Marco Sperelli is a teacher, he is divorced and he is sent to work in Corzano, a town near Naples. The first day of work he finds in the school only the school-caretaker and few girls and boys in the class-room. He goes out looking for them and he discovers then a wretched life led by the boys and the girls of Corzano. A life in which only power and violence are worth respecting. Sperelli tries to teach something different but he gets their respect only by slapping Raffaele, on the way to became a camorrist. His presence and his work, however, disturb too many persons and he will be transferred. cb3 Written by Baldinotto da Pistoia A bureaucratic snafu sends Marco Tullio Sperelli, a portly, middle-aged northern Italian, to teach third grade in a poor town outside Naples. His first challenge is to increase attendance, collaring his students one by one from home, jobs, or delinquent idleness. Then he must convince his students that classroom learning has real-world payoffs. Meanwhile, Sperelli's students draw their gentle, self-deprecating teacher into their gritty lives outside the classroom. North-South contrasts abound, including an hilarious soliloquy on the nature of Switzerland. Written by