On March 26th Minister Profumo signed a decree in which he seems to have finally made a decision, although it’s rather a stall tactic: digital or mixed books as of 2014/2015, with a two-year derogation (so it’s really as of 2016/2017). And the most interesting part (for me) is that it also includes a reduction of the overall spending limits for compulsory books, so teachers must stay within these reduced spending limits when deciding which books to use.
Well, the publishers of the AIE (Italian Publisher Association) lost their temper. Alright, we might say OK, we can put it down to the fact that those who are making money off paper and the old system are not willing to suffer in silence and so they get angry, trying to defend the status quo. But my friends, there are ways and means of getting angry. There’s a dignified way of getting angry and defending one’s positions, and a confused, rude and disgraceful way to do it. The official announcement of the AIE (go on and read it!), in my opinion, belongs to the second category of rude and even ludicrous outrage. Here’s a sample of the justifications put forward:
… it hasn’t been demonstrated anywhere that the increasingly widespread impact of electronic instruments on the kids is not harmful to their health…
So be careful, it hasn’t been demonstrated anywhere that ebooks don’t cause cancer!
