Monday,
October 13, 2008
Italian Culture Beyond
Mob Movies Taught in
The
ANNOTICO Report
The
teaching of Italian Culture goes far beyond the Italian Renaissance, to include
Italian Classical Composers, Inventors, Writers, Explorers, Language, Family
Values, etc.
The
K-12 curriculum was developed by the New Jersey Department of Education
and the
Of the state
Italian
Culture Class Finds Amore in N.J.
In
Caterina Dawson
There are no goodfellas, wiseguys, godfathers
or dons. Conspicuously absent, too, is Tony Soprano,
Instead,
"If you
throw yourself into a culture, you learn so much more than watching a
movie," said Ezekiel Olumakin, a 16-year-old
junior. "If you watch
a movie, you hear:
Those words would
be music to the ears of the people behind this, an Italian-heritage curriculum
working its way around the state and, recently, starting to be distributed
around the country.
Launched last
year, the curriculum is
the work of the
The legislation
got support from Italian Americans who said basta
- enough - to what they felt were the largely negative and often mob-related
images of them in popular culture.
"The
Sopranos was the straw that broke the camel
The commission
worked with the state Department of Education in forming the K-12 curriculum,
which is available free of charge to any school or district. It is not
mandatory, and its content is meant to be incorporated into existing
curriculum.
"It can be
infused in your world history course or any course," said John Dougherty,
state coordinator of social studies who worked on the curriculum.
People of Italian
ancestry make up a sizable chunk of the
But Dougherty
said the curriculum has broad relevance.
"You don
The commission
members hope the curriculum gets picked up far and wide.
"We want everyone
to use it," said Gilda Rorro Baldassari,
head of the commission
(Baldassari, for the record, did catch a few episodes of The
Sopranos when it went to reruns on A&E.
She found the acting good, but the violence was not for her.)
Of the state
It may get even
broader play. In the last few months, about 500 copies of the curriculum have
been distributed to teachers around the country by the National Italian
American Foundation, said Serena Cantoni, education
programs director, who added that she knew of no similar lessons plan.
She noted
something about
At the recent
training session at
"It shows
interdependence has been happening for centuries," said John Gamble Jr.,
director of instruction in the
Kevin Brady,
president of the American Institute of History Education and author of the
curriculum, talked about lessons that cross disciplines and encourage inquiry.
One assignment he
discussed was challenging students to investigate who really invented the
telephone. Was it Alexander Graham Bell, or was it Elisha Gray of the
Ruth Pelfrey, a
"It was
really exciting because the kids were listening to classical music and actually
enjoying it," Pelfrey said. "I got a couple
letters from parents asking,
The curriculum
covers a lot of ground. Kindergartners and first graders receive character
education through the story of Pinocchio - the original one and the Disney
version.
Fourth and fifth
graders can learn about explorers like Cristoforo
Colombo and today
In Glassboro,
She
At student Olumakin
Now, he said, he
is also getting a better understanding of the people.
"There
Contact
staff writer Rita Giordano at 856-779-3841 or rgiordano@phillynews.com.
For more on the New Jersey
Italian and Italian American Heritage Commission, contact the commission at
732-932-0670 or at www.njitalia.nj.gov.
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