For a few days now, the professors of a high school in Magenta found themselves at the center of a huge storm to which they were not ready and who suddenly went wild, involving the government’s exponents. We reconstruct in order.

Recently, the Ministry of Education has approved a memorandum of understanding with the National Association of Bersaglieri for the promotion of the knowledge of the values ​​and ideals of homeland history. It is a matter of promoting knowledge of the Risorgimento history, the symbols and identification elements of the Republic, the ethical values ​​such as respect for the state and for the fallen and the love of homeland; and the concept of legality.

The letter of protest

Around 20 May, some teachers of the high school mentioned above began a collection of signatures, directing a protest letter to Minister Valditara in which they oppose the presence of the targets at school. According to the signatories, some of the values ​​expressed in the Statute of the Bersaglieri are not in line with those of the democratic school, such as absolute obedience; Some points in particular are listed on the need to study the history of the Risorgimento in an analytical and critical, and non -ideological way, and on transmitting to students the idea of ​​the right to civil disobedience. Many doubts have been expressed on the love of home, such as the difference between patriotism and nationalism, the difficulty of talking about homeland in a Risorgimento sense in a multicultural school, and the risk of exploitation of the concept of homeland.

A position that can be criticized, and on which it is appropriate to discuss, but which is not particularly new in Italian schools, which keep their autonomy and, given that they know the users and the territory well, prefer to choose which activities to propose. However, the thing was not welcomed with benevolence. The protest letter was sent – it is not known by who – to the local press, unbeknownst to all the signatories. He immediately spread and news came to the citizens of the city, who started a media pillory on Facebook. The internal investigations to the school also started, starting to generate a very disturbing climate.

The media and political storm

At the beginning of June, the controversy was relaunched by the Lombard right at the regional level, so much so that on June 2 – obviously not accidental date – suddenly the storm broke out. Differently followed broadcasts, such as Mattino 5 or Tg4, have created services on the story, without ever interviewing a single teacher or other exponent of the school: we have heard only the contrary opinions of some citizens, as usual presented by making them seem like those of the majority. The content of the letter (i.e. the points discussed by the teachers) has been completely ignored.

But not only the teachers of the Magenta School have been insulted: as always happens, the invective has generally extended to the figures of the Italian teachers, accused so much to change of being communist (who is now an insult), subversives, lovers of Islam and Italian hates. In fact, of course, Matteo Salvini’s comment could not be missing (remember, Minister of the Republic): the imams enter, but not the bersaglieri. It is always convenient to put Islam in a news. Another minister, Crosetto, said that it is an ideological prejudice and a desire to suppress democratic confrontation and free knowledge. Even the Prime Minister wanted to express himself, declaring unacceptable that a school does not welcome the armed forces.

Total absence of contradictory and comparison

In all this, nobody is interested even once once listened to the position of the teachers: the points of the letter have been simplified, transformed into something else, and mostly the message “I am against the homeland” has only passed. And now, after all the reactions of this week, many of them would be afraid to expose themselves firsthand.

Not only that: given that this avalanche of criticisms and insults was promoted by exponents of the right, a minimum of support from the opposition parties would have been expected, which should theoretically be on the same line of thought as the teachers. Likewise, the unions have not received, and less than the voices of other teachers in the rest of Italy.

This is particularly terrifying in the light of the approval of the new security decree, which has already alarmed jurists and intellectuals and which has a large reduction in freedom of expression and protest at the center. What happened to the teachers of Magenta is on the same line: formally they were not sanctioned, but they were in fact silenced, submerged by disinformation without any possibility of defending themselves, and certainly intimidated. A message that obviously comes to all the teachers of Italy, who will know what to expect, now, if they try to express an opposite opinion.