Giovanna Spantigati

"Every right has its limits," says with a fake smile the headmaster of my son's school.
Here we go again. To enforce our rights, we must enter the arena with determination, self confidence, dignity, pride and if we had a knife in our mouth it would help too.
Yet, we are not the ones who attack first.
I answer firmly: "My child has the right to go on school trips, as well as anyone else."
"We'll see what can be done. Are you willing to pay for any outside intervention? "
Here's the rip off! They just try it. And many parents fall into the trap, thinking that this is the only way.
"I don't think so. It is not me who has to pay. It's a school's duty."


What we call "inclusion" is just a mockery. It rather looks like "disintegration" of the psyche. The crumbling of human dignity. A trip is the best opportunity for inclusion. I knew there were rights and duties, but this gem of wisdom was missing from my dictionary. Nevertheless, I will always go into the arena to fight to enforce the rights of disabled people and to support those families that sometimes are unaware or else too tired to go on fighting, so that they do not see a way out and they give in, with despair in their heart.

Sad ending of the story: Emanuele will not go on that trip. But it's not a question of organization or money (obviously found in a split second). It 'a even worse. The teachers argued in front of him to decide who should go with him on that trip. Emanuele felt so humiliated and refused to go. Later, his teachers told me, astonished:"We did not think he would understand." I offer myself as a tutor for a teachers' course entitled "Deaf. Not stupid. "subtitle: "These strange objects placed behind the ears, are there to help deaf to hear. They are not earrings." Now I understand what the headmaster meant when he spoke of rights and limits.

The rights are those of every child's education. The limits are those of sensitivity and respect. Limitations which sadly often belong to some kinds of teachers.


Giovanna Spantigati