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: the higher the value of the homes in the district, the wealthier the schools. This creates a vicious circle: parents buy or rent homes in the wealthiest area they can afford, so that their kids can go to better schools, then the rich (school districts) get richer, and the poor get poorer.

In Italy, the public education system is centrally managed and funded, so you don’t get these kinds of gross inequities. And there is freedom of choice: any child can go to almost any school. Elementary and middle schools give preference to kids living nearby, because most parents choose schools close to home for their young children, but most schools have room for kids from other neighborhoods as well.

The choices are not always obvious. For Ross’ preschool and elementary we chose Parco Trotter, because it was close to home and uniquely situated in a huge park. But the son of our portinaia (building concierge), living three floors below us, commuted a couple of metro stops to an elementary school which had a better reputation academically – it was well known in the neighborhood (though not by us, since we were newcomers) that Parco Trotter did not prepare kids as well for middle school. And, as I’ve mentioned, for the first two years of middle school Ross commuted across town, to an exclusive yet public school.

At the end of middle school, students choose both the type of high school they will attend, and its location. In a city like Milan, there is usually more than one of each type of school, each with its own style, history, and reputation.

You might think that students in smaller cities would have fewer choices, but they can and do go to school anywhere within a large radius. Students commute to Lecco (the provincial capital) from far up Lake Como and its surrounding valleys, and some even come from Milan – 50 kilometers away, 40 minutes by train. Others commute from Lecco to schools in Milan. I have heard of kids commuting from Milan to the liceo artistico in Lecco, even though there are two or three licei artistici right there in Milan. I would not be surprised if the reverse was also true – kids from Lecco commuting to a liceo artistico in Milan – though I don’t know the specific reasons for either choice.

This freedom of choice fosters competition among schools; a recent article in Il Corriere della Sera told how some schools are offering courses such as Japanese and Arabic to attract students, while another is popular because of a well-organized exchange program with foreign schools (I researched this one, and was disappointed to find that this is only for short visits, a week or two, but there is an increasingly popular program wherein kids go away for their fourth year and penultimate of high school).

As the differences fade between licei and technical institutes, in terms of preparing students for university, I expect competition will become even fiercer. We can hope that this leads to more innovation in curricula and other areas, as we all (parents, students, schools, government, and society at large) try to figure out how best to prepare our kids for life in today’s global economy.

You might also like:

Fuck-you money Funny Italian Street Names To Flush or Not to Flush Italian School Schedules and Calendars

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 the distinction was officially eliminated by educational reform legislation in 1962. It took time for these reforms to percolate through the system, but nowadays students are accepted into almost any university program from almost any type of high school, although it is still true that some types of high schools prepare you better than others for particular areas of higher study.

Liceo is the traditional, rigorous college preparatory program: five years of studies culminating in the esame della maturità, a series of nationally-set written and oral exams. There were originally four types of liceo:

• classico, where you study Classical Greek and Latin as well as the usual subjects – Italy’s is the only school system in Europe (and probably the world) where Classical Greek can still be studied in high school;
• scientifico, with more emphasis on science, but also Latin (“promotes rigorous thinking” is the theory);
• artistico, which was originally a four-year program leading not to the maturità, but directly to a fine arts academy (accademia delle belle arti), or to a school of architecture.
• magistrale, designed to train elementary-school teachers, though I believe that nowadays new teachers at all levels also need a university degree.

There are also some new types of liceo:

• linguistico, which offers a variety of foreign languages; and
• Europeo, which in some cases seems to have a jurisprudence/economics focus – pre-law school?

The four-year liceo artistico has now almost vanished; my daughter and most of her peers are in a five-year program, called “experimental”. Artistico has the longest hours of any school, with 19 periods a week of studio art in addition to 19 hours of academic classes, and homework in both arenas. For the first two years, everyone does the same subjects, then they choose one of four areas of specialization: architecture, art conservation and restoration, visual arts (painting and drawing), and graphic arts (which involves at least some computer graphics).

May 16, 2004 – As we are learning the painful way, this curriculum is overloaded. There is no way that 14-year-olds can learn physics or algebra in two 50-minute periods a week; even the teachers tacitly admit this, by giving occasional extra classes after school. Ross and many of her classmates have needed extra tutoring this year in one or more subjects, and a number are likely to fail the year; we’re working hard to help Ross not be one of them.

The failure rate at Italian high schools is astonishing. I don’t have any hard numbers, but practically every kid I hear about has repeated one or more years of high school – at least there is no great stigma in being bocciato (flunked). Since school is only required up to age 15 [this has since changed], one girl in Ross’ class has already dropped out. Another is probably dyslexic, but her parents have apparently never figured this out, nor is the school offering any help, except to suggest that she shift to the four-year program with fewer academic subjects.

The core curriculum seems to be the same at all licei. Nobody graduates without having read Dante and Manzoni (Ross’ class is also reading Umberto Eco), and having reviewed world history starting (again) from prehistoric man. All schools now require a second language (usually English), and many offer a third (French or German). Judging from Ross’ courseload, they’re probably also all doing math, physics, biology, and Italian. In general, I have been impressed by the articulateness and cultural depth of Italian high schoolers, and their schooling clearly has something to do with it – when they survive it.

I know less about the institutes. They are trade schools, with a basic academic curriculum, plus specific preparation in a range of areas from accounting to hospitality to construction. Most institutes theoretically prepare you to go straight into a job, but in practice many graduates of the istituti choose to go on to university.

see also: The Italian Ministry of Education website

You might also like:

Fuck-you money Funny Italian Street Names To Flush or Not to Flush School “Mortality” in Italy