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EDUCATION

Italian mum tells teacher: Homework is torture, kids need time to play

An Italian mum sparked debate over the intensity of Italy's school system when she shared a note she had written to her daughter's teacher on Facebook, in which she said her daughter didn't have time to do her homework.

Published: 7 October 2016 10:48 CEST
Italian mum tells teacher: Homework is torture, kids need time to play
Do Italian children need more time to play? File photo: Pexels

Anna Santoiemma told her nine-year-old daughter's teacher that rather than spending evenings doing homework, her child needed time for sport and other activities.

She wrote the message in a homework diary, underneath the instructions for Thursday's homework: reading a page in a history textbook.

The mother shared the message on Facebook, adding: “Enough homework and enough of torturing our children after eight hours sitting at desks.”

“Mariasole wasn’t able to study History, because after eight hours of school, from 17:00 to 19:30 she dedicated her remaining free time to sport and recreational activities.”

Speaking to The Local, she said: “Unfortunately, school reform in Italy has been completely gutted because of continuous government cuts. We have demotivated teachers, there aren't any specialized refreshers' courses and there's no aptitude testing.

“School time should be contained within the eight hours that children spend at school,” Santoiemma added. “After that, leave them free to play, or even to laze around for the rest of the time. Instead, the culture of homework is already deeply rooted, which in my opinion is pointless after so many hours at school.”

Hundreds of people commented on the post, many of them criticizing the idea of children skipping their homework.

“The human mind is a sponge which is most absorbant in the first years of life, we need to make the most of this period of their lives to make them learn as many things as possible,” commented one woman, Maria Trimarco.

“Studying is torture for you? What kind of message do you think that sends?” said another Facebook user.

However, other parents and commenters agreed with Santoiemma that children need more downtime and shouldn't be picking up pen and paper after eight hours in school.

“I'm with you! The best schools in the world have fewer hours of classes and more recreational time. Children have to be children – at least for a few hours a day!” said Valentina Donati.

“If I leave work after eight hours, the last thing I want is to do the same thing at home that I've been doing all day,” said another Italian mother, who added that she encouraged her children to do their homework at weekends or during holidays, but not on school nights.

Are Italian schoolchildren overworked?

Earlier this year, one Italian mayor issued a homework ban for the summer holidays, arguing that children needed time to forget their schoolwork and let off steam.

In his decree, the mayor of the central Sardinian town, Luciano Barone, made a few suggestions as to how their time off could be put to better use.

“I’ve asked them to go for long walks, to discover and savour the sunrise, to dance, to write and, above all, to read whatever they want and discuss it with others,” he said. “Good citizens should have a solid education which can't be gained from books alone.”

On the other hand, some politicians argue that Italian youngsters actually have too much free time, with the three month summer holiday coming under attack.

Last year, Italy's labour minister ignited debate by suggesting the summer break be cut to just one month.

By standards in other European countries, Italy’s school holidays are somewhat excessive. Across the border in France, pupils are given eight weeks outside the classroom, while in Germany there are around six weeks of summer holidays.

READ MORE: 'The schooling is very different in Italy'


Expat mum Isabelle Duranceau, who told The Local about her experience of Italian schools, with her children in Santa Maria di Leuca. Photo: Isabelle Duranceau

 

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LIVING IN ITALY

Five things to know about naming your baby in Italy

What's in a name? For international parents in Italy, choosing one for their baby means considering the country's laws and cultural norms, as well as the limits of the Italian bureaucratic system.

Published: 22 July 2024 17:37 CEST
Updated: 27 July 2024 07:46 CEST
Five things to know about naming your baby in Italy

If you’re an international resident having a baby in Italy, there’s a lot to understand and get used to.

From healthcare provision and parental leave to ideas about which foods to eat during pregnancy, things are likely to differ from your home country in all sorts of unexpected ways.

When it comes to choosing a name for your child, there’s more to know about Italian naming rules and conventions. This can become complex if your partner is Italian and you need to navigate two sets of laws and cultural norms – as well as finding a name which both sets of grandparents can easily pronounce.

For some new parents, the differences between Italy’s naming conventions and those of their culture of origin mean it turns out not to be possible to use the name(s) they’d initially wanted. But it’s always better to find out about possible issues ahead of time, rather than at the registry office.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re having those all-important baby name discussions with your partner.

Foreign names are usually allowed

Some countries have strict naming laws, but in Italy, there’s some flexibility. Although that doesn’t mean anything goes.

Under Italian law, the main restrictions are that a baby’s given name can’t be a surname, it can’t be “ridiculous or shameful”, and it must correspond to their sex.

Foreign names are generally accepted, as long as they are written in letters that exist in the Italian alphabet.

READ ALSO: What are the rules for naming your baby in Italy?

While Italian registry office officials can’t refuse to allow a name, they can refer questionable choices to the courts, which may rule against a name deemed not to be in the child’s best interest – and can order parents to choose another.

This system means that whether or not a moniker is allowed often depends on the local registrar, and how well a parent can argue their case for a more unusual name, as shown in past court cases where Italian parents have opted for something a little left-field.

But foreign parents are given some leeway, and names aren’t denied simply for not being traditionally Italian enough.

Still, traditional names remain overwhelmingly popular, especially for boys: Italy’s official list of the most popular baby names reveals that the top ten has long been dominated by centuries-old titles like Francesco, Leonardo and Lorenzo.

You can’t name them after a parent

Italian law states that children can’t have the same first name as a parent (not even when adding ‘Junior’) nor of a living brother or sister.

This means that people from families with a tradition of passing down the same name through the generations will be unable to do so if they’ve moved to Italy.

In Italy, particularly in the south, many families instead maintain a tradition of naming children after their paternal grandparents.

Middle names are unusual in Italy

If you suggest the idea of a middle name to your Italian partner, you may meet some resistance or confusion as the concept is pretty much unknown here.

As anyone with a middle name knows, having one in Italy can result in bureaucratic mix-ups (for example, when only your first name is used in one system or document, but both are entered in another.) You may also find that Italians insist on using both your first and middle names together.

READ ALSO: ‘Not easy, but worth it’: The ups and downs of raising bilingual kids in Italy

This is often because people assume it’s a ‘double name’ or nome doppio. This is not particularly common, but it essentially means someone has two first names and both are used together, for example Anna Giulia or Maria Stella.

This is even less common with boys. However, the only time Italian law allows for a traditionally female name to be used for a male is in the case of Maria as part of a nome doppio for a male, eg. Antonio Maria or Giovanni Maria.

You can give your child a second or middle name (or even two – up to three given names are allowed). But if you want it to be a middle name (and not a nome doppio) you may find you need to add a comma between the first and middle names when registering, which will mean only the first name is then legally required on paperwork.

If you’re thinking of giving your half-Italian baby a nome doppio instead of a first and middle name, be aware that this too might result in future bureaucratic headaches, as Italian computer systems aren’t always set up to handle these, either.

Perhaps to avoid this sort of confusion, Italian parents often give children composite names (nomi composti) which are essentially two first names joined together, such as Pierpaolo or Mariavittoria.

You can use both parents’ surnames

In Italy, a woman keeps her maiden name for life, and women don’t take their husband’s name upon marriage. (As a result, non-Italian women who choose to change their names on marriage often end up in a tangle with Italian bureaucracy.)

Traditionally, a baby born in Italy is given the father’s last name, resulting in the mother having a different name from the rest of her family. 

But in 2022, the Italian Constitutional Court ruled that babies should be given both parents’ surnames, unless the parents decide to use only the last name of either the mother or of the father.

While using only the father’s name is still by far the most common tradition, a growing number of families are now choosing to give the baby the mother’s last name as well.

Italian naming practices now look set to become similar to those in Spain, where children’s surnames are usually composed of the father’s followed by the mother’s.

Most Italian families do not hyphenate a double-barrelled last name though, again conscious that Italian bureaucratic systems often will not accept a hyphen. 

You’ll need to be quick

Hopefully you’ll have a good idea of your baby’s likely name by the time of their birth, as you won’t have long to decide and register it.

In some countries, parents have more than a month to register the birth. It’s 42 days in England and Wales, for example, and up to 60 days in most parts of Australia.

But in Italy, new parents have three days to register the birth, and confirm the baby’s name, at the hospital registry or up to ten days to do so at the town hall registry.

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