Whats an Elementary School Orientation Meeting without a Little Politics?

Daneille's Roman elementary school just held an orientation meeting for the parents of entering 1st graders (there is no kindergarten here)--we attended assuming that the meeting would be akin to Evanston's orienting meetings for kindergarteners. The first portion of the meeting went aswe expected: About 25 parents squeezed themselves into the children's miniature chairs and another 30 parents crowded the classroom's perimeter while the teaching team made their introductions and presented an overview of school policies and materials to be covered in the coming academic year. The meeting took a surprise turn 20 minutes in, however, when the topic turned to politics and strikes. For the next 40 minutes the teachers launched an impassioned outline of the school budget cuts and pedagogical changes the new Berlusconi government plans to institute starting next fall. Currently, there are three professional teachers per classroom (two of them are floaters), and the government plans to reduce this to one teacher per class. According to the teachers, this reduction would imperil the children's education, as one teacher could not possible offer expertise in multiple areas of instruction. Within minutes, parents were joining in to voice their indignation over the looming changes. Sensing the level of outrage had become optimal, the teachers circulated a protest petition for all to sign. Then talk turned to the details of their protest plans--they announced the date they anticipated striking and encouraged us to lend our support, as we all dutifully jotted down the info.

For us, it was a lens into a very different way of dealing with frustration over government policies. While parents get riled up about Department of Education changes in Evanston and circulate petitions of protest, political talk is not part of the formal school landscape (petitions are circulated OUTSIDE, in the school parking lots, and political frustrations are never voiced during school parent-teacher meetings). But, as we are learning, this is Italy, where politics and strikes are all part and parcel of formal school welcome gatherings!