Once the announcement has been archived, the final exam enters its truest phase: students and teachers are called to do the best possible in an exam which, like it or not, is done like this
Now that the final exam subjects are known, for some it is relief, for others disappointment, for everyone however it is time for an immediate mental reorganization. This new oral format asks students for a test of maturity well before the interview, because the selection of a few disciplines inevitably invites us to do calculations on what really matters, on what can wait, on what risks being left behind from now on. On this point it is necessary to be clear: the reduction of the subjects to be taken to the oral exam does not help and, although all the disciplines contribute to admission to the exam – as we will insist on reiterating in all classrooms and in all languages between now and 8 June – the risk from now on is that of seeing entire classes pulling the oars, reducing school to a targeted and defensive preparation. It is an understandable temptation which, a week after the ministerial announcement of the disciplines involved for each field of study, has spread to every corridor and every classroom and which – mind you – does not only concern high school graduates, or by extension their generation. Who, faced with the absence of a final verification, ensures that the same level of commitment is maintained in such different areas, in the gratuitousness of the commitment? And which perhaps are of little interest, or of little satisfaction, or which will soon be abandoned? Here, no more hypocrisies: the exam, in every field of human endeavor, helps you concentrate to face the objective. It’s like this for a work deadline, for a daily delivery, for a demanding test, let alone for graduation, let alone at eighteen. It must be said that in recent years official data shows that over 99 percent of admitted students obtain a diploma, with promotion percentages substantially stable even in the last three state exams. Despite this widespread and well-founded certainty, the center of gravity of maturity does not shift: the exam selects little, it is true, but it still requires an uncommon effort in terms of behavior, method, ability to stay on the path to the end. Be that as it may, the oral exam is now done like this, so we need to understand how to organize the time and teaching of these next few months. It will be difficult for students to dedicate themselves carefully to the disciplines not involved in the final exam, but how can they deny themselves the last mile of the philosophy program, or the history of art of the second half of the twentieth century, or quantum physics? It will be an extreme sport, if you think about it, but it will be worth putting the students in a position to try: the invitation is therefore mainly addressed to teachers of the disciplines excluded from the final exam. Recharge yourself, after a week of confusion, finding strength and energy to make the most of the remaining time in the wings, because every day is worth it and because a drift that from February will end in June is not to be taken into consideration. Some advice (not requested): firstly, bring forward the necessary assessment tests, avoiding concentration in the second half of May and thus avoiding the last hectic month, avoiding giving rise to strategic absences, tensions, hypocrisies. Secondly, relaunch the last part of the year by taking the time for exciting insights, perhaps less canonical but more functional to free listening, to excite: the final weeks can thus become a freer work space, based on trust, clarity and the generosity of the cultural offering. There could be space to read one last Latin work – thinking about scientific high school – with greater ease and going beyond anthologies, or to guarantee space for the great masters of twentieth-century American fiction in English: Huxley, O’Connor, Carver, why not. Once again, it will be decisive to look at the state of things with realism and trying to draw the best from the condition in which it will be up to us to give our best. In every classroom, in these months as every day, you will be able to choose how to be: more fragmented or more united, more defensive or more proactive. There is no need to wait for something new from above to teach properly. We can start with everyone’s contribution, from their own desk, from their own desk. It’s difficult, of course, it’s even more difficult, certainly, but looking each other in the eyes and saying, with the door closed, that we are now starting a new and final journey together is no small thing. In fact, it’s almost everything.
