Reflections on
school
Alessio Aldini (olgelao@tin.it)
When I started attending high school I had
the impression that I was entering a new world, completely detached from the real one, a
world made by ideal entities such as numbers, old-fashioned authors, dead languages. The
impact with this new reality was dramatic: I was not prepared for something like that, to
discover this abstract part of mine which could trascend reality and get lost in this
ideal, Platonic world. During these years I have spent a lot of time thinking about
myself, my skills, my limits. School has given me an extremely critical attitude towards
life, a doubtful and insecure mind. At the same time it made me become a "smart
watcher": I feel I can analyse everything around me in a more detailed way, from new
points of view. My emotional intelligence has been enormously enhanced by school.
Nevertheless it did not give me the chance to apply these skills. I mean that it is hard
to watch and analyse people when you spend all of your time studying and it is hard to
enjoy your youth when you meet a certain kind of teachers along your way. I did not want
school to open my mind so much, it is a danger that teachers do not completely understand
or they do not want to face, to see. When you sound out reality too much, sometimes you
are only a watcher, you are not a part of it and often you feel unhappy, you wish your
mind were free, limited. Sometimes I feel guilty when I dont have any duties to
fulfil, I feel my life is empty, I am not used to freedom any longer. Teachers have an
unlimited power on young minds, they should think about it and think that we are first of
all boys and girls, then men and women, that ours is supposed to be the age of continuos
happiness and carelessness. Sense of responsibility can kill, can suffocate people that
sooner or later will explode and then it may be too late. Let us play a bit more and think
less, maybe we will realize what you want to teach us by ourselves and then we will
not refuse it.