Lhe’s not doing well in Italian school, goes on amid unfinished reforms, in old buildings where bored kids don’t follow the frontal lessons the same as those their parents listened to. But the evil is deeper, and that’s what they reflect on The soul of the school. The right words (and questions) to win back the lost soul of the school (St. Paul editions) Rossella Barzotti, psychologist, professor of developmental psychology at the Ecclesia Mater institute of the Lateran University, and Roberto Cetera, journalist of theRoman Observertheologian, former teacher of religion.
A book unlike any other school theme. It is not a social protest, it does not propose alternative teaching methods, it is not technological: points to the heart of the crisis which is precisely, according to the authors, the loss of the soul. But the good news is that it can be regained. With an alliance that can be good for everyone.
“In our book, we make acritical analysis of a sick system that has lost the vocation of forging the identity of children first, and then of young people» says Rossella Barzotti. If educating means, as the director of theRoman observatory Antonio Monda in the introduction, “looking at the individual as a whole and in his ability to relate to society”, and also, as Barzotti adds, “helping to build identity to raise aware and critical citizens, and only then convey content », one cannot fail to agree that this mission has been lost. Vocation is fundamental, writes Monda, because without it one is employed by knowledge.
The cover of the book The soul of the school by Rossella Barzotti and Roberto Cetera (San Paolo).
The problem is the fragility of adults
The problem is that the three components present in the school – teachers, students and families – no longer speak to each other. The teachers, and here the book makes no allowances, «have lost their passion, or better still their vocation», claims the author. «Today many carry out this job as a fallback, they feel frustrated, they have lost authority. They are supposed to light a torch, but there is no flame. They claim to be stressed, indeed in full burn outbut theThe truth is that they only teach because they haven’t found anything else».
And the parents? Here too, the psychotherapist’s analysis is severe: «They have become their children’s lawyers, they demand high grades, they justify unacceptable behaviour. But the real problem is that both parents and teachers are like all adults today: very fragile. Kids look to adults as second teenagers and travel companions, not role models. Also because adults do everything to stay young and therefore, as educators, they have lost their appeal”. And the students? “They’re not well either. There is a lot of talk about adolescent discomfort, we know that the child neuropsychiatry departments are full, many are also followed by a psychotherapist. School doesn’t help because, in class, the kids are sleeping».
Recovering the soul of the school therefore means seeking a synthesis between the different souls that make it up, and this synthesis can only be formed through mutual listening. «We must start again from the value of the word, and from knowing how to listen to others. Only in this way can the relationship between the three protagonists of the school be created», continues Barzotti. “A task that belongs above all to adults, who must take their responsibilities”. To arrive there, we need to overcome the prevailing individualism and narcissism, with the resulting self-referentiality, «coming out of our cocoon, opening ourselves up to others. Collaborate, look at individuals in their relationship with society”. In other words, open up to the world. And behave like conscious women and men.
iO Woman © REPRODUCTION RESERVED