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The most popular essay topic in Italy’s 2026 *maturità* exams was a passage from Mario Calabresi’s *Alzarsi all’alba*, chosen by 42% of candidates, followed by Wenke Husmann’s article on wonder from *Internazionale*, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano . The data, released on Thursday, 18 June 2026, shows students overwhelmingly favoured contemporary voices over classic literature, with analyses of poems by Cesare Pavese and prose by Vitaliano Brancati attracting the fewest submissions.
Seven essay prompts were available for the first written test, including themes on generational divides, the value of effort, the creativity of science, and the Republic of Italy. Repubblica.it reported that the Calabresi and Husmann options dominated, while the Pavese and Brancati analyses lagged far behind . The second written test is scheduled for Friday, 19 June.
The preference for current affairs over canonical texts has sparked debate about evolving educational priorities. Repubblica highlighted the shift, noting that students engaged more with Calabresi’s reflections on resilience and Husmann’s exploration of awe than with the prescribed literary excerpts . Meanwhile, an experiment by Repubblica tested the limits of artificial intelligence in essay writing: when tasked with composing a response to the “incanto” (wonder) prompt, the AI-generated text was reviewed by a teacher and found lacking in nuance and originality .
Across Europe, the role of AI in education is under scrutiny. In Portugal, the Ministry of Education has ordered an audit of the EduQA agency after a cartoon on child labour—identical to one in a study guide—appeared in the national Portuguese exam, raising concerns about plagiarism and oversight . Dutch educators, meanwhile, are re-evaluating curricula to prioritise language skills over arithmetic, a shift debated in Trouw .
As Italy’s 500,000 *maturandi* await their second test, the dominance of Calabresi and Husmann underscores a broader generational shift: students are engaging with living writers and pressing social questions, even as traditional literary analysis recedes. The results, due next month, will reveal whether this trend reflects deeper changes in how young Italians process knowledge and identity.