IL NOSTRO MONDO: MY SCHOOL WAS DIFFERENT...

mercoledì 5 aprile 2023

MY SCHOOL WAS DIFFERENT...

My school was different!!!

St. John’s School Clifton Hill,

Nth. Fitzroy 3068

Melbourne

Australia

With my Mother in the Edinbough Gardens 1959

When we settled in Melbourne (1958/68) our house was extremely near to this college. I just had to walk through the Edinbough Gardens in Fitzroy, cross Delbridge St. where my Aunty lived, follow a few lanes, beware of the traffic lights and there you were, right infront of the gate and into the school court.

On the opposite side you could see the Church.

I started pre-school at the age of five years(1958) and passed through all the classes till I was fifteen. All the students wore a blu uniform, an outfit with a skirt, shirt, tie, blazer, hat and gloves.

my first day at school 1958

The school bell rang five days a week at 9am, and the lessons finished in the afternoon at 4pm. We studied many subjects in this istitute and what I can remember with joy is that we did lots of sports. We played cricket, the relay race, jumbing with the rope, basketball, we were taken to the swimming pool, we learnt a traditional scottish dance with the swords, at the end of the year we recited and sang on a big stage. I loved going to school. During the ten years of my stay
in this accademy I never missed a lesson. I met polite but strict Teachers and friendly class-mates, many of them were Italian imigrants like me. I felt lucky to have frequented this institute.

I considered it “my house out of home”.

2003 at the school court when I made a trip back to Melbourne

When my parents brought me back to Italy, I decided not to go to school because I felt a stranger in this country and my English accent made me feel uncomfortable. I didn’t understand how some students of my age didn’t realize the importance of going to school, and I couldn’t absolutly understand how they could cheat their parents that thought they were safe inside a classroom, which instead sometimes they went somewhere else.

Look at me now, I’m a senior women, born in May 1953.

I think that learning is necessary at my age. It allows to keep up with the new generations

Three years ago I joined

the LIFELONG LEARNING SCHOOL. It’s a pleasure for me to sit once again in a classroom. But Adults like me need to obtain extra. The goverment should invest in Teachers to educate elder people, to improve their knowledge, helping them to follow with ability
to proceed innovations that the world offers.

…“there is no end of learning”….