"It's as if they had put together the chatter at the bar and transformed it into articles of law, it's a very sad thing: we are giving the kids a spectacle of insubstantiality, an inability to respond adequately. We only give symmetrical answers: the kids get angry with us and we get angry with them; they are bad with us and we are bad with them: this confirms the kids' distrust towards adults". It's the comment of Cesare Moreno, elementary school teacher and president of the association Maestri di Strada onlus, who has been working with young people from the outskirts of Napoli, the government's measures for teenagers.
“I notice that there is more concern for one's own image, one's own role than an analysis of the problem – specifies Moreno – I punish because I have to defend my image." Instead, for example, it is necessary that “Teachers should stay in difficult schools, not leave after a year”, who have specific training: “We have good teachers but they know nothing about the psychological functioning of children, this cannot be solved by calling a psychologist – explains Moreno – Children are a complex 'machine' that must be repaired while it is running, it cannot be 'fixed' and sent to school, the journey must be done while they are at school".
Young people “they must be involved in a relationship: school is not only a place where school subjects are learned, but it is also the place where solidarity and respect for others are learned”. If you live “in a continuous state of tension, with the fear of the other, anger accumulates and when it explodes tragedies occur as in Piazza Municipio – explains Moreno – so we need to have spaces to cool down the anger, to teach how to control this exaggerated anger. Violence is innate with man but we can learn to be peaceful, for example by using words. Many of these kids do not know how to control their emotions, so we have to talk, dialogue”.
Moreno instead dismisses school dropout as a marginal phenomenon: “There are wretched parents, of course, but they are in jail for other reasons.” In tough neighborhoods, “children want to go to school and parents want to send them to school, maybe because in this way they avoid social assistance entering the house" discovering illegal business. A real problem is the neet: “In my neighborhood they are 42 percent, one in two does not study, does not train, does not work: who do we blame?”.
And the social workers? "Whoever talks about social services on a national scale knows that this is not specialized? In the morning the assistant can take care of the orphan, the school dropout, the drug addict... on the contrary, a dedicated assistant is needed who can provide emergency intervention". Finally: “we are a male chauvinist society: those who rape girls do so because they are immersed in a culture in which women are inferior. And in schools they do not find gender education”.
Article published on 7 September 2023 - 19:10
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