Italy turned out to be quite a challenge. At first, I really liked it. I had an architect's chic apartment all to myself, and a set of surrogate parents who invited me over for dinner and spoke loads of Italian to me. Italian elementary school was this crazy scene, loaded with energy and bright faces. The kids were so excited to have Americans at their school- I was amazed at how communicative and eager to be helpful they were. They were absolutely adorable.
I haven't written an entry about Italian elementary school since the first day of school... maybe that's because when I wasn't there, I wanted to think about it as little as possible- haha, that's a joke...... kind of. To sum up my feelings after 3 months in Italian elementary school... I guess I would say that it's pretty much like the rest of Italy: there are things which I really admire, and there are things to which I can come up with no other response than, "WTF."
As time went on, the kids lost interest when they realized that communication with Axel was going to require some work. The kids still wanted to be helpful, but being kids, they were more preoccupied with the drama and excitement of their own lives. My job, which I normally find mentally challenging, was significantly more mentally demanding in this situation. I had to attend to what was going on in the class, which, naturally, was in Italian. My Italian improved quickly, but it was still difficult to understand everything, and impossible to understand subtleties. Normally, I'm not responsible for academic materials, only behavior, but here I had to invent exercises and make decisions about academic materials. Additionally, because his access to the environment was limited, I had to devote a large portion of my energy toward finding ways to engage him with the environment. It was my job to create interaction opportunities. Let's just say, it was energy intensive.
It was interesting to observe a classroom in a foreign country. There were things I found fascinating, and there were things that really did just make me say WTF. I was impressed by the kids' communication skills- they used their faces and hands more than American kids and seemed to be at a more mature level of communication. Their curriculum was very heavy on writing and reciting, so it seemed like they got a lot of language practice. They were also very good at self-organization. They organized themselves efficiently to play games and cooperated independently when they had to share materials for projects. There was a certain intimacy, especially amongst the boys, that I thought was incredibly sweet.
Sometimes, it just got plain crazy in that classroom. The teacher, whoever it was at the moment, would leave the room when one of her fellow teachers walked by. She would stand in the hallway, chit-chatting aimlessly about this and that. Meanwhile, the circus came to town inside the classroom. The kids might go wild, running around, jumping on things and each other, filling the room with loud chatter, which bounced around the echo-y walls. I couldn't help but laugh when Axel asked jokingly if someone had set off an atomic bomb. The teacher would come back in, yelling at them, upbraiding them for not controlling themselves. The behaviorist in me rolled her eyes all day long.
There were more things to roll my eyes at. For snack, the kids ate white bread, candy, or other junk food. This was during their "recess," which was almost always confined to the classroom. On rare occasions, we got to go outside. Between no recess and sugary, simple carbohydrate snacks, it's no wonder these kids were ready to burst at the seams.
Ok, so I guess there were more things that made me say WTF. While I don't regret having this opportunity to glimpse into the world of Italian schooling, I was quite ready to get the heck out of there by the end! I wish the Italian children the best in everything, and hope that someday the teaching staff will realize the grave mistake in not giving children the opportunity to run around outside.
My personal life exhibited a similar de-sparkling trend. I grew weary of the lack of easy-access to nature. I realized how accustomed I'd become to SLO, where there is easy-access, beautiful hiking everywhere. I didn't have any friends, and didn't have the best luck making new ones, so I got lonely. Jonathan thoughtfully introduced me to some of the young people he knew from the University, but nothing really took. I didn't have much in common with them- they were into style, fashion, and architecture, and I was into dirt, farming, and hippie-philosophies. Plus, most of them didn't live in town, so it would have required a lot of energy to arrange social situations. So at some point, I just decided that I had failed in that department, and gave up.
There were bright spots, thankfully: visiting Andy at the farms, our trip to Cinque Terre, my family coming to visit. So all in all, another learning experience to add to the books. I was quite ready to take off for Scotland by the time I left, but I certainly learned a lot from the challenge. Arrivederci, Italia!
