Going to school is like entering a war zone. To teach, you must wear a helmet. Still an angry, angry, uncontainable boy. Another teacher injured with dozens of stab wounds in front of the school. He hit one of his students, 13 years old, eighth grade: in camouflage, with the word “vengeance” written on his shirt. Who knows what was going on in his angry mind. What could have pushed him, what kind of school drama. Who knows what they thought of him, how his friends and parents thought of him.
There is no justification, no buts and buts. And no blaming of the school system, of the teachers: God forbid that such heinous actions would be attributed to some insufficient note or grade, to some more or less nice teacher.
An atrocious gesture, and we will understand if it is madness, because even madness is too often used as a justification and it is hardly credible that so many mentally ill minors are wandering around our streets, in our own families.
Before discussing the causes of an increasingly widespread emergency, we must stop the phenomenon. No one should leave the house with a knife in their pocket, not even the butler, especially minors. Let’s put these damned metal detectors at the entrance to the school, and it’s certainly a defeat. But it is necessary to protect teachers, who carry out a task of excellence, unique, precious, tiring, underpaid. And increasingly dangerous.
No indulgences: expulsions, social services for those caught red-handed, but attentive, constant, not too do-gooders. These are minors, but if there is the capacity to intend there is a responsibility; the more responsible the parents are.
Stop cell phones and stop video games. Very heavy sanctions for those who produce violent videos and games. It’s a shame we can’t sanction world leaders who turn wars into video games. At least let’s judge them, let’s tell them as negative examples.
But for the educational challenge against violence, beyond the rainbow flags, let us wave the values of the Constitution and the evangelical principles in our classes; we unleash trained and careful support teachers and psychologists to detect dangerous concerns and tendencies towards violence. To intercept families, when families are there, or other adult reference figures for the most problematic children.
Then the discomfort must be addressed not only at school: we need places for socialisation, spaces for discussion and freedom (sports centres, widespread libraries, oratories) with specialized contacts, vigilant antennas to firmly and humanely identify the most difficult cases.
Let’s start talking to our kids about beauty againlet’s show it to him; we talk again about effort, sacrifice, we show them true stories of those who cannot go to school, of those who face hunger and poverty, the lack of freedom or illness every day. Let us ask ourselves and ask them what is worth living for. Not for votes, not for revenge.
In collaboration with Credere
Credere, the magazine for living the “adventure of faith”
BELIEVE is the magazine that offers you stories, characters and columns every week to inspire faith in everyday life. Already chosen as the “Official Magazine of the Jubilee of Mercy”, it is a newspaper rich in content for the spirit, with many testimonies of famous people and ordinary people and the gestures and words of the Pope, closer than ever.
Discover the magazine and subscribe »
