"A misunderstanding. Nothing more". Valentina Savona, head teacher of the Pacinotti scientific high school, closes the controversy that broke out last Saturday after the appearance on the institutional website of an inscription describing the social context of the school. "There is a provision of the ministry that requires schools", all without distinction, "to describe the social and cultural context. This we have done, nothing more ». "That's how it is", confirms Massimo Depau, regional president of the national association of principals, "the Ministry of Education asks us to indicate that context, based on the analysis of the territory, and to indicate constraints and opportunities". «Instrumental, useless and even paradoxical controversy», summarizes Marco Pitzalis, professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Cagliari.

Misunderstanding

Case closed, then? It all started after the publication on Pacinotti's institutional website of a few lines (then deleted after many comments on social networks read accusations of racism and classism at the school) which read as follows: "The majority context of origin of the students is of an average type -tall. Foreign students are a small minority, belonging to a few ethnic groups ". Just to get an idea, at Pacinotti there are about forty out of over a thousand. "The three-year training offer plan, which incorporates the elements of the self-assessment report and transforms them into effective actions, is asked to describe the context according to the services that are offered", explains the manager. If so, then why were those few lines deleted? “Because they have been misunderstood. For example: if a person shows up at a party in a dress that is considered inappropriate, what does he do? He changes it to prevent the discussion from sliding into controversy. We did the same thing: since people know national documents such as the one that requires schools to indicate that context, since those few lines have generated misunderstandings, we have removed them ".

School segregation

Marco Pitzalis, sociologist and expert in education and communication, explains that «for 20 years schools have been competing and what we call the paradigm of choice has been created. In the neoliberal logic imposed by those who reformed the school, families choose based on the information they receive. There is a ministerial format, schools adapt. In this context, families tend to build self-selection processes that in sociology we call school segregation , which can be by class or by gender ", Translated, the choice of a school is made" also on the basis of social characteristics. In this context, inequalities in schools exist and are the product of the reforms of the last twenty years ". Having said that, could the school not have communicated that passage better, avoiding the generation of controversy? «Maybe yes», Pitzalis replies, «but that communication had only an informative purpose. Just as a ministerial format prescribes ".

(ma. mad.)

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