Relato de experiência na Itália: alternativas para o fortalecimento do sistema educacional

Abstract

In Italy, the public education system is under crisis. The educational reforms of the last twenty years have not produced significant changes. As a result, the public school seems increasingly poor and marginalized. This has serious consequences for democracy. This paper focuses on a social work experience in the educational field, which was carried out in Calabria (in the South of Italy) by a voluntary association, and involving several hundred children and young people, as well as their families and many voluntary workers. This experience is based on important authors and witnesses in Education (such as Don Lorenzo Milani and Paulo Freire), but it did not use existing pedagogical models, and it has not produced new ones. It is an experience of solidarity, based on intentional relationship building. Thirty years of educational work with children have enabled many of them to move from the formal freedom to the substantial freedom to educate. Promoting capabilities in education is a task that involves not only public institutions, but also families, associations, groups and all the people who wish to give a contribution. In this respect, this paper shows that the work of active citizens in education can support the public school, and that the education system can be led by active citizenship at best performance.