School, the pediatrician: “No last minute homework but outdoor life for a quick recovery”

There are only a few days left until the first school bell rings in Italy. “The kids will soon find themselves back at their desks, with temperatures that are still high overall”, barring the storms of recent days, and “in some cases they will be welcomed into the so-called ‘chicken coop’ classes, with high crowding. All elements that do not help them concentrate on learning”. In view of the demanding start of the new school year that awaits the kids, “the advice is not to anticipate the need to concentrate on studying and therefore not to recreate situations similar to classroom hours until the day before returning to school”. This is the invitation addressed to parents by pediatrician Italo Farnetani, who rejects the idea of ​​’last minute’ homework for those who have not processed the teachers’ assignments for the holidays.

Better to extend the ‘recharging’ phase before the winter tour de force, is the message of the expert, full professor of Pediatrics at the Ludes-United Campus of Malta University. “On the contrary – he points out to Adnkronos Salute – it is more strategic to invest this time doing something that can be useful for the health of children: swimming as much as possible, or if parents or grandparents are free, a trip to the seaside or to cool places like those in the Apennines or the Alps. If once the days of September were to fill any gaps, today with climate change – and since we cannot postpone the return to school until October – at least parents delay the impact with school fatigue and lighten the negative data on health and learning ability. Making children study in high temperatures is in fact harmful, even in the approach they will then have with learning”.