Scuola materna (kindergarten) is a wonderful thing. In Italy, every parent has the right – though not the obligation – to put their child in preschool, free of charge, for three years, until they begin first grade in their sixth year. Traditionally, this seems to have been regarded as a way to socialize kids to… Continue reading Scuola Materna: Public Preschool in Italy
Author: Deirdre Straughan
Asilo Nido: Daycare in Italy
Jan 29, 2003 / revised and expanded Jan 26, 2007 When we arrived in Italy in December, 1990, our daughter Rossella was 16 months old. I had been full-time at home with her for most of her life, except for two months of increasingly long hours in a parents’ cooperative daycare center at Yale in… Continue reading Asilo Nido: Daycare in Italy
Largo al Factotum… Why People Think I Know Opera
Those of you who know me from Adaptec/Roxio days probably remember the tag line appended to my every email and newsletter: “Largo al Factotum del CD-R.” It’s a pun on a line from Figaro’s song in the opera in “The Barber of Seville.” The original phrase is “Largo al factotum della citta’” (“Make way for… Continue reading Largo al Factotum… Why People Think I Know Opera
Teenagers and Cellphones – Standard Equipment for Italian Adolescents
David Pogue, technology writer for the New York Times, mentioned in his weekly column (some time ago) some ways in which Europe is technologically ahead of the US. We’re certainly far ahead in the use of SMS (short message service), by which you can use your cellphone to send text messages to someone else’s cellphone.… Continue reading Teenagers and Cellphones – Standard Equipment for Italian Adolescents
Servants: Household Help in Developing Countries
If I mention that I grew up having live-in servants, many Americans assume that I must have been filthy rich. But, when I lived in Asia, most foreign families there (and many local ones as well) had servants, and needed them for very practical reasons. Picture yourself as the wife of an American diplomat or… Continue reading Servants: Household Help in Developing Countries