Schools in Italy...where do I even start? They're so different from schools in the U.S.
First of all, high school is divided into two sections. Upper secondary school and lower secondary school. I am in the third year of upper secondary school (Scuola Secondaria).
The school I attend now, Canopoleno, it is about 1/3 the size of my high school in California. When I first visited the school and noticed its small size, I was so relieved. I thought, 'Great, this makes it 50% more likely that I won't get lost,' (I was wrong by the way- I always manage to do so). However, unlike schools in the States, the students don't have to rotate from class to class. There's no running across campus to make it from Geometry to History in that 5 minute window. You stay in the same class the whole day. The teachers are the one's with the 5 minute window (but they sure do take their sweet time getting from class to class). Each subject is only about 45-50 minutes, unless you have the same subject back to back. But you usually only spend about 25-30 minutes learning because the teachers- using that sweet time of theirs- spend the first 15 minutes getting themselves situated.
I am fortunate enough to have been placed in one of the loudest, craziest, funnest classes in the whole school. We are constantly being yelled at for disturbing other classes and for totally ignoring our teachers. We talk, walk around, tell jokes- all in the midst of our lesson while the teacher continues on. That's one of the key things about school here. If you don't pay attention in class, most of the teachers don't care. They seem to have that, 'It's your time, if you want to waste it, waste it' attitude. So if you have a really mellow teacher who will be a pushover for the class, you'd better believe that it's like war in there. You never know when you'll get hit in the head by a flying shoe or have your chair pulled out from under you. It is your own time though, so if you choose to mess around- which you can, you're pretty much stuck self teaching yourself an entire days worth of work.
The grading scale in Italy, and much of Europe, is from 1-10. One being the worst you can do and ten being the best. However, the kids in my class consider it a crime to get anything below a 6 - they may be crazy and rambunctious but they're still good kids. Now, the thing about grading in Italy is, it's entirely based on tests. There is no classwork, there are hardly ever projects, and there is no participation grade. How you do for the year rides solely on your testing abilities. We're not just talking about sitting down with a pen and paper and filling in bubbles, a lot of these tests are oral exams. You may have to memorize 6 pages word for word of a history textbook and recite it for the teacher- I've seen it happen. I've seen someone memorize more than I could have and more, she did her interrogation, and still only got an 8/10. I would have given her an 11. These Italian kids know how to test.
There are many different kinds of classes you can place yourself into. Like I said before, you stay with the same students in the same class the whole year- and you're most likely with that same class for all your high school years. You choose your class based on what you want your career to revolve around when you're older. A musical class, artistic class, scientific class, language studies, etc. etc. I am in a newly invented class which is a combination of Liceo Scientifico (sciences) and Liceo Classico (classic). It's a Classic European class. I take a total of 13 classes: Spanish, Philosophy, Chemistry, P.E., Religion, Latin, Greek, English, Art History, Biology, Math, Italian Literature, and Geography. Fortunately for me, nobody expected the American girl to exceed in Latin or Greek. So as cool as it would be to learn them, I can't study Latin and Greek while still being expected to become fluent in Italian- so I use those classes for independent study- it certainly has benefited my Italian.
School for most student runs from about 8:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Yes, they go to school on Saturdays. I am in one of the very few and rare classes that only goes to school Monday through Friday- and believe me I am thankful. The only twist on that is, I go to school from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. two days a week. The remaining three days, I go to school from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. And yes, again, you read that correctly. I must submit myself to 9 hours of school three days a week. But in exchange, I get to sleep in on Saturday mornings, which is an advantage most Italian teens don't have. In fact, out of all the exchange students on the island, roughly 50 of us, I am the only one who gets Saturdays off.
So, how do I survive those 9 hour school days you ask? Simple, the Italian school system may be intense when it comes to testing, but they know when to give kids some slack. Every two classes we get a 15-20 minute break- and you wouldn't believe how refreshing and bearable it makes the day.
Also, unlike school in the States, you aren't constantly working and writing and then going home to do 5 more hours of working and studying. We don't have homework- the time we have after school we dedicate to studying what we know we need to study. There is no homework for us to worry about. It is something I have come to realize is so much more beneficiary- without having to stress about the required work due the next day, you can focus on studying what you know you need to work on.
However, the biggest relief by far is lunchtime. Lunch works very differently in Italian schools. It is indeed your very own lunch - time. We are allowed one hour every day to leave campus for a lunch break. Many students, like myself, just go home for lunch. I walk to Nonna's house (my Italian grandmother) every day. A typical every day lunch is pasta, some bread, and a meat. The Italians eat bigger lunches than they do dinners. Off the record, whoever said that Italians eat smaller portions than Americans do is a LIAR. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can eat more than these people and still only weigh 130 pounds. But it happens. And I now believe that the source of all that is good and well is organic food.
All in all, do I prefer American school or Italian school? I haven't decided yet- there's definitely a decently sized pro-con list that I can make though (I won't).
Grazie e buona giornata!
P.S. Happy two months in Italy to me!! Mini celebration- yay!
-Nicole Solomon xoxo
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