These last two comments come from schools in degraded peripheral areas
of Naples and allow a glimpse not only of the depth of the problems facing teachers, but
also of the great hope invested in the action of schools there. Indeed, these areas see
the adoption project as nothing less than a vehicle for their rehabilitation. Local
monuments have come to represent, then,extraordinarily efficient means for concretely
enacting solidarity, social involvement, the sharing of responsibility, and one's search
for roots and meaningful relationship with people and the environment.
One must mention some particularly significant participants: for
example, a school for the blind made a clay model of a church facade and thus "saw
their environment with their hands". The adoption project, as they put it,
symbolically and concretely place their local church, their object of study, into their'
own hands.
In yet another school, a technical college, the adoption project had an
effect on their work and teaching methods. They mention how they have been able to give
their students different ways of reading their urban environment by combining an
analytical objective approach with their subjective, affective attachment to their local
environment, and they comment that one needs to work at "educating students to live
their city as a place of memories and of life"; "developing individual potential
through cooperation rather than through competition of ; "raft* sing the quality of
communication through the acquiring of new codes"; 'fostering critical analysis and
sensibility by developing awareness of the existence of different point of view".
The project of adoption of Church Santa Maria dell'Incoronata by the
lower secondary school Grazia Deledda in Naples has been extremely successful and
satisfactory. Understanding how meaningful a formal commitment such as adopting a monument
is and realising how many valuable opportunities of heritage education are offered, have
been the
keys to success. Teachers were aware they were taking part in an exceptional
educational experience to be performed on site, in direct contact with the monument and
the institutions in charge of it, and they focused their work on the study of the monument
adopted.
The two key-terms of the project - to know and to safeguard - were made
concrete thanks to a series of research works and actions.
Education and civil commitment.
The enthusiasm of the students about the adoption was never stifled nor
disappointed. By studying the monument in such a thorough and creative way, their interest
increased and they sought to let others share the results and the materials produced. Many
difficulties had to be overcome to attain such a goal, and to communicate with and raise
the interest of people of any cultural level, scholars and experts included. They were
successful in their stubborn appeal to draw the attention of public opinion and their
demands or suggestions to the authorities for appropriate interventions that would make
the monument more accessible. Today the monument is more visible and respected, as well as
protected. These results, the appreciation by the public authorities and experts, gave the
students a sense of self fulfilment and pride. The schools attained their goals of
contributing to the common interest and increasing self-esteem thanks to an
extraordinary idea that helps schools perform their mission: the
development of the personalities of the citizens and their awareness of the outside world.
As a token of the project's success, the students who are now in high school continue
attending all the events and express a genuine interest in the monument and in the
cultural and artistic heritage of their city as a whole. |
