LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® in Schools in the Milan Provincial Area: When Bricks Give Voice to the Unspoken

Introduction and Project Presentation

Among the desks of the small towns of western Milan province, school routine intertwines with a small-town reality where everyone knows each other, but where students' deepest emotions often risk remaining submerged. This is the setting for the experience of Matteo Gerenzani, a teacher who since 2024 has chosen to introduce the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) methodology into the classroom.

Placing bricks at the center offers a visual and tactile language capable of bypassing the fear of judgment. Through this on-the-ground report, we observe how facilitation is affecting the way students and teachers communicate, bringing to light what the traditional context struggles to capture.

1. The Reality of Small Towns: Provincial Dynamics and the School Context

The educational environment of the small centers of western Milan province has specific characteristics: the size of these towns ensures physical and social proximity in which everyone knows each other, but at the same time it bears the historical and cultural limits typical of provincial realities, where resources and opportunities for integrated engagement can be limited.

In this landscape, the school is not only a place of formal instruction but finds itself serving as the community's fundamental anchor point. However, local dynamics and environmental pressures inevitably spill over into the classroom, bringing to light complex challenges that call for adequate — and at times less conventional — listening tools.

2. The Challenge of "Emotional and Introspective Difficulty" Among Today's Young People

Those who experience school from the inside clearly perceive one of the most widespread issues among today's young students: a marked difficulty with introspection, coupled with a struggle to recognize their own personal worth.

Increasingly, one observes students who struggle to manage their emotions and who show a deep closing-off toward classmates and school figures — no longer perceived as reference points but as strangers or judges. In many cases, school itself ends up being experienced as an "enemy" environment, a place of judgment and confrontation rather than a protected space for growth. When emotions find no way to be expressed and welcomed, they risk spilling over into dysfunctional behaviors.

3. The LEGO® Brick as a "Bridge of Trust and Listening"

It is precisely in the face of these barriers that the LSP methodology proves its effectiveness as a tool for tangibly translating thought and opening up emotionally. By guaranteeing a period of manual building before speech, the activities allow performance-related stress levels to drop and have the power to shift focus from the individual to the constructed object.

The results emerging from classroom activities reveal dynamics of great human value:

Primary school children use visual metaphors to recount fragments of their daily lives, offering illuminating insights into difficulties and discomforts that teachers had already sensed but were unable to decode.

Older students open up, sharing with the class deep personal episodes that even their closest friends were unaware of, finding in the three-dimensional model the protective shield needed to reveal themselves without fear. They can also begin to experiment with more strategic thinking oriented toward problem-solving, applied to the many dysfunctional dynamics within the school context.

Unexpected points of connection: authentic connections form between classmates who seemed distant from one another or even in conflict, who discover through the stories behind the models that they share similar experiences and states of mind.

Unlocking and openness: the workshops help dissolve initial and structural tensions. For students going through personal difficulties, an opportunity arises to re-establish contact with classmates and teachers.

4. Transforming School Organization: A "Safe Dialogue" Among Colleagues

The reach of LSP facilitation is not limited to work with students — it can also become a valuable resource within the teaching staff itself.

Planning sessions and school meetings can sometimes get bogged down in role dynamics, bureaucratic constraints, or differences of opinion. Using the method among colleagues offers a channel for managing projects in a more participatory way, helping to soften rigidities as well as defuse disputes and ease tensions that frequently arise.

Through the mediation of the three-dimensional model, teachers get the chance to relate to one another first and foremost as people, temporarily reducing the weight of formality. This approach fosters a more transparent atmosphere of listening and lays the groundwork for greater mutual understanding.

5. Toward Major School Transitions: Building Awareness for Future Choices

The impact of this journey extends well beyond the horizon of a single workshop, aiming to equip students with lasting personal and relational tools.

In the short term, the activity lays the groundwork for more relaxed classroom relationships, helping to prevent risky behaviors both inside and outside school walls.

In the long term, it becomes a fundamental resource both for ongoing development and for moments of transition between school levels:

In the transition from Primary School to Lower Secondary School: it helps children face the fear of the new, the perception of the greater seriousness required, and psychological preparation for change.

In the transition from Lower Secondary School to Upper Secondary School: it offers students an introspective lens through which to move toward informed educational choices, recognizing their own strengths and abilities before taking a leap that, for some of them, will represent the final step toward adult and working life.