The scene changes at the final exam, not due to unpreparedness but due to protest.
A story that comes from the Foscarini classical high school in Venice is causing discussion: three students decided to waste their chance of obtaining a good final grade in the state exam by not answering the questions of the oral commission but limiting themselves to protesting against the massacre of failures assigned in the second test, the Greek translation: 10 out of 14 candidates. A falcidia signed by an external commissioner, coming from the Franchetti high school in Mestre, which the three girls considered unfair.
All three had presented themselves at the second written test with an average of 8 in the language of Homer. The first to protest was Linda Conchetto, 18 years old, from Lido, a place already booked at Miami University in Ohio due to sporting merit given that she is a promising track and field athlete. She was aiming for at least a 90 as the final grade but after learning of the 6.5 she got in Greek, she asked to see the version and then remained silent in front of the teachers. Explaining his gesture: «I have decided that I will not submit to the oral exam, certainly not because I am afraid of it or because I have not studied, but because I do not want to accept your judgment which does not reflect my work». Two other classmates followed suit, with a below-satisfactory rating in the test: a 3.5 and a 5. Thus the symbolic protest became a small personal mutiny but also an act of solidarity with the other finished classmates. under the ax of the Greek commissioner.
Linda, Virginia Gonzales y Herrera and Lucrezia Novello accepted the consequences of the white strike. In the end they were promoted, despite not having obtained any marks in the oral test: they had already gained over 60, between admission credits for the exam and marks for the other written tests. Linda Conchetto leaves with 71, Virginia Gonzales y Herrera with 65, Lucrezia Novello with 67.
However, the case remains even if «I refused the exam because, after the grade in Greek which I considered unfair, I felt wounded in my pride as a student - explains Linda - I felt like I had not been respected, neither as a person nor in terms of preparation». «When I announced my decision - she says - the president of the commission observed that 'injustices exist, we must accept them, because they strengthen us'. It was equivalent to saying that everything was fine, that even though I was aware of an injustice, I remained silent. I took on a responsibility, accepting to pay the consequences."
