Six weeks in Rijeka. A different way to feel at home

Author: Rossana Turcinovich Giuricin

From the world of school, in recent years, strong signals have arrived on the road to the recomposition of a scattered population through various initiatives, large and small but of equal importance. Starting from the cultural exchanges related to the Day of Remembrance in the lands of the Eastern Adriatic, the protagonists are the students, who take inspiration from projects at the municipal level (see Rome), or regional (see Liguria), and others; to the meetings of the Government Table on schools and subsequent MIUR seminars that have reached their fourth edition this year. In addition to all this, there are proposals from individual Committees, such as the Rome-Rovigno meeting of the ANVGD Provincial Committee of Rome in collaboration with the institutions of both cities and, last but not least, the direct presence in a school of the Italian national group of a teacher from Italy. A premise to tell the singular experience of Donatella Schurzel who is spending the last days of the six weeks granted to her, to get to know from the inside the reality of a school in the area, namely that of the Italian High School of Fiume. He tells us what this initiative was born from and what its aims are in this interview. “I will immediately answer how it was born starting from its technical definition, it is the so-called job shadowing (in-service training) which, within the scope of the European Comenius activities, allows teachers to offer the school where they are hosted, their experience acquired over the years, both from the point of view of teaching methodology, evaluation, relationship with the outside for a comparison between the school institutions in the European context. It is clearly a question of reciprocity, in giving and receiving. Starting from these premises, I presented my project to the National Agency and it was accepted, taking me to Rijeka”. This is the technical explanation, but does it all arise from a specific need of yours? “My origins are in this land to which I am also tied by friendships born over long years of exploration and collaboration. There was a need to give meaning to the activity that we have been carrying out in parallel for a long time and that pushes us to imagine points of contact. I was born in the Giuliano Dalmata district of Rome, daughter of parents from Rovinj and Pula who always made me feel part of this Adriatic space. My need to feel at home in this land has always been present, also grown through my experiences in the associative field but above all in human contacts". Why is it so important to create a network of contacts between these worlds that history has torn apart and divided? “Because they are a single world, characterized by the same dynamics, by very similar paths that make us feel part of a single identity no matter where history has taken us. It often happens to me when I meet people coming from or born in these territories, to find an immediate understanding, to discover in our reasoning the same paths of maturation, the feelings towards what has been but also towards what we would like. Each of us, through our role in the association or professional field, can make a contribution. I firmly believe it, I have imagined it for a long time and now I am here to make a dream come true, teaching in a school that could have been mine and that can become mine through other experiences of this kind”. What happened in recent weeks at the Rijeka High School, or SMSI, as the Italian high school in the Kvarner city is officially called today? “My project consists of both co-presence in class with the teacher, and independent lessons mostly on literature, which is my specific field, both following the local ministerial program and with literary salons on frontier literature, which is one of the themes that has most engaged me in these years. For example, one of the last lessons focused on Romanticism and the parallel Risorgimento movements with insights into the participation of the Istrian-Kvarner world in this process”. What was the reaction of teachers and students? “With my colleagues I have managed to establish a great collaboration, thanks to their total availability, to everyone's enthusiasm, also due to the Principal's belief that all this is part of a broader strategy that leads to the further development of her school, which in this sense, can become a laboratory for everyone. The relationship with the kids was pleasant and stimulating: I followed the different profiles from classic to professional and of different age groups. Curious at first, I understood that they had particular expectations and this gratified me and pushed me to give my best in turn. There were questions, requests, involvement, in short I felt them close, involved, it was wonderful to talk about Dante, Manzoni, but also about Svevo and Saba, up to Madieri and Magris... a great satisfaction". Our schools are a diverse world, the children come from different families, a new experience for you. How do you judge it? “It is not an unknown world, both because of my origins and because of the fifteen years of experience in the exchanges started with our associations, in particular with ANVGD Comitato di Roma, and above all with the Società di Studi Fiumani di Roma and the local CIs. The different origins of the students were part of the challenge I set myself, to further discover this reality where Italians often truly represent a minority but with a strong awareness of their own dimension. The children realize that they are part of a reality that has been predominant throughout history, and both in literature and in the language laboratory they can find confirmation of these considerations. The boys also realize that situations have evolved. But what are they today? And we? Well, answering this question is kind of the purpose of the journey we can take together." In a few days this experience will come to an end. What future? “There are so many things to do and I would like to continue by applying that reciprocity that is part of my project in order to give the opportunity to a colleague from the school in Fiume to have the same experience in a school in Rome. For the kids it is a stimulus to conceive Croatia's entry into the European Union as an opportunity for new connections and knowledge, becoming bearers and subjects of a European centrality that is in the historical and cultural DNA of these lands. As far as I am concerned, this stay has allowed me to further deepen my ancestral relationships with this land and to think about future cultural fusions with the communities to intensify this relationship that I would like to become a two-way street. In my future a coming and going that reflects my way of being and feeling”. Donatella Schurzel, is preparing to return to Rome. It will be a long journey during which – she confides – she will review everything she has managed to give and take in these six weeks.