Page - 138 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

138 REfLECTIvE COsMOPOLITANIsM Exercise: If you were Gennaro… Distribute the following text to your pupils and ask them to answer the questions by providing arguments for their choices. Later, on the basis of a comparison of the answers, stimulate a debate. A short time ago Gennaro moved with his parents to a northern Italian city. He is not happy in his new school. Teachers often reproach him because he is not able to speak Italian correctly; also, his classmates make fun of him because he cannot understand their jargon. Moreover, on the way back home every day, he runs into teens who threaten him and tell him that he should go back to his hometown. 1. If you were Gennaro, which among the following behaviors would seem to you the most appropriate in your relationships with your classmates and teachers? Provide reasons for your choice: a. Consider their behavior discriminatory and “racist” and ask your parents to change schools. b. Try to participate in all educational or recreational activities organized by the school in which your origin is less evident (for example, playing football, chess games, math competitions), and hope that this will lead others to accept you. c. Consider that they are partly right because you are the foreigner who is still too tied to your own dialect and culture. Therefore, you have to learn Italian better and become familiarized with the local jargon. d. Expect that over time your teachers and classmates will become accustomed to you. e. Other solutions............................................................ 2. If you were Gennaro, which among the following behaviors would seem to you the most appropriate in order to face the threats? Provide reasons for your choice: a. Change your way home in order to avoid any conflict. b. Go to the police because only an external and official authority can help you in a city that is foreign to you. c. Think that the only solution is to respond to violence with violence and ask your older sibling to help you. d. Ask your older sibling and his or her friends to accompany you. Protected by them, you ask the teens to explain why they attack you. e. Other behavior: ......................................................... 3. If you were Gennaro, how would you feel in your relationships with your teach- ers and classmates? Provide reasons for your choice. a. As if you were being punched every day. b. Frustrated, because nobody understands your worth. c. Resigned, because you think that you are worthless. d. You do not care about that because you think that they all are stupid, while your previous teachers and classmates were indeed smart. e. Other way of feeling: .................................................. Exercise: Types of Violence Referring to the text of the previous exercise, say whether you think Gennaro is a victim of an episode of violence and, if so, identify the different types of violence. Now make a list of violent behaviors and explain why you consider them to be violent