Docenti, studenti, genitori: un triangolo in crisi?

Abstract

This call for papers’ focus on the wellbeing of children at school obliges us to scrutinize the institution of school and the “confusion” surrounding it, as well as the correspondingly confused condition of contemporary adults, both teachers and parents. These issues in turn lead us to consider further factors and dimensions such as the complex future adults because they are citizens of a complex era and a complex political-institutional and socio-cultural context. Contemporary adults are widely affected by a lack of wellbeing that is often subtle rather than manifest, and at times develops into full-blown states of distress; this is the outcome of grappling with multiple life experiences that generate real or perceived instability, confusion, and inadequacy on the part of adults. These are the adults of “post-modern liquidity” and “the risk society”, whose shared “socio-existential distress” prevents many of them from authentically becoming adults, that is to say, from acquiring an acceptable, recognized degree of exemplarity, authority and “responsibility” vis-à-vis the youngest generations of children and youths. These adults find themselves trapped in tricky balancing acts, struggling to accept and maintain their parental role, while dangerously blurring the boundaries with their children, whom they take pride in viewing as friends. Adult parents who are their children’s friends and adult teachers who are their students’ pals: who thus no longer act as points of reference or guides, but on the contrary expose, young people – throughout their development – to internalizing and externalizing problems that can be serious in some cases.