the basis of
these results, the merits of the last governments appear very scarce,
non-existent. The current Minister of Education and Merit, Valditara, shares
these demerits having been one of the drafters of the infamous Gelmini law. Not
to mention consistency, which if it were a merit could be worth a split Zero on
our report card, which has practically crossed all the parties of the Center
Right: Lega, FI, AN, Futuro e Libertà, FdI. Not to mention his close ties with
the congregation of the "Legionnaires of Christ", a fundamentalist clerical
association, founded by the pedophile Marcial Maciel, who interpreted the vow of
chastity in an original way, generating three children with two women. From the
secular perspective, which underlies the republican constitution, the current
minister cannot claim particular merits.

If we consider the value of merit referred to teachers in the Italian school
system, from primary to secondary, this should be evaluated, in my opinion,
according to two essential parameters: the ability to teach and the ability to
listen to requests that come not only from generics " classes of students", but
rather from the set of students with whom one relates, students who are also and
above all people.

The ability to teach derives from various elements, above all from a
non-superficial preparation of the teacher. In other words, you can teach well,
that is, make the topics of your course understandable and interesting, only if
you really master the subject you are teaching. This preparation is the result
not only of a valid curriculum of studies, but also of constant and
non-superficial updates. The training of a teacher, but the discussion can extend
to all other professional figures, does not end on the day of the discussion of
the thesis, but must continue over time, because in four or five years of
university studies one does not master a subject such as universal history,
physics, or philosophy of the last 2500 years. On the other hand, the world and
life do not stop on graduation day, but evolve and even radically transform
themselves. Just as research in the various fields evolves and is updated.

Currently, what is called "teacher updating" takes place in a partial,
non-organic, non-systematic way, it is above all left to the initiative of
individuals.

The ability to communicate, to teach one's subject, derives not only from the
preparation of individual teachers, but also from the ability to communicate and
convey interest and curiosity to students. But this attitude cannot be reduced to
a technique, a method. Above all, it derives from the teacher's ability to convey
involvement and passion for the subjects he teaches. In other words, if the
teacher doesn't like his subject and his job, he won't be able to teach well, he
won't be able to "involve" the students.

However, teaching does not only mean transmitting information and data, it means
communicating: a dynamic that takes place between people, which affects different
areas of the personality. Only if one has the ability to teach a whole, a
"class", but at the same time not to neglect the individual realities, is one a
good teacher. A far from simple objective, if we consider that an adolescent
carries with him not only the problems of a student, but also those related to
his age, to the social and family situation he lives and not least those, to put
it Hegelianly, "of his time ", of the historical and cultural moment that it
lives. How to evaluate, starting from the considerations just made, the "merit"
of our teachers? Using a recurring expression in the Anglo-Saxon world, we could
say that "Italian teachers have ample room for improvement". However, these
shortcomings must also be evaluated in relation to the situation of individual
careers, the difficulty of entering the world of work, the precariousness that
reigns supreme, the scarce incentives to improve and adapt one's training,
salaries in line with those of many European countries. Undoubtedly, merit should
be encouraged, in the sense that activities such as updating and studying should
be encouraged and recognized. However, they should be the norm and not left to
the initiative of the "willing" and classified with a meritocratic logic.

But the main issue, which the ambiguous formula "Ministry of Education and Merit"
seems to evoke, is that of merit referred to students. What is the ideal type of
"deserving" student? And why would that be? And thanks to whom or what? We will
talk about it in a next post.

Henry Ferris

www.ferrisstudies.com

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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