The Last Teacher

Introductory note

Introductory note

In Italy, the title "Professor" is given not only to university teachers, but also to secondary school teachers, and it is widely used in the language of children, especially abbreviated to "prof," both in referring to their teachers in everyday speech and in addressing them directly.

The story is set, precisely, in an Italian secondary school, involves the vicissitudes of a teacher totally faithful to his role and those of his pupils, and is enlivened by the arrival in class of some bullies and an explosive girl.

Professor and prof, then, are key words in the story from beginning to end, and they characterize it to such an extent that to always replace them with "teacher" would distort it, so it was deemed more adherent to the original text to keep them as they are, except to translate them occasionally for special needs.

One of these is not to generate false expectations in the English-speaking reader attracted to the book, so the title is "The last Teacher," with a capital "T" to emphasize at first glance the almost heroic nature of the protagonist.