Our professional careers are like rivers. They don’t flow along a linear path from a source to a delta. The metaphor chosen by teacher and author Enrico Galiano is that of a journey along the Nile to explain how careers have changed to parents. Careers are now composed of diversions, errors and failures. The authors spoke about his experience in the second session of “Generations On-line,” a series of meetings promoted by Project CS First to address the great challenges of digital life and orient young men and women towards scientific careers without prejudices [see news: Orienting Children].
The third session of Generations On-line, which will be held on March 31 (6:30) is dedicated to gender prejudice in STEM subjects. [Click here to participate].
“All rivers make a longer journey, equivalent to the Greek mathematical constant Pi or 3.14, compared to their length. The Nile, which seems to flow straight towards the Red Sea, then stops and changes route, flowing backwards for nearly 400 kms. It seems to want to reach the Atlantic Ocean, but then it suddenly changes direction again, flowing through the desert and mountains, before reaching its delta. Naturally, this is a metaphor, as we are a little like the Nile, too. Many of us have had a meandering career, our own Pi of tortuosity.”
“We experience these changes as failures, as dangerous falls, but it’s not true. Just think about Steve Jobs, who quit university to attend a calligraphy course. In his autobiography, he clearly wrote that it was a fundamental milestone in his life, just a few years before he developed the first professional computer writing programme with Wozniak. Inserting aesthetically pleasing characters was that extra quid that made that programme the most imitated in the world.”
Enrico Galiano also spoke about himself. He studies the Italian sign language (LIS) for two years, but never worked with deaf people. However, that experience was fundamental when he found himself in front of a class. “I discovered how important body language was to communicate, especially with young children. I learned to accept their deviance, as an opportunity for learning. We learn by making mistakes, but we discover through errors.
Another fundamental aspect of a professional career is creativity, the ability to participate in one’s work. School, on the contrary, seems to like training “good task performers.”
Enrico Galiano believes that orientation should begin immediately, at kindergarten. “Orientation is not about telling somebody where he should go … in fact, the word itself refers to the orientation of ancient temples towards the sun. Their entrances faced the sunrise. Indeed, orientation is not about movement, it’s not about a direction in which to head, but a position in space that indicates where you are, who you are. So, it’s far more about who you are.
Project Computer Science First is promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale in schools as the free platform developed by Google helps students develop computational thinking and soft skills in a fun manner, integrating them into the didactic activities of core curricular subjects with more efficient methodologies.
