Last week, Cecilia Stajano, FMD School Innovation Coordinator, attended the kick-off of “Grandparents On-line. Everyone’s Young at the Post Office,” in Potenza, at the Istituto professionale servizi per l'agricoltura e lo sviluppo rurale "Giustino Fortunato," where she came into contact with a common passion for old and young alike: farming.
The extraordinary thing about this school is that the students are incredibly passionate about farming. They seem to have stepped out of a different era. They are involved in their family farming enterprises and often they find it difficult to come to school when they face tasks like taking care of animals and other farm duties. They feel bad about leaving their farms unattended and yet they come to school out of respect for their families, the sacrifices the families have made to allow them to study and the hope that culture and learning will help them relaunch the family businesses and provide a better future for them.
These young men and women are 16-17 years old and have a close understanding of life and death from attending to their animals, celebrating the birth of a new lamb or the mourning the death of a cow with foal. The loss is both emotional and economic.
These students live life to the fullest, they understand it and have no concept of what is would be like to be a NEET.
Here are the interviews conducted by Cecilia Stajano:
Headmaster Angelo Mazzatura, Istituto professionale servizi per l'agricoltura e lo sviluppo rurale "Giustino Fortunato".
Antonio: "I have lived in the country since I was 12"
Anna and Donata: "We are here to learn. We don’t know how to do anything."
Coordinating Professor Carmelina Frammartino, Knowledge Volunteer Award winner
Professor Maria Rosaria Sabina
Gianvito, 17: “If I don’t see my animals every day, I don’t feel well.”
