"Lingua Nostra" project

[12-11-1996]

Ricevo da carasi@inx.net (Fabio Girelli-Carasi):

PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE AND FORWARD IT AS AN E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR ACQUAINTANCES AND ASSOCIATES INVOLVED IN ITALIAN TEACHING. THIS 'CATENA DI SANT'ANTONIO' IN CYBERSPACE IS REALLY FOR A GOOD CAUSE.

Dear Friend:

I want to call your attention to an important event that will take place during the upcoming AATI Convention in Philadelphia. At 7 p.m. on Friday, November 22, Lou Brunelli will introduce the project LINGUA NOSTRA in a plenary session.

The goal of LINGUA NOSTRA is to inform, educate, and train our community to organize to demand that our schools offer Italian language programs. Lou Brunelli did just that all by himself in upper Westchester County, in New York State, where he single-handedly sued his children's school district when it did away with its Italian program. He won and the program was re-instated.

If you ever wondered why Italian is not taught in our schools, even in areas with large populations of Italian origin, Lou has an answer for you: because the communities do not get involved. And they do not get involved because they do not know how. LINGUA NOSTRA's objective is simple and ambitious: "market" Italian language as a worthy educational pursuit, mobilize the community, and teach people how to organize to make school districts and school boards meet our demands.

Lou Brunelli presented his project last year in Washington, D.C. at an official high level joint Italy-U.S. "convegno" to discuss how to best promote Italian language and culture in the United States. As a result, the Italian government pledged its full support to LINGUA NOSTRA "..per la difesa e la diffusione.." As you may well expect, words have not been followed by any concrete actions. On the other hand, NIAF has awarded a grant to LN and has decided to use it as a national strategy. Brunelli's message is about self-empowerment: if we don't do it, nobody else will do it for us, nor will they teach us.

Operationally, LINGUA NOSTRA will begin by publishing an eight-page tabloid to "market" and promote Italian with students and their families. It will be distributed at first in the New York metropolitan area. The theme is: "WHY IT PAYS TO STUDY ITALIAN." It will contain updated information on today's Italy as a modern and dynamic society and will give examples of how Italian can be a viable tool for a professional career. One of the goals is to impress upon college-bound high school students, so that they may start studying Italian as soon as possible and then continue in college.

The project will also include a packaged training program for community groups designed to develop activism, with materials and suggestions on how to outreach to families and students. It will contain information regarding school process and protocol, and a how-to manual for negotiating with school systems.

The tabloid will have a modular structure and a flexible format to adapt it to specific local school governance rules and regulations. While the overall approach and the general theme will remain unchanged, each community will be able to reproduce the tabloid with the changes needed to reflect local realities.

BE SURE TO ATTEND THE PRESENTATION OF THE LINGUA NOSTRA PROJECT.

Your help is also needed: the tabloid will seek to contain endorsements and testimonials from notable and distinguished individuals in any field who studied Italian in school. Do you know of any such individuals, and where they studied? Please let us know.