Comments | fpb: A lovely story

fpb

A lovely story

Jun 29, 2006 20:29

Hundreds of former and current students spent six months to organize a huge reunion in Rome to celebrate the retirement of their old elementary school teacher, Giovanna Bittoni, who reached the legal retirement age after forty years of unbroken service in the same school, Villa Paganini. Several made time to come from abroad, as far as China, and ( Read more... )

rome, italy, education, giovanna bittoni

Comments 5

lyssiae June 29 2006, 21:16:05 UTC

Forty years? When did she start teaching? She doesn't look anywhere near retirement age, although I may just be atrocious at guessing ages from photos!

fpb June 29 2006, 21:23:50 UTC

A lot of Italian ladies in their early sixties look like that. Especially if they dye their hair. No, she looks exactly the type to me.

lyssiae June 29 2006, 21:43:23 UTC

Ok, thanks :)

tashmania June 29 2006, 22:59:21 UTC

That really made me smile :) Not only because of the wonderful nature of the gesture, but also because of that last paragraph.

Thank you for sharing it :)

kikei June 30 2006, 02:40:34 UTC

That is beautiful. I'm thinking of my own primary school teacher, whom I spoke to after about 14-15 years last year... he is still teaching in the same school, and he has gone through so much but is still working away at it, helping children take their first steps in education and watching them walk away. He said he was touched by my email and was so happy to hear that I was writing professionally, especially since he had been feeling rather down and unappreciated at the time and to know that he made such an impact on one student's life was enough for him to know his foray into teaching was worth it ( ... )