Writing pen

Greek teams: blue

Italian teams: green

Cover Illustration: Merisa P.

This story starts in Padua and is written by Gerasimos, Ariadna, Athina, Christina, and Vlad.

Elena's school day in 2076...

Elena wakes up in the morning of January 2076. As always, she gets ready for school and goes there in a flying car. 

When she arrives at school, she scans her school card and gets inside.

In the school's hallway she spots robots cleaning the floors and the classes. 

Because she is late, she hurries to the classroom and sees a hologram teacher. She sits at her own desk and takes out her laptop. Then she opens her online textbook and the lesson starts. 

The classroom consists of 50 students who work on projects and exchange their ideas by texting each other.

The project then continues online through collaborative group work using a rotation activity.

The Greek team writes in blue and the Italian team writes in green.

1st Italian Team: Arianna, Greta, Eleonora, Edwin and Vlad

2nd Greek Team: Isavella, Maria P., Kostis, 

Eliana, Elisavet, Giorgos Ch., George Lev.

2nd Italian Team: Ariadna, Maria, Giorgia, Leonardo, Edona, Eingi, Aurora

During the school break in 2076, students go outside for a few minutes to relax. Some sit on smart benches that show their schedule for the next class, while others talk with friends or play simple games with small robots. 

In the cafeteria, robots serve healthy snacks and water. The break is short, but students have time to rest before going back to their classrooms.

When Elena comes back from school, she enters the house without keys. Instead, she uses an eye scan so that only she and her family can get inside. As soon as she enters, a robot is waiting for her; it takes her jacket and puts it away.

For dinner, a fridge with a built-in nutrient system gives her advice on what to eat. There is also a healthy drink full of vitamins waiting for her. Elena tells the robot chef what she wants for dinner, and it prepares the meal for her and the whole family.

While the robot is cooking, Elena sets the table, which hangs in the air. Finally, she eats with her family, and they talk about what they did during the day.

After dinner, Elena reviews her schoolwork. Thanks to a teacher hologram that explains the lessons, she can listen again to everything she studied. Also, using VR glasses, she can practice what she learned at school or in her club in a virtual way. She can explore the ruins of ancient cities or build a robot virtually. In the meantime, an Al tutor is there to help if she has any doubts about this virtual experience. 

When she finally finishes her homework, Elena gets ready for bed. Her room automatically adjusts the temperature and the lights to help her relax. Before falling asleep, she talks to her home Al to set an alarm for the next morning. Within minutes, she is fast asleep, ready for another day in the future.

Elena's school day in 1976... 

Elena was eight years old and in 1976 she was attending the third grade. After a long summer, school was starting again on October 1st. 

Every morning, she would get ready carefully: she would wear a simple dress or a skirt and a blouse.

When she arrived at school, she would sit at her desk, made of metal, alongside her classmate. 

When the teacher arrived, everyone would stand up to greet her with respect. Lessons were filled with attentive explanations and lots of memorization: poems, multiplication tables, grammar rules, and civic education. Elena would write with a blue pen in her notebooks with red margins, trying to keep her handwriting neat and precise. 

During the break, she would pull out some bread and butter or a simple sandwich from her school bag. In the playground, she loved playing hopscotch or jump rope with her friends until the bell rang, calling her back to class. The day would pass with strict rules and moments of joy. For Elena, school was a demanding but safe place, where she learned something new every day and felt a little bit more grown-up.

In the afternoons, when the final bell rang and the children poured out into the street, Elena would walk home with two girls from her class. They would talk about the day’s lesson. 

At home, her mother would already have lunch prepared. Elena would carefully place her school bag on the chair, wash her hands, and sit down at the table. After eating, she would open her notebooks again. Homework was never to be left unfinished. She would copy her spelling words twice and solve arithmetic problems step by step.

In the early evening, when her work was finally done, Elena was allowed a little time to play outside. The neighborhood children gathered in the narrow street, They invented games, argued about rules, made peace again, and promised to meet the next day. As the sky slowly darkened, a parent’s voice from a balcony would call a name, and one by one the children disappeared indoors.

Before going to bed, Elena would prepare her clothes for the next morning and check her school bag. Lying under her blankets, she would think about what she had learned that day and imagine herself a little older, a little wiser.

One evening, as Elena was checking her school bag, she found a folded note she had never seen before. It wasn’t written in her teacher’s careful hand. It simply said, “Tomorrow, look under your desk.”

The next morning, her heart beat faster than the school bell. For the first time, school felt like a mystery waiting just for her.

All morning, Elena’s eyes kept drifting down to the space beneath her desk. The lessons felt longer than usual. When recess finally came and her classmates ran outside, she stayed behind for a second and knelt down. Tucked against the metal bar was a small, cloth pencil case with tiny blue flowers on it. Inside, she found a brand-new fountain pen with a shiny nib and a note that read, “For your beautiful handwriting.”

Elena’s heart swelled. She knew at once it was from her teacher, who had smiled at her copybook the day before.

That afternoon, she wrote more carefully than ever, dipping the pen in ink and forming each letter with pride. As she walked home in the soft October light of 1976, she felt taller somehow—trusted, noticed, and ready to fill many more pages...

THE END