An Italian Education: The Further Adventures of an Expatriate in Verona Book

Italian lullabies, like "Ninna Nonna, Ninna O / Questo bimbo, a chi lo do?" Nap my gramma, nap OH, This baby, to whom shall I give? Or Italian recipes, rather imaginative ones (111). Wonderful on Italian contradictions: the assumption that all workers are shiftless, whereas all thieves are most efficient, competent. Then, public speaking, always read off cards or prompters: no merit here to speaking or thinking on one's feet. However great Italians perform in private, they plod in public. Proudly. (Doubtless the effect of plodding schooling, I add, having watched my grandkids grow in Milan. Latin and Greek at classical public HS: 160 forms of the Greek verb. Any real translation? No. )
So much Italian education, for a century, has emphasized orthodox ideas expressed in extravagant, exhortatory, prideful tone. The same in 1915 women's textbooks, 1938 fascist eulogy, and in 1996, Gino d'Arezzo's poem on the New Man.
Many Italian cultural mysteries enter into this book, usually through the author's ironic lens. Medusa. The Certificato di verginità, etc. I have quoted Tim Parks whenever I joined a discussion of English Composition as a Department Chair, or nationally: In the 30's in Italy, the criterion of judging "good composition" was, How well does the student praise Mussolini? (One priest in Treviso I think, just praised M on the 70th anniversary of his death. That priest was hoping for a promotion--in the 30's.)
The point is: English Composition has always been judged by extraneous criteria.
Parks's It Ed is revealing, and well told.
By the way, Tim Parks just delivered the Traverso Italian Studies lecture at SUNY-New Paltz that I gave in 2013, on my usual current subject, Giordano Bruno.