On a Sunday morning I read Corriere della sera and my attention – surprise surprise – goes to this article about the Italian University system.  It takes on average a lot of years to an Italian student to finish his studies. And little is done to control and solve this problem.

In these days I observe another phenomenon that worries me a lot. Daughters and sons of my friends in Italy of age 14 are choosing latin School (Liceo classico), the same school I started in late ’70 and finished in 1983. Without knowing the detailed changes that may have been implemented in the recent years, I can report of my studies which included 5 hours per week of Latin, 4 hours of Greek for five years; two hours of math for five years; two hours of German for two years, no English. We studied philosophy which may be useful if you are intelligent and mature enough to map Plato concepts into your life challenges – I was not at least at the age of 15.

So, even if I cannot complaint about my life and job, I can say that it has been extremely difficult to study computer science on English books without Math and English knowledge. But even more difficult, to learn how to behave in meetings and in the working world in general without any formal education about social skills and alike. “cartago delenda est” “Repetita iuvant” “errare humanum est” “Hic sunt leones”. Sometimes Latin phrases come to my mind and even help me at least to take my attention away from negative phenomenons, that is true 🙂

To conclude, Italy must invest and revise its education systems. Parents and youth have to look forward and abandon snobbish and romantic ideas about Latin schools and alike. Teachers and administrators have to be constructive and look at what is done outside the country in year 2012.