Student Journals: AIFS in Rome, Italy

Caitlin Webb
Pacific Lutheran University
Richmond in Rome, Italy

Adorabile Bambini: An Experience in the Italian School System

Caitlin WebbThis semester I had the opportunity to volunteer at an Italian elementary school. I helped out with three classes (two kindergarten classes, and one fourth grade class), and actually got to teach two other classes (a second grade class and a kindergarten class). I also was able to eat lunch with one of my Kindergarten classes once a week, and experience what an actual Italian school lunch was like (delicious!). It was incredibly interesting since there was a gigantic language barrier between some of the teachers and I, but all-in-all it generally worked out fine.

The Italian elementary school system is very different from the American elementary school system, or at least the one I was in when I was younger. First and foremost, all of the kids are required to wear blue smocks to school to (I’m assuming) prevent their clothes from getting dirty. I got used to it after a while, but it kind of threw me for a loop at first.

They also emphasize play more than anything else in the Italian school system, which I think is absolutely great. The younger kids are always playing, or their assignments have a craft element to them. They take their notes in different colors, and use color and pictures throughout their notes. The director of the school made sure I recognized this while I was teaching, and told me to always be playing with the kids while teaching them. This was actually really great, as we played games that incorporated vocabulary. In this way, the kids were able to remember their vocab more easily, since they had actions or pictures to help them recall the words.

The discipline was also really, really different- almost to the point of uncomfortable. The teachers generally let their kids run around, and then yell at them to sit down and be quiet. It was especially awkward when the other day I walked into my classroom, only to find the kids being yelled at for at least twenty minutes for not understanding the math lesson. Luckily, the kids don’t care that much and just sit there and stare. Some of them even find it funny and giggle. As shocking as it was, I think it develops a healthy outlook on authority. While most of the kids in my elementary class as a kid would almost certainly break down in tears, the kids here chalk it up to their teacher having a bad day and don’t blame themselves for it.

The actual teaching part was really, really fun. I got to make up my own lesson plan and play games with them, while teaching them the English language. Even though some of my lesson plans were a little spur of the moment, like when it was raining outside and I decided on the spot we’d learn weather vocabulary, the lessons generally went smoothly. In one of my classes, the teacher left the room while I was teaching. While this wasn’t a problem, it meant that I also had to discipline and since I’m not very authoritative, things sometimes got a little rowdy. This is also where the language barrier came in. While I could definitely convey what the vocab meant through pictures, I often times did not understand a lick of what the kids were trying to tell me. One time, a little girl came up to me and said something and when I looked at her quizzingly, she pointed at one of the boys, pretended to spit, and then pointed to herself. “Ohh!” I said, finally getting it.

The language barrier also came into play when I was helping out with the classes. Many times in the fourth grade math class, I had to help the students with their lesson. Since I barely understood what was going on, and since the math teacher didn’t speak English very well, I sometimes helped the kid wrong, and then they’d get yelled at for doing the lesson wrong and I’d feel bad. Most of the time, the reaction was only comical, and no real harm was done.

But, despite the obvious language barrier and occasional misunderstandings, the experience that I had was fantastic, and even made me seriously consider becoming an English-as-a-second-language teacher when I graduate university. It was an amazing learning experience for me, it was interesting to see the contrasts between the Italian school system and the American school system, and I had so much fun being able to be a part of their school. And of course, watching little kids ramble in Italian was completely adorable.

Richmond in Rome