Easter Holidays in Quarantine

Daily pills to help students (and families) organize their study in Covid-19 times, when almost one billion children have seen their schools close. Signed by Marcello Bramati and Lorenzo Sanna, deans and teachers at Faes High schools in Milan. As reported by Time magazine, they are teaching online during the lockdown, in an ongoing experiment in remote learning. Every morning at 8.30 a.m., their advice, tips and good practices for students of all ages.

In Italy, schools have been closed for over six weeks. Almost all of us have been at home for more than a month, working in emergency mode. Regarding education, the focus of our interest in these lines, we think it is time to stop remote learning. It's time to stop, because Easter holidays are coming.

Many schools have kept up the pace, making up in 48 hours a new way of interacting with students and families, but also among teachers. It is the small/great contribution of the school in such a critical moment for Italy and for every single family. These have been weeks of half days (for some, even entire days) in front of the screens.

Both teachers and students have quickly learnt to upload contents, download files and answer open and closed questions in a precise time. Everything new, everything slowly entered into everyone's experience. During these weeks, there have also been hours and hours of live lessons on different platforms: compared, optimized, discussed, changed.

Now it's time to rest. Italian songwriter Francesco De Gregori writes that «even in the middle of a shipwreck, you have to eat». So even in Covid times you have to stop. Let's give space to a few days of vacation, different from a thousand other holidays, without - for Christians - Easter liturgy, without lunch out on Easter monday.

Nevertheless, it has to be holiday: from screens, from exercises and from desks. Without daily lessons there will be less commitment, of course, so there will also be less distraction. As as a result, there will be less tension, more free time to organize or to rest. Even in a suspended and uncertain time like this one, there are still Mondays and Sundays, weekdays and holidays. A shadow of normality we cannot do without, that we must reclaim.