DESCRIPTION OF THE SUCCESS STORY
The main characters of the story are: the student FL, aged 14, the Italian teacher and the parents’ class representative. The story begins in November 2012, when the student is enrolled at the Professional Institute "G. Fascetti" in Pisa, after a bad experience in a Technical Institute of the same city. The student, born in Pisa, lives in the suburbs; he is of small stature and that’s why he seems to be younger. His parents present a certificate with which the boy can benefit of all compensatory and dispensatory measures of the school, a certificate that the law (DM.N.5669 of 12/07/2011) provides for pupils with learning disabilities (DSA): the boy is anorthographic. The student wants to frequent the “first Maintainers” class, a course of study that teaches how to carry out operations of installation and maintenance and diagnostics, how to repair and test small systems and technical structures. He is inserted into the 1MA, a class of 29 students, of whom 3 DSA certificates (including himself), 3 who do not speak the language, 16 repeating the year. The class is extremely complex: since the beginning of the year, it presents serious disciplinary problems. In particular, some students show aggressive tendencies to classmates and teachers. The parent-teacher-student association meets several times in order to discuss the various problems. The class coordinator, Mrs. C.Z., proposes the intervention of a competent psychologist, in order to help students, parents and teachers. An afternoon meeting between parents, class coordinator and psychologist is established, in order to create a good relationship with students’ parents and build an active network of contacts (December). Mrs. C.Z. and the parents' representative Mrs. M.A. deepen their knowledge and decide together. In January, the exchanges between the two are becoming more frequent: they meet to discuss problems and seek solutions. One day the representative informs the teacher that she came to know this: the student FL, that for several days didn’t go to school, was not sick, but he did not attend because he had been threatened several times by two classmates. Mrs. C.Z. refers to the headmaster, and he suggests to take immediate action. In accordance with Mrs. C.Z., he calls the boy's parents. Once the two responsible students (of the same class of the student FL) are identified, he summons them and tries to make them understand the gravity of their acts. The two boys say to him they did not know what they were doing was harmful, they were convinced to joke without any serious consequence. They promise they will change. Mrs. C.Z. organizes a second meeting between parents, representatives, psychologist and coordinator. During this meeting, in accordance with F.L.’s parents, they tackle the problem and invite the parents, with the help of the psychologist, to awaken the whole class. Everyone of the parents, once returned home, will deal with the difficult subject, and, above all, will tell his son about the seriousness of the matter. F.L. comes back to school and is well received. One of the responsible guys apologizes. In February and March, the problem no longer occurs even though some problems of relationship between the student FL and the rest of the class remain (the boy continues to have a very childish behavior perceived as annoying). The contacts between coordinator and representative parents continue and the situation is kept under absolute control.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The success is surely a result of the collaboration between the class coordinator, the headmaster and the parents’ representative. The first one has provided the main measures (with the help of the psychologist and the consent of the headmaster) that were necessary to create a network of good relationships between parents and the parents' representative. The headmaster was always helpful and willing to promote the meetings and he was always ready to act with timely intervention when the problem occurred. The representative of parents, cordial and sociable, immediately gave his willingness to cooperate. The experience helped to realize that the resolution of any kind of problem comes from the cooperation of all parties involved -the headmaster, teachers, parents-, but especially that parents are extremely important figures of this process. Therefore, it is extremely useful to increase the opportunities to meet, that are not only aimed at solving problems, but also at creating active involvement in the school life
