Italian education

Art School, Castello Sforzesco, Milan

December 6, 2011

One of the areas inside the castle that Leonardo da Vinci designed for the Duke of Milan houses a school for applied arts, appropriately enough.    

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Education in Italy: One Foreign Parent’s Views & Experiences

February 12, 2011

Caveat: The articles in this section are based on my family’s experience of the Italian education system in a specific time and place: Milan, and later Lecco, from 1991 to 2007. I haven’t lived in Italy all my life, nor ever attended any Italian educational institution myself, so my views may be biased, and your mileage may [...]

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Ross Got Into Woodstock School

April 4, 2007

A week or so ago I ran across this on the blog of one of my new colleagues at Sun: To A Daughter Leaving Home When I taught you at eight to ride a bicycle, loping along beside you as you wobbled away on two round wheels, my own mouth rounding in surprise when you [...]

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A School Year Abroad

March 1, 2007

In my encounters with fellow alumni of Woodstock School, many naturally ask me if and when my own daughter will attend. The answer is: with a great deal of luck, she will start in August, 2007, for an exchange year which will be her fourth/senior year at Woodstock, but only her penultimate year of Italian [...]

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School Cheating in Italy

December 7, 2006

School continues to be hell, not just for Rossella, but also for her parents. She scraped through her repeat second year at a new (private, Catholic) school with two academic debits (failed classes) – math and physics, as always. Being in private school has advantages: last year she had private tutoring in math from a [...]

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WOSA NA Reunion 2006

September 22, 2006

Note: Some of what follows will be incomprehensible and/or dull to those who did not attend Woodstock School. I have recently learned that I have far more readers among Woodstockers than I ever imagined, so this one’s for them – and anyone else who’s interested! The annual reunion of the Woodstock Old Students’ Association / [...]

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Education – What Skills Should We Build for a Lifetime?

July 16, 2006

I have written about my vast and varied experiences with education. I haven’t reached any firm conclusions about what education should be, I just know that a lot of what I endured didn’t work for me, and much of our daughter’s schooling to date has hasn’t worked for her. And it’s very hard to say what will work for [...]

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Coming and Goings: Travels and Visitors, Spring 2006

June 7, 2006

Enrico returned from Barcelona on May 15th, just as a slew of visitors arrived. My aunt Harriet (mother’s sister) stopped by for a few days on her way to join a university tour of Italian and French gardens. At the same time, blogger JD Lasica and his family stayed with us for two days out [...]

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Private School in Italy

September 20, 2005

It’s been a while since I wrote about the Italian education system, specifically as relates to my daughter. Last year, her second at the liceo artistico, was a disaster. She started the year with three academic “debits” – courses she had failed the year before, and was expected to study over the summer and be tested on [...]

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Sex Education in Italian Schools

February 20, 2005

What with all the fuss in the US about sex education in schools, I was curious to know what, if anything, would be done about it in Italian schools. I got my answer recently, when Ross’ class had two 3-hour sessions at school. Parents were not notified before or after, and wouldn’t have known it [...]

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A Travelling Show of Italian Classic I Promessi Sposi

October 11, 2004

The weekend of October 9-10, all of downtown Lecco was the stage for the Corteo Manzoniano, a “travelling” representation of that famous piece of local literature, Manzoni’s I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), most of whose action takes place in and around Lecco and Milan. Groups of actors in gorgeous costumes paraded among five or six fixed [...]

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Integration of Muslim Students in Italian Schools

July 17, 2004

The integration of Islamic immigrants into Italian society raises thorny problems. A Milan high school has announced that this fall it will have a first-year class composed only of Muslim students, at the request of their parents. These students have completed eight years at a private Islamic school in Milan. (This school is not accredited [...]

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Being Bilingual is Good for Your Brain

June 20, 2004

There is a deep-rooted superstition among some Italian doctors and teachers that raising a child bilingual causes the child problems, such as slower overall language development, and academic problems later in school. Fortunately, I never fell for that line, as I had done my homework about bilingualism while still pregnant (above). And it doesn’t stand [...]

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School “Mortality” in Italy

June 5, 2004

Today is the last day of school (in Lombardia). Making the local headlines yesterday was a 14-year-old girl who threw herself off a bridge, because she knew she would fail her first year of high school. Her reaction is both extreme and unusual, because failing one or more years of high school – any high [...]

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Compulsory School Age, Bought Diplomas

May 23, 2004

There have been two big pieces of news in Italian education this week: The Education Ministry has announced that the age for compulsory schooling will be raised from its current 15 to 18 years. Parents and communities will be tasked with enforcing attendance, on pain of fines. (This law already exists for under-15s, though it doesn’t [...]

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The Old School Tie

February 22, 2004

I went each year to Ross’ class play, taking a seat in front row center so I could videotape. One year, this put me right next to a dignified old woman who had to be Signora Pavone, the retired principal of Setti Carraro. Our friend Patrizia, whose recommendation had originally helped get Ross into the [...]

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Some Positive Aspects of Italian Education

February 22, 2004

Kids commuting into Lecco for high school I have devoted many words to the things I don’t like in the Italian education system; now it’s time to talk about some things that I do like, particularly in comparison with the American system. American schools are largely funded by property taxes in each local school district: [...]

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Italian High Schools

February 15, 2004

Some Observations from a Non-Italian Parent The Italian public high school system is complex, with dozens of different types of schools, divided into two major branches, licei and institutes. The licei were traditionally the college-preparatory schools, while the technical and professional institutes were intended to put people directly into the workforce. I say “were,” because [...]

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Religion in Italian Schools

January 25, 2004

An agreement was made in 1884 between the Italian Republic and the Vatican, modified by the Lateran Concorde of 1929, and ratified in a new law in 1985, which reads: The Italian Republic, recognizing the value of religious culture, and keeping in mind that the principles of Catholicism are part of the historic patrimony of [...]

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Evolution: How It is Taught in Italian Schools

January 10, 2004

“A new Great Awakening is sweeping the country, with Americans increasingly telling pollsters that they believe in prayer and miracles, while only 28 percent say they believe in evolution.” Nicholas Kristof, NYT, Jan 7, 2003 This shouldn’t be surprising, given that, in some parts of America, public schools are required to teach evolution with disclaimers that it [...]

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