Dermatitis por pulgas: Ctenocephalides felis y Ctenocephalides canis

eliciting students’ narratives of becoming, the storytelling setting emerged slightly differently at the classical lyceum. During two back-to-back free periods in which the substitute teacher had left me in charge of keeping the students under control, students ended up gathering around my desk to chat and I took advantage of this to conduct an impromptu interview. However, with only ten days to go before winter break, and having spent the previous three months trying not to be seen as an authority figure among the students, this made for a very noisy interview environment, with students coming and going from the conversation. The excerpts of this interview are therefore presented in short pieces of intelligible conversation.

The participants in this section of the interview were Chiara, Sofia, Federica, Noemi, Daniela, and Melissa, all young women in the third year of the classical lyceum. These students are all ethnically Italian and Italian-born, and all of them were 16 or 17 at

the time of the interview (the typical age of students in the third year). Chiara was one of the rappresentanti di classe (class representatives)—a role held by students who are willing to mediate between their peers and their teachers, who act as the voice box of their classmates, and who generally take on a leadership role in their class. She was studious and typically appeared attentive in class, and was often visibly stressed or

nervous about oral and written exams, suggesting that grades were important to her. Sofia was similarly engaged and studious, and often appeared genuinely engrossed in her teachers’ lectures. She seemed much older and more mature than her peers; a budding fashion photographer, she seemed more comfortable in an observer role, and had a calm and peaceful demeanor. She also often struck up conversations with me about my work out of what appeared to be genuine attempts to make me feel welcome. Daniela, another very studious student who typically got high marks, was one of the quieter students as well, although very self-confident and always with a sarcastic comment ready. She was typically engaged in lessons, but even when she was off-task, her deadpan facial

expression never gave her away. Noemi was a lovable and unpretentious girl who didn’t shine academically or socially, but she had a good time with her classmates, she was always good natured, and she took her struggles in stride, never obviously disengaging from lessons, unlike a couple of her peers. Federica was not a particularly confident student either, but she was more vocal about her frustrations during break time. She often seemed worried about her schoolwork. Finally, Melissa changed noticeably over the course of the year from being somewhat ditzy and distracted (when she shared a desk with her two good friends) to being much more engaged and serious (when she was

moved to a different seat). She often volunteered answers in class, and seemed increasingly more confident in her academic ability as the year went on.

At the beginning of this interview, these students and I talked for about fifteen minutes about their siblings that went to the classical lyceum before them, about the teachers that they had had, and about what their siblings had told them about the teachers. This led to a multiparty conversation about the scariest teachers, the hardest subjects, and other similar information. I asked them, taking all of this into consideration, why they had then chosen the classical lyceum.

Transcript 7: I ask myself that every day (3BLC 2016.12.13)

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ALP:E quindi perchè avete scelto il liceo classico?

all: ((laughing)) eeeeh

M:☺Ogni giorno me lo chiedo ☺

S:☺"Ma che c'avevo in testa quel giorno!?"

ALP: And so why did you (pl.) choose the classical lyceum?

all: ((laughing)) eeeeh

M:☺ I ask myself that every day ☺

S:☺ “But what did I have in my head that day!?”

My question in line 1 gets a big laugh out of the group, along with a prolonged ‘eeeeh’ (indicating that there was much to say and that they were thinking about or

considering the answer very carefully). The students make fun of themselves and their decision to go to the classical lyceum, with Melissa jokingly telling me that she ‘asks herself every day’ why she decided to do so, and with Sofia jumping in on the joke to voice Melissa (or perhaps herself) with ‘But what did I have in my head that day?!’ This scene-setting for their co-told narrative indicates that they, for the most part, have had a shared experience of their journey to the third year of the classical lyceum, and that they share similar feelings about it: namely, that they have suffered through it together. Rather than elaborating further on this, however, they seem to rely on my knowledge of their school experience, based on the many observations I had conducted up to this point, to

fill in the blanks. This topic, however, prompts Melissa to share the other option she considered before choosing the classical lyceum, as well as why she ultimately chose the classical lyceum. Sofia follows by offering up her initial preference, and Federica does the same. They also share some information about why they ultimately decided not to pursue those options.

Transcript 8: Other schools and specializations (3LC 2016.12.13)

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M: Io volevo sempre andare all'ITIS

ALP:Quale indirizzo?

M: Biologico. Pero' tutti mi dicevano, visto che alle media andavo abbastanza bene no? Anche [xxx] all'orientamento delle scuole superiori.

[xxx] biologico e mi piaceva, si, [xxx] ma come faccio a [xxx]?

[inaudible]

M:Ma quando è arrivato questo insegnante, come parlava, io non lo so, mi è talmente appassionata che ho scelto questa scuola.

…

S:A me piaceva tanto l'artistico

F:A me piaceva il pedagogico ma-- S: Il problema è che qui l’artistico

non è più istituto, ma liceo, quindi anche questo mi ha fatto [xxx]

generale perche nasce come istituto, non come liceo, pero poi-- me l'hanno sconsigliato.

C: [xxx] conosco delle ragazze che ci vanno e non fanno niente

N:Io vedo il mio fratello che fa l'artistico, il gemello è, e non fa niente.

Nieeente. Niente.

M: I always wanted to go to ITIS

ALP: Which specialization?

M: Biological. But everyone told me,

considering that I was doing pretty well in middle school, right? Even [xxx] at orientation for the high schools.

[xxx] biological and I liked it, yes, [xxx] but how can I [xxx]?

[inaudible]

M: But when this teacher arrived, how he spoke, I don’t know, I felt so

passionate about it that I chose this school. …

S: I really used to like the artistic [lyceum]

F: I used to like the pedagogical [strand] but--

S: The problem is that here the artistic [strand] isn’t an institute anymore, but a lyceum, so this also made me [xxx]

general because it was born as an institute, not as a lyceum, but then – they advised me against it.

C: [xxx] I know some girls who go there and they don’t do anything.

N: I see my brother who does the artistic, he’s my twin, and he doesn’t do anything. Aaanything. Anything.

Melissa tells of ‘always’ having wanted to ‘go to ITIS,’ or the technical institute (line 1), and when I follow up and ask her ‘which specialization?’ (line 2), she says ‘biological’ (line 3), which was the nickname given to the biotechnology strand both by students at the technical school and elsewhere. Throughout the school year, teachers and students at the technical institute and the lyceum often suggested that the only real

alternative for the students who do the classical and scientific lyceums would have been the biotechnology strand of the technical school: seen as the most rigorous of the

technical specializations and referred to multiple times throughout my fieldwork as “the lyceum of the technical school.” Here, however, it is not clear whether Melissa is trying to position herself as radically different from her classmates by indicating, at first, an interest in ‘ITIS’ in general, as opposed to ‘biotechnology,’ specifically. She chooses not to elaborate on why she was interested in that specialization, or why she (herself)

eventually decided to come to the classical lyceum, instead citing third parties as being influential in her decision:

M: Biological. But everyone told me, considering that I was doing pretty well in middle school, right? Even [xxx] at orientation for the high schools. [xxx] biological and I liked it, yes, [xxx] but how can I [xxx]?

[inaudible]

M: But when this teacher [from the classical lyceum] arrived, how he spoke, I don’t know, I felt so passionate about it that I chose this school.

She points to her having done ‘pretty well’ in middle school as reason for

‘everyone’ to persuade her either against signing up for the technical school or to sign up for the classical lyceum. She leaves this part hanging and implied (‘but everyone told me, considering I was doing pretty well at middle school, right?’ lines 3-5). An inaudible section follows, in which she continues narrating the story of her decision-making, and she concludes with a brief story from her orientation at the classical lyceum in which she was impassioned by a teacher and ‘how he spoke’ (line 10), which led to her eventually signing up for the classical lyceum. Neither in her move away from the technical school nor in her move toward the classical lyceum does Melissa tell of having control over or agency in her having signed up for the lyceum. She tells of being dissuaded from the

technical school by ‘everyone,’ even though she liked it, and of signing up for the lyceum only after being impassioned by the presentation by one classical lyceum teacher.

This decision—which Melissa frames as being based on a moment of madness in Transcript 8—is similar to the way in which she and Sofia presented their decision to pursue the classical specialization as being beyond their control in Transcript 7:

M: ☺ I ask myself that every day ☺

S: ☺ “But what did I have in my head that day!?” ☺

While these moments in the overall narrative are fleeting, they are also telling in that they orient these students to their academic pursuits in a way that is strikingly different from the narratives told by the students at the vocational and technical schools. While the students in the vocational and technical schools oriented their decision-making toward several different factors—ranging from family preference to their previous

academic performance to their interests in the subject matter—the students at the classical lyceum chalk up their registration in this particular specialization to something they can’t quite understand or rationally justify. It is possible, and likely, that students like Melissa and Sofia come from family backgrounds where a lyceum education is fully expected, and that their reasoning for choosing the classical lyceum is therefore hard to pin down. The alternative choices are the ones that are more marked and that, possibly, therefore require more justification:

S: I really used to like the artistic [lyceum]

F: I used to like the pedagogical [specialization] but--

S: The problem is that here the artistic [specialization] isn’t an institute anymore, but a lyceum, so this also made me [xxx] general because it was born as an institute, not as a lyceum, but then – they advised me against it.

Sofia and Federica chime in afterward with the schools that they used to like: the artistic and the pedagogical specializations, respectively. Federica’s ‘but’ in line 15 gets

interrupted by Sofia, who goes on to explain to me that her original favorite, the artistic specialization in Cittadina, is no longer a technical institute but a lyceum, indicating that this had some significance in her decision not to attend it. She adds the fact that it was ‘born’ as a technical institute and since became a lyceum, which perhaps hints that the artistic specialization at its core is not a real lyceum, which might be the reason why ‘they’ advised her against it. Because of the background noise, it is not possible to make out whether the former classification of “institute” was a positive or negative attribute for her, but it again puts her in line with her classmates who all claim that the classical lyceum was not their first choice.

On this note, Chiara jumps in and adds that she heard from ‘some girls who went there’ that ‘you don’t do anything,’ perhaps aiming to build on Sofia’s point about the artistic specialization being ‘born’ as a technical institute and, therefore, having been ‘advised against it’:

C: I know some girls who go there and they don’t do anything.

N: I see my brother who does the artistic [lyceum], he’s my twin, and he doesn’t do anything. Aaanything. Anything.

Noemi builds on this by sharing her observation that her twin brother, who attends the artistic specialization, ‘doesn’t do anything.’ This co-constructed narrative, unlike Roberta’s and Sonia’s in Transcript 4 and 5, frames ‘doing nothing’ as an

undesirable characteristic of the artistic specialization which makes it a bad fit for Sofia, and possibly also Noemi and Chiara. It also aligns with the representation of the artistic specialization in Figure 4. Throughout this excerpt, as students make every effort to walk me through their supposed number-one choices for secondary school, and to explain to me that they did not actually want to attend the classical lyceum, it appears that—as

hypothesized above—the classical lyceum was in fact the unmarked choice for them. The thought of going anywhere else was what generated discussion and stories about

contention amongst their families and/or among the other third parties they mentioned as being influential in their decisions to ultimately attend the classical lyceum.

These students, like Roberta and Sonia, are generating narratives about their school choice that parallel one another. The narratives also parallel Roberta’s and Sonia’s narratives to some extent in that the lyceum students frame their enrollment at the

classical lyceum as:

1) being attributed to the will of others, and

2) being due to their academic performance in middle school being a good match for the lyceum.

The narratives differ from those of Roberta and Sonia, however, in that the lyceum students frame their former selves as being torn about all of their possible

options. Several of them claim to have had an interest in a different specialization prior to ultimately enrolling at the classical lyceum. However, as pointed out above, even this aspect mirrors Roberta and Sonia’s narratives in that there seemed to have been an obvious choice of school for the lyceum students, who were doing well in middle school – in the same way that it seemed unthinkable for Roberta or Sonia to enroll at the

classical lyceum, it may have seemed equally unthinkable for Melissa, Chiara, Sofia, Noemi, and Federica to enroll in the vocational school. All of these students frame other people’s evaluations of their academic performance in middle school as being a primary factor in their enrollment at a given school.

Fifteen minutes later in the conversation, the topic shifted a bit toward the reputations of the various specializations and schools. In the following transcript, Daniela, Federica, Chiara, and Sofia discuss their rankings of the schools according to what they have heard from others and what they believe based on their own experience. They also bring up the concept of ‘doing nothing’ again and introduce the concept of ‘studying and that’s it, which is what they claim they do at the classical lyceum. This is alsoframed negatively, at though it is at the opposite end of the spectrum from ‘doing nothing.’

Transcript 9: A hierarchy of school reputations (3LC 2016.12.13)

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D:Il classico, se vai ai licei, è meglio. E' il più qualificato del liceo. F:Il pedagogico è il professionale delle donne, è diventato

D:C'è il tecnico, c'è il commerciale, e il professionale. Al professionale ci vanno tutti quelli o bocciati o che non hanno voglia di studiare.

C:Ci sono delle scuole che la gente dice “io la prendo perché so che non fanno niente,” tipo al pedagogico, magari l'ITIS, professionale...

They say that at the Open Day, the people from the classical lyceum told them “No, no, non studierete e basta. Ci sono anche altre attività!” (No, no, you won’t just study

and that’s it. There are also other activities!)

S:Agli Open Day fregano perché dicono “non vi fate spaventare, non è una scuola dove [xxx],” ma non è per niente vero perché ogni attività—neanche ce le propongono le attività, ma solo la classica lezione con l'antica vecchia[xxx] -- la Negroni è più interattiva, e anche la Pecorari è brava -- ma il resto, tutti "voi zitti, io parlo.”

D: The classical, if you go to the lyceums, is better. It’s the most qualified of the lyceum.

F: The pedagogical [strand] is the vocational school for women, [that’s what] it’s become.

D: There’s the technical, there’s the commercial, and the vocational school. To the vocational school go all of those who have failed or that don’t want to study.

C: There are some schools where people say “I’m picking it because I know that they don’t do anything,” like at the pedagogical, or maybe at the ITIS, the vocational school…

They say that at the Open Day, the people from the classical lyceum told them “No, no, non studierete e basta. Ci sono anche altre attività!” (No, no, you won’t just study and that’s it. There are also other activities!)

S: At the Open Days they trick you because they say “don’t be scared! It’s not a school

where [xxx],” but it’s not at all true because every activity—they don’t even propose activities to us, but just the classic lesson with the ancient old [xxx] – Professor Negroni is more interactive, and also Pecorari is good, but the rest are all, “Be quiet, I’m talking.”

This transcript renders explicit some of the ideologies about school types and person types that were tacitly expressed in the previous transcript. The ranking of the