OL meets... a past we thought buried
Ombre e Luci has returned often throughout its history to the question of disabled students in Italian schools. The tone has shifted with the occasion, the stories, the proposals made, and the decisions taken. This month, the tone is truly angry. Because this issue, O&L meets Laura Coccia, who comments on the terrible legislative decree 182/2020 — a decree that, in one blow, sweeps us back over forty years, to a school and society we thought we had left behind. A school that segregates and excludes, pushing the most vulnerable students into the margins.
The promise looked so different
On paper, Italy had actually led the way in school inclusion. In 1977, the country abolished segregated classrooms — and in some places, even earlier, thanks to particularly forward-thinking figures like Adriana Lodi, a Communist Party parliamentarian for twenty-three years. The only woman to serve as city councilor in Bologna during the 1960s (first under Mayor Dozza, then Fanti), Lodi not only built the city's first nursery schools in 1969 — three years before the national law of 1971 — but fought to shut down special schools and separate classrooms, opening the doors to children with disabilities. It's a remarkable story, told in this documentary (written and directed by Danilo Caracciolo and Laura Corazza), made possible in part by the Ombre e Luci archive.
From Italy to the classrooms of Tanzania
Another school story comes to us from Silvia Camisasca, this time from a village in southern Tanzania. Before the mountain troops from Bolzano arrive with a custom-made wheelchair, it is Justo — Ibrahimui's best friend — who lifts his companion onto his shoulders and carries him to school each day. Three kilometers there. Three kilometers back.
This month's books
Our reading recommendations this month soar high, reaching children and adults alike, in school and beyond. Nicla Bettazzi offers a wide survey of fragility and disability in today's children's literature.
Ages 0–13
I see all of us as clovers, and to me disabled people have one extra leaf — if we love them, we'll be truly very lucky. They are the rare four-leaf clovers. (Elisa, age 11)
Benedetta's blog
My Curriculum
At school they asked me to write my curriculum but I really didn't understand what I was supposed to do, what I was supposed to write, but then thankfully my classmates explained it to me. Read more...
This month's post
"That girl has crutches like me. I want to be like that girl."
That's Myah, a 'Spina Bifida Warrior Princess' watching the Toyota #SuperBowl ad with @JessicaLong.
Representation matters. ❤️
📷 @scheiderlv15 - Myah's mom on IG pic.twitter.com/d7DXPcHJVF
— Paralympic Games (@Paralympics) February 9, 2021
Fede e Luce Life
February 2 was the Feast of Light — the true birthday of the international movement, which turned fifty this year! For the occasion, Father Marco Bove and Raul Izquierdo Garcia each wrote a letter to all the communities.
In Italy, the celebrations have begun. There was an online meeting of the communities of Sicily, a gathering of representatives from the Centro 1 in Rome, and in Gratosoglio (Milan), where Nora and her community celebrated the Feast of Light in person (with proper safety measures in place): here's the story.
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