In the last few days it seems that Italy has had an incredible revelation through the discovery of hot water, namely that the Holden school is very expensive and actually offers very little. An ex -pupil told her experience on her blog, referring to the school for how she saw her before she was acquired by the Feltrinelli Foundation. In this long story he exposed a series of problems of the school, asserting that he had silenced for a long time because they are frightened by the possible retaliation and also extremely proven on the psychological level.

No plan

Subsiedo on these two points, especially the last one, on which I would have to comment on a lot; We can say that the author has raised interesting issues, that nobody mentions when it comes to the Holden: for example, the fact that there is no public didactic plan, there is no official program. Being a private school, of course, it is free enough to do as it wants. And this is something that every citizen should know very well when he chooses whether to resort to the public or the private individual.

A series of mostly useless activities are also mentioned, which according to the author serve more than anything else to “fill the time and give the idea of ​​a rich, transversal, multitasking teaching offer”. This too should not be surprised, if we observe for a moment the typical communication of the Holden school and the type of writing that enhances.

The Holden gaffe on 20 thousand euros

Many of the things that the author highlights and highlights are therefore important and serious; Obviously, however, everyone focused on the 10 thousand euros annual of the straight line, as if they were the central point of the matter. And on this same theme the Holden herself promptly made a sensational gaffe, even if according to them random: a video that would have been embarrassing even without the release of the post of the former student, in which some students just “graduates” and the families were interviewed, asking them “these 20 thousand euros so? Well spent?”

Obviously nobody answers no, it’s a fake question to record a promotional video. I repeat: it would have been embarrassing alone. But considering the care that the school puts in its communication (which is its main cornerstone, in the end), it seems a bit strange, and it is not difficult to think that it can also be a way to divest from real issues. In fact, the reaction of the majority of people was: what you complain about, if when you enrolled you knew you would have paid that price? Very easy to exploit, ignoring that the point of the question is not that.

The cost is due to prestige, but prestige does not mean quality

The one who reports the girl was largely well known, also because many things are explicit in the contract that is signed at the entrance. That’s why in reality the point is not that you cannot complain that you have spent a pack of money at all: you cannot complain that you have thought that the Holden school was a serious place to train. Yet for arcane reasons, it is a very widespread belief.

Of course it is not the fault of the girl in question, but of a system that pushes you in that direction, as she herself highlights. If you are young and not very experienced (primarily not very expert in literature) it is easy to find the idea of ​​enrolling in a school of writing (concept already problematic in itself) of such high prestige! Therefore, there is a risk of not understanding what is meant by prestige, which in this case has no deal with the didactic quality but with the fame of the school and its founder, inexplicably become a myth of Italian literature.

The truth is therefore that rather you enroll in the Holden because you think you will have contacts, hooks, the possibility of publishing. But this is extremely naive, because it would be impossible that every single person who comes out of the Holden could obtain a contract with a big or even small publisher. I don’t think the school promises this explicitly, moreover; However, it is a common belief, from which school obviously benefits.

The illusion of making a path that magically makes you writer

The real problem, therefore, is not the disappointment that is felt after finishing the path, but precisely the fact of having started it, based on prerequisites and hopes completely coated in the air. From my point of view, therefore, it is a classic case of elephant in the room: let’s talk about the fees, the people who “rosica”, and we do not face the fact that in Italy value and power is given to a path that has nothing academic, nothing really instructive and very little professional.

Of course: at the Holden they often teach teachers of the highest level, just as interesting and comparison events are organized. This is not about this, but to dig more deeply, observing the way the school is structured, the way it is advertised, and the absence of a true plan of the training offer. Most of everything, it is a question of realizing that a private school is a company, it is not an entity that has the only purpose of training: the aim is earnings, it cannot be otherwise otherwise. Then perhaps we should talk about the fact that writing is perceived as something that is acquired, and to which we aim for questions of prestige and money (almost moving illusion); Something you learn to do through precise techniques and rules and above all based on one goal: do not write literature, but write things that sell.

This should not be a novelty for anyone, as well as the connections between this beautiful system of folk-fircathers in grass and other realities of the editorial and cultural world. The real drama, therefore, is instead that the majority of people have a totally opposite idea of ​​realities like these.