Catholic Summer Camp Segregates Children Based On Colour: It Ends In Tears
Although I wrote this article last year (2018), it is just as relevant this summer.
There is an English expression that says ‘children should be seen and not heard’. To the contrary, Italians are world-famous for their child focused philosophy. Just one example is Estate Ragazzi.
The concept was born in the diocese of Bologna in 1989. It is a parish-run day summer camp which segregates children according to colour (more about this practice below). Today the project is offered by parishes throughout Emilia Romagna, as far north as Bolzano and as far south as Sovereto.
This initiative provides out-of-school activity in a safe and healthy environment in which children and teens carry out deliciously old fashioned activities including sport, theatre, music, art and handicrafts. Instead of video games, YouTube, Facebook Instagram, there’s football and volley ball, dancing to the sigla and making pasta from PlayDoh.
Naturally, being parish-run, Estate Ragazzi is carried out in the Catholic context. However Catholic faith is not obligatory to take part. Central themes are inclusion, personal development, respect for others, teamwork. Estate Ragazzi in some inner-city parishes has an intake of over 25% of foreign children from non-Christian backgrounds. Children and animators come from a wide range of social classes. The binding glue is felicità.
Children are isolated solely with reference to colour - but in the most positive way! They are divided into teams which are distinguished by the colour of their baseball caps (reds, blues, yellows, greens). Your team gains points over the weeks and the team that has accumulated the most points at the end of the turno is the winner. Good comportment can earn your team points and likewise negative behaviour can lose your team points, a system which obviously encourages good conduct.
The participants from the scuola elementare and scuola media grow with the project over the years and many transform into the animators in their teenage years, supervising the children they once were - and so gaining invaluable experience of organisation, responsibility and management.
The parish staff (trainee priests and priests) and animators all give their time voluntarily - so they are there because they want to be. This shows in their enthusiasm and passion with the younger children.
I recently asked former Estate Ragazzi animators (age-group 15 to 20) what they gained from the experience. Replies were:
- a huge amount of patience
- a sense of freedom
- making fun with very simple basic things like paper, balls, plastic bottles and lots and lots of imagination…..
- you realise that each child has his/her own story, his/her own problems, so you adapt your approach to the needs of that child
The enrolment cost is very modest and covers insurance. Depending on the parish, the weekly fee may be inclusive of lunch. My son’s parish has a Neapolitan cook who prepares home-baked lunches worthy of 4 Ristoranti - the children conclude each meal with a formal adjudication:
“Al conto ho dato otto perchè è una somma giusta”.
“Agli spaghetti ho dato nove in quanto avevano una consistenza ottima”.
The culmination is the end of turno party.
Family members bring the feast: Chinotto, cake, crisps, salatini, pizzette, more cake - and there is always a nonna who brings her home-made tiramisù stacked up into a wobbly Torre della Garisenda (Italian home-brought buffets could be subject of a totally separate article).
Popcorn spills from plastic cups as they applaud wildly as their prole receive awards for unidentified handicrafts, do out-of-time hiphop dance routines, forget their lines in the theatre sketches. There is a sense of gioia. Gioia pura.
The team with the most points is announced and the winners go crazy. There is no money; no material award: The prize is the absolute sense of achievement. The losers pat shoulders amicably and then everyone attacks the buffet like starving vultures leaving just crumbs and those salatini with olives that no-one likes.
Summer camp ends each year in floods of tears (children, animators and priests). How will they manage to wait out the long twelve-months until the next Estate Ragazzi?
Jane Schorah
Previous articles in the “Italians Do It Better” series:
Part 1: Healthcare
Part 2: Italian Men Do Smart Casual Better
Part 3: Food and Culture.