Describing the grave exclusion suffered by students with disabilities or learning difficulties who were barred from ordinary school life, Angela Cusimano reflected in Insieme no. 4 of 1975 on how to improve the notorious segregated classrooms where such students were confined. Two years later, Law 517/1977 would finally abolish them, attempting to curtail (at least on paper) the ghettoization of these pupils. But in the forty-three years since that August 4th, the debate over inclusion has never subsided: the search for solutions that guarantee each student a truly inclusive educational path remains open. Ombre e Luci has often taken up the question, telling stories of institutions that tried to tear down the walls of exclusion. Like the example of the Miraculous Medal Institute in the province of Arezzo, which in the 1980s combined a school center with a rehabilitation one; or the initiative born in the Bergamo region in 1993 of a hybrid institute between an Enhanced School and a Socio-Educational Center (still active today).
Summer Classics from Last Year
One of the biggest worries when you go on vacation is that certain places may be inaccessible for a person with a disability. Sometimes certain challenges seem impossible—like when, in July 1978 at Alfedena, no one had thought that Patrick too would take part in the hike up Mount Méta. And yet—amid fear, joy, and recklessness—Patrick made it up that mountain in his wheelchair, alongside his friends. An unforgettable experience.
Reviewed for You by Claudio Cinus
While this September should mark a return to school for thousands of students, some adolescents have very different stories to tell: such is the case with Noodle Kid, a film about the life of a young Chinese boy forced to leave his studies to work in a restaurant (and settle his imprisoned father's debts in the process); or, closer to home, the students of a middle school in Palermo, stars of the documentary Our Road: one of the few antidotes to students' indifference toward learning is the patience and creativity of a special teacher.
Benedetta's Blog
My Friend Sister Marie-Thèo-di Dio
I don't know why they make me do some things and not others. And they keep changing them. I get mad about it in the end. I started watching lots of videos on Mum's phone so I don't use up my own. Keep reading...
The Survey – We're asking again, dear readers, but it matters to us: thanking those who have already answered the survey, we invite anyone who hasn't yet to fill it out. It takes just two minutes!
A Journey Through Art
The New Issue of Ombre e Luci
The latest issue of Ombre e Luci offers a long journey through art. A journey through art created and contemplated, with the conviction that art made together fosters—as Cristina Tersigni writes in her editorial—"truly free and inclusive communities." The opening interview (by Giulia Galeotti) features Sante Bandirali, co-founder of Uovonero, a publishing house born ten years ago from a determination to protect every child's right "to a true and beautiful book." There is also the testimony of Stefano Nasuti, future trustee under the law on the life after; Serena Sillitto exploring what the founding texts of Faith and Light truly say; and short films, books, columns, and more…