Virus mutation is happening alarmingly quickly. I have gotten into the habit of updating my virus software almost daily. Nonetheless, something arrived in my mailbox the other day which my virus software passed as clean. But it was from someone I didn’t know, with an executable (.EXE) attachment, so I didn’t touch it. I updated my virus software and ran a check and, sure enough, it was a virus.
Even had this piece of mail claimed to be from someone I know, I would have been suspicious unless I had been expecting to receive such a file from that person right then. Many viruses disguise themselves with fake email addresses pulled from your own address book, and/or someone you know may be infected and not know it himself.
Another Reason to Secure Your Computer
Some viruses are now looking to turn your unprotected computer into a spam-generator, especially if you have a high-speed, always-on connection such as cable or DSL. Such abuse of your system could result in your service being cut off by your Internet Service Provider. Read all about it.
I have devoted many words to the things I don’t like in the Italian education system; now it’s time to talk about some things that I do like, particularly in comparison with the American system.
American schools are largely funded by property taxes in each local school district: the higher the value of the homes in the district, the wealthier the schools. This creates a vicious circle: parents buy or rent homes in the wealthiest area they can afford, so that their kids can go to better schools, then the rich (school districts) get richer, and the poor get poorer.
In Italy, the public education system is centrally managed and funded, so you don’t get these kinds of gross inequities. And there is freedom of choice: any child can go to almost any school. Elementary and middle schools give preference to kids living nearby, because most parents choose schools close to home for their young children, but most schools have room for kids from other neighborhoods as well.
The choices are not always obvious. For Ross’ preschool and elementary we chose Parco Trotter, because it was close to home and uniquely situated in a huge park. But the son of our portinaia (building concierge), living three floors below us, commuted a couple of metro stops to an elementary school which had a better reputation academically – it was well known in the neighborhood (though not by us, since we were newcomers) that Parco Trotter did not prepare kids as well for middle school. And, as I’ve mentioned, for the first two years of middle school Ross commuted across town, to an exclusive yet public school.
At the end of middle school, students choose both the type of high school they will attend, and its location. In a city like Milan, there is usually more than one of each type of school, each with its own style, history, and reputation.
You might think that students in smaller cities would have fewer choices, but they can and do go to school anywhere within a large radius. Students commute to Lecco (the provincial capital) from far up Lake Como and its surrounding valleys, and some even come from Milan – 50 kilometers away, 40 minutes by train. Others commute from Lecco to schools in Milan. I have heard of kids commuting from Milan to the liceo artistico in Lecco, even though there are two or three licei artistici right there in Milan. I would not be surprised if the reverse was also true – kids from Lecco commuting to a liceo artistico in Milan – though I don’t know the specific reasons for either choice.
This freedom of choice fosters competition among schools; a recent article in Il Corriere della Sera told how some schools are offering courses such as Japanese and Arabic to attract students, while another is popular because of a well-organized exchange program with foreign schools (I researched this one, and was disappointed to find that this is only for short visits, a week or two, but there is an increasingly popular program wherein kids go away for their fourth year and penultimate of high school).
As the differences fade between licei and technical institutes, in terms of preparing students for university, I expect competition will become even fiercer. We can hope that this leads to more innovation in curricula and other areas, as we all (parents, students, schools, government, and society at large) try to figure out how best to prepare our kids for life in today’s global economy.
I went to hear Gary Hart, former US senator and (also former) Democratic presidential candidate, speak in Milan at the Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale. His lecture was brief and intelligent, ostensibly about “American Foreign Policy after the election,” but in many ways a plug for his good friend John Kerry.
He raised a number of interesting and important points, such as the fact that there has as yet been no real public debate in America on what its role should be in the post-Cold War world. Some scholars and others see the US as already being, or moving into the role of, an empire. Can or should the US be a “benign” empire (if such a thing is possible)? Can a country be both an empire and a republic? (Hart and many others say no.)
Hart says that the values and behaviors of a republic, as America was founded to be, include popular sovereignty and resistance to corruption (corruption in the broad sense of “putting personal interest ahead of the common good”). On both of these counts, America already fails to be a republic: voter turnout is among the world’s lowest, so we cannot say that we have “popularly” elected representatives. And no one seems to be putting the common good above personal interest. Hart rightly points to the corruption in political financing: virtually all money for political candidates comes from interest groups. But, in fairness, I can’t say that the Democrats score any better on this scale than the Republicans – the Democratic candidates are simply in a different set of pockets and, when it’s their turn in power, will make paybacks to a different set of interests.
Had I been registered as a Republican in 2000, I would have voted for John McCain in the primaries, because I liked what he had to say about campaign finance reform. In the event, all I could do was vote for Gore, who is owned by slightly less evil interest groups. I don’t like what the teachers’ unions have done to American education, but I like even less what Cheney’s pals at Halliburton are doing to the world. For the record, I am disgusted enough with Bush & Co. that I have recently joined the Milan chapter of Democrats Abroad, and will be doing my bit by helping out with their website.
However, I have the despairing feeling that it’s going to be a long time before either party fields a candidate I can actually respect. If you want to see someone trying to make a real difference in American politics, have a look at John Bonifaz and his organization.
John and I were in India together on our study abroad year in Benares. We didn’t like each other then, and have hardly met since, but, through the grapevine, I’ve been aware of what he’s been up to, and have come to respect him greatly – his heart and mind are both in the right place, and he’s very, very intelligent in how he pursues his goals. A few years ago he was thinking of running for office in Massachusetts – against John Kerry – and I pledged money to his campaign (for the first time in my political life); unfortunately, he bowed out after 9/11, though he still has a few things to say to Kerry.
The Italian public high school system is complex, with dozens of different types of schools, divided into two major branches, licei and institutes. The licei were traditionally the college-preparatory schools, while the technical and professional institutes were intended to put people directly into the workforce. I say “were,” because the distinction was officially eliminated by educational reform legislation in 1962. It took time for these reforms to percolate through the system, but nowadays students are accepted into almost any university program from almost any type of high school, although it is still true that some types of high schools prepare you better than others for particular areas of higher study.
Liceo is the traditional, rigorous college preparatory program: five years of studies culminating in the esame della maturità , a series of nationally-set written and oral exams. There were originally four types of liceo:
classico, where you study Classical Greek and Latin as well as the usual subjects – Italy’s is the only school system in Europe (and probably the world) where Classical Greek can still be studied in high school;
scientifico, with more emphasis on science, but also Latin (“promotes rigorous thinking” is the theory);
artistico, which was originally a four-year program leading not to the maturità , but directly to a fine arts academy (accademia delle belle arti), or to a school of architecture.
magistrale, designed to train elementary-school teachers, though I believe that nowadays new teachers at all levels also need a university degree.
There are also some new types of liceo:
linguistico, which offers a variety of foreign languages; and
Europeo, which in some cases seems to have a jurisprudence/economics focus – pre-law school?
The four-year liceo artistico has now almost vanished; my daughter and most of her peers are in a five-year program, called “experimental”. Artistico has the longest hours of any school, with 19 periods a week of studio art in addition to 19 hours of academic classes, and homework in both arenas. For the first two years, everyone does the same subjects, then they choose one of four areas of specialization: architecture, art conservation and restoration, visual arts (painting and drawing), and graphic arts (which involves at least some computer graphics).
May 16, 2004 – As we are learning the painful way, this curriculum is overloaded. There is no way that 14-year-olds can learn physics or algebra in two 50-minute periods a week; even the teachers tacitly admit this, by giving occasional extra classes after school. Ross and many of her classmates have needed extra tutoring this year in one or more subjects, and a number are likely to fail the year; we’re working hard to help Ross not be one of them.
The failure rate at Italian high schools is astonishing. I don’t have any hard numbers, but practically every kid I hear about has repeated one or more years of high school – at least there is no great stigma in being bocciato (flunked). Since school is only required up to age 15 [this has since changed], one girl in Ross’ class has already dropped out. Another is probably dyslexic, but her parents have apparently never figured this out, nor is the school offering any help, except to suggest that she shift to the four-year program with fewer academic subjects.
The core curriculum seems to be the same at all licei. Nobody graduates without having read Dante and Manzoni (Ross’ class is also reading Umberto Eco), and having reviewed world history starting (again) from prehistoric man. All schools now require a second language (usually English), and many offer a third (French or German). Judging from Ross’ courseload, they’re probably also all doing math, physics, biology, and Italian. In general, I have been impressed by the articulateness and cultural depth of Italian high schoolers, and their schooling clearly has something to do with it – when they survive it.
I know less about the institutes. They are trade schools, with a basic academic curriculum, plus specific preparation in a range of areas from accounting to hospitality to construction. Most institutes theoretically prepare you to go straight into a job, but in practice many graduates of the istituti choose to go on to university.
We don’t have a normal array of pets. We have a horse (if you can call a horse a pet; at any rate, he doesn’t live with us), and we have two turtles, Poirot and Marple. We don’t know their sexes, so they’re not M. Poirot and Miss Marple, just Poirot and Marple.
We do know their species: red-eared sliders, originating along the Mississippi and in the American south, the most common kind of pet store turtle. I did some Internet research after we got them and, had I realized beforehand what I was in for, I probably would have nixed the idea. But we have them now, and I’m responsible for keeping them alive so, unlike the 99.9% of baby red-eared sliders sold worldwide, these two are still thriving after three years. They’re about five inches long now, and they have every chance of living their allotted one score and ten years, and reaching over 14″ in length. By which time, we had better be living in a house with a garden so we can keep them outdoors in a pond most of the year.
For now, they live in a glass tank with a plastic island they can crawl up on, to bask in the rays of their special ultra-violet turtle lamp. And, when it’s warm, we let them have the crawl of the house for exercise and to dry off for a bit (something this species needs to do).
