It happened in Cuneo, Alba, Palermo and now also in Pordenone. The Student Action group linked to Gioventù Nazionale – an offshoot of Fratelli d’Italia – has distributed leaflets in front of several schools with a QR Code that directs you to a survey to be filled out” in which students are expressly asked to report left-wing teachers in their school.
A witch hunt and an invitation to denunciation that is horrifying Daniela Girgentieditorial director of Tecnica della scuola, the most followed portal in the world of information with over 150 thousand contacts a day, which on 9 February will be completely renovated in terms of graphics, «but with the same seriousness of content that has distinguished us since its foundation», she says.
Let’s go back to the National Youth stunt…
«I consider it a very serious initiative. It is a pure visibility operation. Students cannot judge teachers, it is not their role. They are “learners”. There is no respect. With what authority should they carry out investigations of this kind? Who gave him this assignment? These are things that don’t stand up.”
However, this leads us to a somewhat provocative question: are the majority of teachers left-wing?
«No, this is a simplification that doesn’t hold up. Professors represent the society in which they live. I am not a body separated from reality. Today we live in a liquid society, where clear-cut lines no longer exist as in the past. It cannot be assumed that the teaching staff is “detached” from reality. There are professors, from the left, from the right, from the center and so on.”
Yet in the Seventies and Eighties the world of school was perceived as divided…
«Of course, but because the whole country had moved to the left. There was the Cold War, the two blocs, ’68, the delegated decrees, the conquests on the labor front, a completely different story. The teaching staff, which should represent the intelligence of the country, reflected that society. Today those patterns no longer exist. It cannot be said that intellectuals are all left-wing: I repeat, there are left-wing, right-wing and centre-wing intellectuals.”
The school was the largest reservoir of intellectual employment in Italy. In your opinion, therefore, there no longer exists a cultural hegemony of the left, the one theorized by Gramsci? The Minister of Culture Giuli in a pamphlet would like to adopt the Gramscian method also for the right…
«But look, many students today don’t even know who Gramsci is. Do you really think they know? I’ll give you an example: a friend of mine who gives Sicilian dialect education lessons asked middle school kids what they did at Christmas. Do you know what they replied to him? “The birth of Santa Claus”. This is to say the general level. As for the professors, as I was telling you today, they are like Italians: there is no clear and precise alignment. They are no longer “the intelligence of the country” in the traditional sense of the term.”
In high schools, however, perhaps the situation is different…
«Yes, but we can’t just talk about high schools. We need to look at the teaching staff as a whole. And in any case, as I was saying, society is no longer what it once was. There are no more clear sides.”
Are there still politically engaged teachers?
«It will be 1%, perhaps. But I couldn’t estimate it. To do this it would be necessary to record the political opinions of the teachers, which fortunately is not permitted. So how can you say I’m left or right?”.
So do teachers today simply reflect Italian society?Exactly. A liquid society, without precise boundaries. No more right, left, center, Gramsci. Also because the teacher is no longer at the forefront of culture as he once was: his figure has changed profoundly.”
In what sense?
«It has changed a lot. Furthermore, today the teaching staff is highly feminized: up to middle school we are 89-90% women, a percentage that drops to 70-75% in high school. Why are fewer and fewer men choosing to be teachers? The answer is simple: the salary.”
The node is cheap, therefore.
“Yes. The teacher’s salary is increasingly lower in relation to the cost of living. We are talking about a maximum average of around 30 thousand euros gross per year, while in the public administration it reaches 35 thousand. Even recent increases are minimal. Today a teacher is no longer able to support a family alone, which was once possible.”
