Educational quality can be understood as the disposition of an educational institution to constantly review, adjust and improve all processes and factors involved in educational practice within a teaching community.
For us the Piarist, the concept of educational quality is not strange because St Joseph Calasanz, our founder, often used the term diligence, referring mainly to educational practice; in his letters, we can find this term as many as 816 times; here is an extract from a letter written to Fr. Giovanni Pietro Cananea, vice-rector of the Pious Schools in Moricone in 1620:
Brother Domenico [Bacelli], together with Brother Angelo [Pioli], will be in charge of the schools, which, helping each other together, will be able to attend with the diligence that is required to teach 40 pupils who I understand are there and the letters and Christian doctrine and the holy fear of God (Ep. 0058).
This letter is a beautiful synthesis of the educational spirit that St. Joseph of Calasanz held as fundamental: in the first place, the practice of school is the essential ministry of the Pious Schools; we were born to educate; in the second place, school is exercised collaboratively, otherwise, it does not work, or there is no school; at least Calasanz was convinced of this; the third aspect is diligence understood as accuracy and discipline, qualities sine qua non the Pious Schools cannot fulfil their purpose; the term diligence can also be understood as affection, love and tenderness; fourth and last aspect, in this passage Calasanz speaks of the contents: letters or human knowledge, Christian doctrine or knowledge of the faith, St Peter says give an account of the hope that is in us (cf. 1 Pt 3:15), and the relationship with God expressed by the term the holy fear of God. In short, the text answers two decisive questions for schools: how to teach and what to teach. Of course, we can still go deeper into this text, but the purpose of these lines is different.
I am drawing up this Calasanz framework to share the joy we feel these days with the publication of the results on the quality of high school teaching in Italy by the Agnelli Foundation through Eduscopio 2023. This foundation assesses the outcomes of students leaving secondary school during university life or in the field of work for students on vocational courses.
In addition, here is the news we are delighted to share with all of you: in the ranking prepared by Eduscopio 2023, it appears that the Human Sciences of the Calasanzio Institute in Genoa Cornigliano ranks first among similar high schools in Liguria. In other words, our high school is the best in the Ligurian region for studying human sciences.
The Calasanzio School of the human sciences in Genoa adopts the Didactics for Learning Environments (DADA), which consists of setting up each subject in its environment suitable, cared for and suited to each discipline; thus, the classroom is not a space to be filled with desks and people but becomes an active element of the teaching-learning process. Pupils change classrooms to find the corresponding subject and teacher. This movement is a stimulus to activate the students’ concentration, like a shock that restores and renews the mind and the whole person to start again with all cognitive capacities ready for a new learning experience. There may be a slight loss of time in each move, but there is much more to be gained in the quality of learning. This teaching model has been adopted at our Institute since 2016.
Congratulations go first and foremost to the many pupils who have attended and are attending our school: They are the protagonists of this success, but we must also recognise the constant and diligent work of so many teachers, who with their commitment and dedication have taught, accompanied and trained so many people; we cannot forget the parents because they are the ones who have believed in our educational project and our teaching model; a particular word of affection and admiration to the Piarist Fathers who work at the Calasanzio Institute; and finally, a heartfelt thank you to the management and administrative staff who work with such passion and tenacity, first and foremost: Dr. Laura Castella school director and Dr. Laura Castella headmistress of the school and Fr. Mario Saviola rector of the Institute.
The challenge is to continue striving to maintain the dignified position achieved by our educating community in the coming years with the constant, patient and quality work that the Calasanzio Institute in Genoa deserves.
