Teacher Gemma Benvenuti

To everyone, she was "my teacher". And in that "my" there was all the respect, gratitude and recognition of the authority of a figure who accompanied the childhood of so many generations.

Origins and education

Born on September 10, 1923 in Centralia, Illinois, to parents who had emigrated to the United States, she returned as a six-year-old child with her family to Rocchetta Sandri. Her mother's foresight, Domenica Paolini, and a sufficient economic availability resulting from the hard work and sacrifices of her parents in the mines of the United States, allowed her to graduate in Modena and to begin, just after the war ended, her teaching career.

The post-war multi-grade classes

Her first school year was 1946/47 and took place in Casine. Teaching in those years took place in the so-called "multi-grade classes", which saw students of different ages in the same classroom. The first school year in Casine had 39 students of all grades! And so she managed to train generations of children often coming from very poor families, with parents who were almost always almost illiterate, to whom she managed to transmit the value of study and commitment.

A style that crosses generations

Her style and method remained unchanged over the years, until the last ones before retirement, with classes gradually composed of children, grandchildren and in some cases great-grandchildren of former students. Upon reaching 40 years of teaching, she was awarded the gold medal for merit by the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano.

Beyond teaching

Beyond teaching, her love and attachment to Rocchetta and its traditions was manifested and is still manifested through the organization of the choir to accompany liturgical celebrations, the trips organized with great participation, the much-awaited "Mother's Day party", a moment dedicated to women not only from Rocchetta.

An unforgettable figure

In a Rocchetta that has unfortunately seen over the years all the commercial and catering activities that characterized it disappear, which no longer has the celebration of Sunday Mass, which has been without a school building for decades, the memory of years in which the hamlet was alive and populated also passes through the memory of figures like teacher Gemma, who of those years, albeit with humility and without clamor, were absolute protagonists.