2014 Programme
Event #19
Paola Mastrocola
The Death of Study
Has study, especially of the humanities, changed in or disappeared from schools? Have kids stopped reading, or are they incapable of describing what they read? Perhaps the disappearance of introversion has something to do with it: if the pleasure of being with oneself disappears, then the pleasure of stopping to read the words in a book does too. Nowadays, everything encourages us to live outside ourselves, in non-stop contact with others. Always in relations and connected, but alone. School (but the family and society as well) does not love shy, solitary people, and maybe not even kids who study: it celebrates group work, socialization, social networks. But if no one is capable of finding in themselves the necessary stimuli, how can reading, thinking, writing, art and study still be fostered? And are we still interested in encouraging these ideas, or do we prefer to let them fall by the wayside in the name of change?
https://www.festivaldellamente.it/it/live-streaming-alessandro-barbero/teaches Letters at a scientific lyceum. She has written plays for young people, published poetry anthologies (the most recent one is La felicità del galleggiante, Guanda, 2010), essays on Italian literature between the 14th and 16th centuries, novels (including La gallina volante, 2000, and Una barca nel bosco, 2004, Guanda; Non so niente di te, Einaudi, 2013), fairy-tale novels (including Che animale sei?, Guanda, 2005) and handbooks on the subject of school (La scuola raccontata al mio cane, 2004, Togliamo il disturbo. Saggio sulla liberta di non studiare, 2011, both published by Guanda). She has illustrated the fairy tale by Ernesto Ferrero, Storia di Quirina, di una talpa e di un orto di montagna (Einaudi, 2014).
Event #20
Paolo Cornaglia Ferraris, Marcello Massimini
The Secret of the Consciousness and its Measurement
