Milano Corvetto, judo lessons (free) at school and full time to keep children off the road – Corriere.it

A middle school which, unlike the majority, offers extended time. Afternoon activities almost every afternoon, from murals to carpentry. Even judo courses and homework help with the teachers. A private or equal institution? A special school, like the Vivaio? No, the Duomo is about 6 kilometers from here. We are in via Martinengo, where there is the only public media in the Corvetto district. Right on the border with Calvairate, where for weeks a baby gang carried out fourteen robberies, sending the youngest among them, two twelve-year-olds, as bait to hook the victims.

The Martinengo school at Corvetto

None of them were students of Martinengo (after all, the members of the baby gang in their respective classes had not set foot, for some time). But in this suburban average with 450 pupils, where one in three pupils is Italian of the second generationit is essential to do prevention, to avoid that children, especially those less followed by their parents or with a problematic family background, end up in the same dynamics. First goal: to keep them in school as many hours as possible. The more we keep them busy with interesting activities, the less time they spend around: if we let them study today and give them a constructive direction, we will have fewer problems tomorrow – underlines the principal Giulio Corticelli – For this reason, we have already activated the extended time for some time. Up to four afternoons a week there are afternoon lessons in murals, carpentry, English. They are free: we look for all possible funds and then we use them.

Prolonged time in school

40 percent of the students attend the extended time. But here is also homework help, always free, edited by the same teachers of the school. Just in these days, in collaboration with the oratory of via Rosselli and other educational structures in the area, we have decided to expand the “Compiti @ casa” project in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Turin in which about thirty of our students already participate, with an after-school attendance open to pupils of all schools in the neighborhood, public and private, with the aim of combating any phenomena of educational poverty and juvenile hardship, adds the principal. Finally, three times a week, an instructor from the Yuki gym, the sports organization founded by the judo champion Pino Maddaloni in Naples, offers free lessons in this discipline. About forty very young members at the moment. Thanks to these activities, many Martinengo students stay at school until late afternoon.

The legalit to the center

Not all roses and flowers. We have problematic pupils, like all schools. But even if we do not welcome them, if we push them away, where will they be welcomed? Perhaps in other groups of stragglers. We continue to work with the same strength and serenity as those who every day fight against abuse and discrimination, those who focus on legality and students, those who strongly condemn mistakes but leave no one behind, of those who put in front of citizenship education, of those who do not distinguish between Italians and foreigners, of those who want peace and not war, of those who love bridges and try to tear down walls, writes the principal in a message to the school community. Success comes. We had a very rowdy student. He became passionate about the judo course and continued to attend it even after graduating from eighth grade. He attended a three-year professional course and now works as a mechanic. And in his spare time he volunteers here with us.

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