Viola Ardone Challenges Narrative on Faculty Reform and Pupil Misbehavior
Naples, Might 17, 2025 – Italian novelist and highschool trainer Viola Ardone has sparked dialogue together with her current feedback on Italy’s ongoing faculty reform debates, rejecting the portrayal of scholars as the first downside in instructional challenges. In a put up on X on Might 1, 2025, Ardone acknowledged, “Some consider the primary problem in Italian colleges is pupil violence in opposition to lecturers. These are the identical individuals who assume migrants are Italy’s largest downside. College students aren’t our enemies—those that work in colleges know this.”
Ardone, a Naples native and creator of internationally acclaimed novels like The Kids’s Practice and Oliva Denaro, attracts on her expertise as a Latin and Italian trainer at Liceo Scientifico Statale “De Carlo” in Giugliano, Campania. Her remarks come amid heated debates over faculty self-discipline reforms in Italy, the place some policymakers and media shops have highlighted incidents of pupil misbehavior, together with reported violence in opposition to lecturers, as a central problem. Critics of those reforms argue that specializing in punitive measures, similar to suspensions, fails to handle root causes and unfairly paints college students as adversaries.
“College students aren’t the issue; they’re a part of the answer,” Ardone emphasised in a follow-up interview with native media. She argues that the narrative framing college students as “dangerous” oversimplifies advanced points like underfunded colleges, overcrowded lecture rooms, and societal pressures. “I’m not there for that form of reform,” she stated, distancing herself from insurance policies that prioritize punishment over assist. Ardone advocates for reforms that contain college students as stakeholders, citing her work with at-risk youth at Nisida’s juvenile detention middle, the place she ran writing workshops to foster self-expression and development.
Her feedback echo sentiments from a March 2024 X put up, the place she criticized the politicization of schooling: “The excellence between Italian and non-Italian college students is irrelevant in a classroom. There are college students who battle in some topics and excel in others. Faculty is for all of them.” This stance aligns together with her broader advocacy for inclusive schooling, as seen in her novels, which frequently discover themes of solidarity and resilience amongst marginalized teams.
Italy’s faculty system faces ongoing challenges, together with trainer shortages and outdated infrastructure. A 2024 report famous that 60% of Italian colleges lack ample sources, exacerbating tensions in lecture rooms. Ardone’s name for a shift in perspective has resonated with educators on X, with one consumer stating, “She’s proper—cease vilifying children and begin fixing the system.” Nonetheless, some conservative voices argue that self-discipline have to be enforced to keep up order, citing incidents like a 2023 case in Rome the place a pupil assaulted a trainer.
Ardone’s literary work, together with The Kids’s Practice, which depicts post-World Conflict II efforts to assist impoverished kids, displays her perception in schooling as a software for empowerment. Her newest feedback problem policymakers to rethink reforms and deal with systemic options relatively than scapegoating college students.
By Marco Esposito, Training Correspondent
