Since its inception as an institution, the school has had a close relationship with the territorial reality to which it was part. The Casati Law, promulgated in 1858 in the Kingdom of Sardinia and extended to the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, entrusted the municipalities with the first literacy of citizens, to fight against illiteracy.
Inthose years, 74% of the population in Italy was illiterate and the goal was to raise the level of training, with the motto "read, write, do the math".
In 1911, the Daneo-Credaro Law introduced the state school, but actually the municipalities continued to have an important role in the management of educational institutions, especially in the elementary school. The Italian Constitution strengthened some key principles: the principle of solidarity (art. 2), of commonality of interests (art. 43), of a school open to all (art. 34), of horizontal subsidiarity (art. 118, c.4). The birth of nursery schools, fifty years ago, and full time school in elementary school represent other steps forward with a view to inclusion through an intense relationship with the territory, considered as a welfare community. Among the articles an attention to the active role of the territories, the discovery of the concept of subsidiarity, the reference to the protagonism of Regions and local bodies emerge. The Republic does not coincide with the central state alone.
The great turning point in the world of school arrived with the Delegated Decrees of 1974: a need for greater social dialogue- collegial bodies were born at school- with reality around the school, in an intertwining of different but equally essential skills. The school is experienced (even in legal statements) as a community that "interacts" with the wider social community (DPR 416/1974).
The school autonomy regulation, Presidential Decree 275/1999, called for the creation of school networks and other forms of collaboration, such as consortia and agreements with public and private entities, in the optics of a new school governance.
Over the years, and the reforms, the territory has acquired ever greater importance, underlined by Law 107 of 2015 with an increasingly pressing request to report to stakeholders what is activated by the school to train future citizens, in a complex and umpredictable world. It states that “the educational institution carries out the three-year programming of the training offer- PTOF- for the enhancement of the knowledge and skills of students and for the opening of the school community to the territory with full involvement of local institutions and realities”. PTOF, PdM, RS are some examples of this process which led to the Community Educational Pacts.
The Community Educational Pacts, introduced in the 2020-21 School Plan by the Minister of Education Lucia Azzolina and also supported by the CTS chaired by Patrizio Bianchi, current minister, start from the concept of L 107 for the enhancement of the school as an active community. It is a tool introduced by MIUR to give the possibility to local authorities, institutions, public and private, third sector realities and schools to sign specific agreements, thus strengthening not only the school-family alliance, but also that between the school and the whole educating community.
It is a fairly easy tool capable of finally fostering dialogue between all the components of the educating community, to get the school out of its walls and allow students to know, live and ultimately love and defend their own territory. To experiment with new forms of teaching that lead children to learn by doing: in museums, laboratories, companies.
The school becomes a space for the participation of the whole local community, for the consolidation of the identity of a territory, to strengthen belonging to a community. And the territory becomes a space of experience, that enlarged educational space of which Francesco De Bartolomeis spoke about. The territory is co-responsible in redefining the school curriculum which at this point becomes, as Jerome Bruner said, an animated conversation between inside and outside.
Giancarlo Cerini in Atlas of (im) possible reforms explains that the recomposition and rethinking of the school / territory relationship is not born to ensure that the school responds to the needs of the territory: it is a question of creating reciprocal relationships to discover the value of good municipality of public education, not a question of delegating significant parts of the school curriculum to other people (for ex, art, music, sports, etc)
Among the main objectives of the Community Pact is that of preventing and combating educational poverty, early school leaving and educational failure of boys and girls through a participatory, cooperative and supportive approach of all the actors in the field so that to enhance and systematize all the experiences and resources of the territory. The relationship between school, municipality and private social subjects is the key not only for participation in the process of restarting Italy after the pandemic but also for it to work.
Community pacts allow universal and equal access to basic education, removing social and economnics obstacles, which limit freedom and the equality of citizens, prevente the full developmente of the human person, as quoted in the Costitution, art. 3. It is a new model of education that cares about the learning of the subjects more fragile and accompany the growth of each and everyone, to face the future challenges fof a sustainable, cultural and social development, prosperity and welfare of our nation.
I would like to conclude using the words of Franco Lorenzoni, “community educational pacts must be the place where no one feels a slave to the antropological niche in which he was born”.
Manuela Rivetti Laureata in Lingue e Letterature Straniere presso l’Università degli Studi di Torino, ho conseguito le abilitazioni all’insegnamento per le classi di concorso A45 e A46, lingua inglese nella scuola secondaria di primo grado e lingua e cultura inglese nella secondaria di secondo grado. Ho inoltre conseguito l’abilitazione all’insegnamento nella scuola dell’infanzia e la doppia abilitazione nella scuola primaria, sia come docente su posto comune che come docente di inglese. La lingua inglese e l’insegnamento sono la mia passione, e per questo ho proseguito il mio percorso con un Corso di Perfezionamento in Didattica delle Lingue Straniere. A partire dal 2009 ho svolto diversi corsi di formazione per i docenti della scuola primaria in qualità di tutor per lo sviluppo delle competenze linguistiche--comunicative e metodologico – didattiche presso l’ USR Piemonte. Nell’anno scolastico 2012-13 sono stata la referente del Progetto Comenius Regio “Boosting Knowledge Through Music “, svolto in collaborazione con alcune scuole del Devon, tra cui un istituto “for special needs”, che mi ha permesso di approfondire la conoscenza del sistema scolastico inglese e della cultura anglosassone in materia di insegnamento - apprendimentoDal 2007 mi occupo di Orientamento scolastico e di continuità come Funzione strumentale. Ho partecipato a vari progetti sulla costruzione del curricolo verticale coordinati dal prof. Martin Dodman e lo scorso anno scolastico ho fatto parte del suo gruppo di lavoro per la correzione nazionale delle prove Invalsi di lingua inglese. Condivido il motto di Edgar Morin, “meglio una testa ben fatta che ben piena”, insieme a quello di William Butler Yeats, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”.