The Scholastic Institution that has decided to “experiment” with the “sports curvature” by promoting, as in the case, already analysed, the “Anne Frank” Secondary School of the State Comprehensive Institute of Lugagnano di Sona (VR), needs, it depends on its better structuring of study paths and the effectiveness of the educational intervention, to promote specific and agreements between the Sports Clubs and Associations and the school institution itself for the realization of the project aimed at practicing sport and the activity motor / ludic-recreational which, then, each agreement comes to detail and better define.
The convention: the role of the partners in the agreement
The agreement that will be stipulated (naturally each school undertakes and hopes that there will be many of these agreements) with the following summary commitments (better defined in the diagram attached):
L’Educational institution undertakes to:
- make available the school gym and the equipment contained therein, normally used for motor / physical and sporting activities and the materials necessary for carrying out the planned activities, with the exception of specialist equipment which will be provided by the Club / Sports Association.
There Society / The Sports Association undertakes to:
- make available its qualified technicians and coaches in possession of federal patents recognized by CONI;
- possibly host the pupils of the classes involved in the project in their sports facilities;
- send the calendar of sports activities to the school, on headed paper signed by the President, with the names of the technicians involved in the training proposal;
The experience of the Anne Frank Secondary School
Once again we use the amazing experience of the pupils, teachers and head teacher of the “Anne Frank” secondary school of the Istituto comprensivo Statale of Lugagnano di Sona (VR), by interviewing the very kind and very competent head teacher prof Elisabeth Piras Trombi Abibatu who has made her institute a real rarity (among very few others in Italy) in terms of sport experimentation in lower secondary school, with the premises and considerations already made in previous articles. Once again, in this interview, we make use of her considerations.
It is important, Prof. Elisabeth Piras Trombi Abibatu, to implement a culture of sport aimed at promoting youth policies and combating ailments, discomfort, anxieties, deviances and crime in young people. How can this be done?
«The equivalent of early school leaving is the scourge of early abandonment of sport. Any sports technician knows that the golden age for motor learning is adolescence. Between the ages of 11 and 15 it will be decided whether one will be a champion, a medium-low level athlete or simply a lifelong active sports enthusiast. Therefore, there is an inextricable link between school and sports. How many hours will we be able to remove from the use of smartphones, tablets, consoles and PCs and devote them to the practice of a sport after school hours, how many young people will we be able to remove from the street, from the baby gang and from all those youth problems that the crisis pandemic blew up. We must avoid wanting to treat natural adolescent anxieties only from a clinical point of view, with psychological sessions and neuropsychiatric therapies. If these are justified in the short term in an emergency phase, they must be compensated for and replaced in the long term with activities useful for forming and strengthening the character of fragile subjects, in a phase of growth and maturity, who are looking for their identity and self-awareness”. .
Does this curvature, principal, make it possible to bring an ever increasing number of young people closer to sporting practice and to the acquisition of new technical gestures and new motor and postural patterns?
«Another phenomenon that worries those who have always dealt with young people is the decline in practitioners in the various sports which, combined with the falling birth rate, makes the picture rather worrying. Schools have been the nurseries of sports clubs for generations. I could talk about my example, it was my physical education teacher at the Tuveri Middle School in Cagliari, Professor Migheli, who introduced me to the sports clubs of my city. I gathered the same testimony, speaking with Fausto Tosi, Veronese Olympic champion in weightlifting and in the physical education teachers of Lugagnano. It is important that the opportunities for adolescents to get in touch with new motor experiences are widened. The sports curvature allows students to get to know and practice at least fifteen sports disciplines over the three-year period of lower secondary school. It will then be up to the individual student to fall in love with a sport and independently decide to practice it in the afternoon. From an impromptu visit to a playing field, a gym, a swimming pool, the future of our students could be hidden, guided in their choice by the technical eye of external professors and coaches who know how to identify talents and propensities».
Mr. Headmaster, you have managed to make secondary school pupils experience a plurality of sensory-motor experiences that allow them to develop social skills through playing sports and, moreover, this has allowed them to disseminate educational and behavioral values in young people positive, based on empathy and sharing through knowledge of Paralympic sports. All of this?
«To achieve this goal, there are four types of sports that must be taught at school: individual sports for self-growth, group sports for social skills and conflict resolution, outdoor sports for psychophysical well-being and harmony with the environment, Paralympic sports for inclusiveness. On this last front, a lot has been done but there is still a lot to do. The idea of relegating Paralympic sports to people with some disabilities is as wrong as you can think. Especially for those with sensory limitations, athletes who act as sports guides for the blind and visually impaired or communication assistants for the deaf and those with some form of hearing loss are important. I strongly wanted Baseball for the Blind to be held at the Collegiale della Curvatura Sportiva, and I thank the FIBS National Councilor Barbara Menoni for having immediately joined the project, as I wish the students to put themselves in the shoes of those who are blind and have the same experience. This creates empathy, closeness and sharing».
The school has the merit of educating young students to coexistence and social cohesion, developing collaboration and teamwork skills, learning to overcome conflicts, divisions and diversity and also of teaching respect for the rules and basic principles of safety in the environment extracurricular. The “Curvature” is really fundamental, therefore.
«Yes, the sport Curvature, and I hope in a not too distant time to be able to say “the sports courses of the lower secondary school”, has all these virtues. So I expect that there will be many teachers and managers who want to join our “Schools for sport” network and who want to participate in the “Primo Collegiale della Curvatura Sportiva” which will be held in Verona on 17 and 18 February 2023, because as the subtitle of the network agreement: Sport helps to overcome life’s obstacles».
Convention School and Sports Clubs