L’ora di lettura a scuola: lettura, libri e biblioteche nella scuola secondaria

Young people and reading are often perceived as distant. In fact, if well-educated to read, they know how to be passionate and voracious readers. Reading education inevitably needs the contribution both of the school and family. The school is called in its educational mission to show the interesting, bold, and ever-present face of books and reading. Many good practices are in place, as shown by the various projects, which around Italy push young adolescents to approach reading both inside and outside the school. But this is not enough. The school must improve its communication skills on the value of books and reading and must overcome some of its didactic and structural problems. We are faced with three problems: a pedagogical problem, a didactical problem and a librarianship problem. In this essay we will try above all to propose solutions to the first and second problems that are closely related, highlighting the need for a paradigm shift in the pedagogical approach to reading and reformulating the teaching time according to a greater attention to the book as a tool for personal and collective growth. With regard to the third problem, which affects school infrastructure, we will try to show how the school library is an indispensable tool for the promotion of reading and the circulation of books in the school context.