1. INTERTWINING (and inter- eTwinning) GENERATIONS
(picture taken by one of our pupils)
On April 29th
2013, in the European year of active citizenship, the Liceo
Machiavelli opens up its doors to the intergenerational dialogue on the European
Day of Solidarity between Generations.
Some of our pupils’ grandparents have been invited to our branch school (via da
Procida) to share their life experience and talk to pupils about how they can plan to
build a better Europe for the future.

2. After a whole school year dedicated to deepen the concept, the practice and the
expression of democracy within two eTwinning projects - Democracy 2.0 and The
book of life -, pupils have today been invited to follow a hands-on path of active
citizenship by getting in touch with the experience and the reflection of people
belonging to other generations.
The first guest of our meeting is our former headteacher, Mr. Marcello Montagna. He
worked at school for 47 years and can now say that he has seen a deep change in
pupils. According to him, nowadays pupils know less, but they have more curiosity,
or, as he says in Latin, curiositas, thanks to the many inputs they receive from media
and society.
The Europe of the future might then be built up by starting from a school community
which has to be able to transform and broaden the relationship between teachers and
pupils opening up to the suggestions and stimuli coming from the encounter with
other European countries through projects of mobility and real or virtual twinning.
Our second guest, Mr. Mario Pernazza, emphasized the importance of body
expression through traditional dance: e.g. mazurka, polka can also be seen as a way
of relating relate to our fellows. According to him, sharing this passion within a
couple helps increase the harmony between the spouses.

3. As a result, his suggestion is that a better future Europe might be build up starting
from forms of socialisation which might include body expression “since when you
dance, for example, you have to stay focused on the ‘we’ and not only on yourself” .
From active feet to …. active hands! Mrs. Rita Pernazza, our third guest, has told us
that, beside being faithful companion to her “dancer” husband, she is also faithful to
her crochet! She has shown the pupils that you need a very cheap equipment to take
up crochet. Then she has tried to teach some girls how to do that.
The girls have realised how difficult they find using their hands even in very simple
crochet movements. Mrs. Pernazza and the girls have come to the conclusion that a
better Europe might rediscover some “old” and traditional jobs which require a
correct and crafty use of you hands, a high level of concentration and which also
imply a rejection of a consumeristic attitude promoting material recycling.

4. After his son’s death in a horse-drawn omnibus accident, Mr. Laici’s grandfather
designed and patented in the XIX c. Paris a safety helmet for motobikers. Even if he
was a simple shoemaker, he was so creative as to design the first prototype of an
airbag (which Mr. Laic has showed to us), which the French government did not want
to patent underestimating its usefulness for future citizens.
From Italy, which is generally regarded as a country where road safety rules are
neglected, here you have, thanks to our fourth guest – the grandson of the inventor of
the safety helmet – the suggestion to build up a European Union which cares about
the safety at work and on the road of its citizens.
Report of the event by Augusta Charis Marconi and Mariella Fasanelli
Useful links to our materials.
2013 generations@school video: https://vimeo.com/66962447
Link to the article in the school site:
http://www.ismachiavelli.eu/pags/spip.php?article757
Among the links, we have also included some videos made by our pupils last year to
celebrate the Year of Solidarity between generations, which have not taken part in
any competitions and have been useful to inspire this year’s work.
Video Matilde: http://youtu.be/RuRl75Al4B4
Video Camilla: http://youtu.be/nBFUfaMSrAY
Video Virginia: http://youtu.be/66xJKpRqiRs