Diane’s Italian Seminar Blog 2008

Italian Seminar

This is a column that I wrote for the Cape Gazette 8-8-08.

An approach to school that is global? Approaching curriculum to include the cultures and languages of the world? Does this seem possible? Most people don’t give much thought to global education and think about the just the world in which we live: the community, the state, the nation. Our news is mostly centered on that, not on the happenings across the globe. Our school curriculum is mostly centered on our language and history and politics but the trend is to create opportunity for thinking more globally.

This summer I studied in Italy at an educational seminar designed to help teachers get in touch with the Italian culture, language and history: an orchestrated attempt to help us understand the connections that bind us together and our similarities as human beings who inhabit the same planet. In this spirit, I share with you three lasting impressions that I have of Italy.

After careful observation I have determined that Italians love their land, their history and children. Italy is graced with climate and soil that supports agriculture. Rolling hills in the central regions host the rich growth of grapes, olives and vegetables. These regions are a patchwork of small farms that have been cultivated for hundreds of years to yield the best there is to offer. This is evident in the abundance of their tables. Italy is world renowned for its food and wine. That is not all.

Italians love plants and love nature. In ancient walled cities where there is nothing but cobblestone streets and stone buildings, the Italians embellish the hardscape with pots and planters full of seasonal plants and an abundance of fragrant flowers. Green foliage drips off balconies, cascades down stairways and climbs the antique walls of stone. There is poetry in their everyday effort to plant and lovingly maintain the plants that soften and define their spaces and their lives. My camera simply would not stop clicking! It was compelled to capture every cityscape and hillside. Being in Italy and seeing it first- hand trumped any photo that I snapped and only pushed me to resolve to do more for my students that included a global appreciation of culture and heritage.

Italians love history and they take pride in their ruins with good reason. Buildings in Italy are rarely torn down, they are preserved until they crumble and even then they are not touched. Visitors get the impression that there are spirits residing in their walls and the Italians hold the sprits in high esteem. Ancient Rome, the Coliseum, the Pantheon is all there to view. Most towns no matter how small have museums full of artifacts from the Etruscans and other civilizations ancient and fascinating.

Italians love children. The connection seems to be strong between grandparents (nonna and nonno) and their grandchildren. On a public bus I overheard a grandfather and his grandson having important conversations about the sights and sounds of Rome. Their gentle banter was full of respect and humor. Then the young boy started to give the entire bus a tour-guide’s commentary about the piazzas and the buildings we were passing. Everyone on the bus was enchanted and the grandfather just glowed with pride. My limited understanding of the Italian language did nothing to diminish the special relationships that I witnessed again and again between older folks and younger folks in Italy.

Italy and the Italian people gave me an understanding of our own culture. The seminars that I attended included the Italian language, the Italian-American immigrant experience and the politics of Italy yet the most powerful thing was the connection with the people of Italy whose culture and kindness initiated understanding and friendship. Looking backward to face forward, we were able to experience Italy and create a powerful catalyst for change in our classrooms.

Angela is the perfect visitor in Ripa and she agreed to pose for me in the number one tourist destination here, Italy’s narrowest alley, 43 cm wide.

We enjoyed the incredible hospitality of Eva and Jack Polidori and I enjoyed conversation with their cousins in the moonlight on their rooftop terrace. Ripatransone takes on a whole new persona, a city illuminated in moonlight and grace.

We met with four Italian teachers last night in the town hall, the same room that we met the mayor of Ripatransone a few days earlier. The teachers spoke to us about their Italian schools, students and jobs. Bottom line, their jobs are so much like ours.  They deal with students who don’t know the language, parents who do not parent and the government who keeps changing the rules. We shook our heads in common agreement that the job is difficult, but something about their steely posture and our firm resolve hinted that the reward was greater than all of that.

Staying in the Convent of Santa Teresa in Ripastransone, Italy, few things are ordinary to me. There are rough sheets, hard little cot-like beds, pristine clean hallways and enormous wooden doors that swing to let the world in and then close firmly to keep the world out. This is a world of absolutes: silence, solitude, patience, kindness, simplicity.  The nuns float in and around us to make sure all of our needs are met, then disappear into their world behind curtains and closed doors.

Looking at the nuns’ life I see a trusting community living together in service and peace.  We wind in and out of the convent through maze-like halls and think about our time together in Italy.

I had to come to Italy to learn about the Italian American experience from Dr. Jules Chametzky. I am sitting in the library in a seaside town overlooking the Adriatico, Ripatransone.  Jules talked about Italo-ethnicity and culture in our society. He gave us dates and stories that helped define for me what it was like for my grandparents when they came to a strange country, America.

“Looking backward to face forward” is the theme of this seminar and for me it has no truer meaning. My grandparents immigrated from southern Italy near where I am sitting right now. They left everything here for a better life in Delaware.

Now I have come full circle and I am proud to report that I achieved the education that they promoted, have a great job teaching and a wonderful family.  I’m in Italy, I am an Italian-American and I am beginning to see how this circle is coming together.

What did you see?

What did you do in Italy?

What are Italians like?

Italians are the same as everyone else. Italians are like Americans. They live their lives, they go to work, they come home to families, they enjoy sports, music, art and nature. It’s not what they do, it’s HOW they do it. Italians seem to have a way to determine what is really priority. They cook great food, they live simply and they appreciate each other. It’s the how, not the what.

My suitcase is packed and weighed – 36 pounds, well under the airline limit so I am ready to go to Italy with the Delaware Italian American Cultural Heritage Commission group! We meet at the Philadelphia airport on Sunday, July 6 and take off for Rome! I would like to thank in advance Greg Fulkerson for doing all of the organization and leg work to make this trip possible and Nancy Wilson and Jack Polidori for their support.

Three wishes before I go

1. Read my blog
2. Write back using the comment link
3. Be a little Italian – see things from a different perspective

Since I am a “little Italian“(American), 4 foot 10 with a name that sings like an Italian opera, Diana Saienni Albanese, I hope to open up and notice new ideas and promise to reveal my findings here. Stay tuned and write me back! If you want to receive an update each time I write then click on the subscribe to this feed on the right sidebar.

Ciao!

Today we heard about our trip to Italy! WOW! Our itinery is jammed pack with lessons and new experiences in learning culture in Italy! We look forward to our departure and our adventure.

My fondest winter dream has come true! My friend Cathy Co and I are going to Italy this summer as part of a  Delaware teacher seminar to learn about the culture and the heritage!  We leave July 6 and come back July 21 so drop into this blog to hear about my journey, our impressions and the things I have learned.