๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ง๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐จ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ฅ๐ฒ?
๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐, ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐๐ฅ๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐.
A more than natural question that anyone who decides to write a text must ask themselves in order to shed light on the genesis of this intent.
In the book, I pointed out that the instrumentalisation of technology is one of the main reasons along with my intolerance at the level of narcosis in which students are immersed โฆโฆ. let us draw a veil over adults.
There is only one consideration to be made: the school has lost its classic educational mission, grappling since time immemorial with experiments, tests, repeated attempts to modernise teaching methodologies.
And do you know what the litmus test of this all-round drift is? The suppression of the theme in favour of summaries that students have to produce, sometimes following a grid of rules or questions. The theme is a blank sheet of paper in front of which there is a person with a pen and the freedom to write.
The essay was born essentially free and I am sorry to hear many students advocating its abolition.
The essay is not a test like any other, it is the only way to allow the student to express his inner world, show how much he has reflected on his surroundings, how much he has readโฆ.. in blissful substance โฆโฆ the essay allows everyone to open our secret treasure chest in order to communicate our emotions, thoughts, passions and dreams. In the same way that a writer does.
I ask you a question: would you like to live in a society of people who prefer to keep their treasure chests closed?
There is only one problem: the school educates our children to become correct interpreters of the neo-liberal dictates with which our society is imbued, which likes to consider us all exclusively as consumers without a critical conscience and obedient to the rules imposed on us.
In such a scenario, the theme has always been a tool to be eliminated as it is a proponent of the creative growth and lateral thinking of children. Much better to be given a text and summarise its meaning, or worse still, just answer questions.
Having a blank sheet of paper may instil fear, but in fact it helps the student to take on the responsibility of writing and to take the courage in both hands to expound his or her thoughts at the risk of even being judged negatively.
Let us continue with the parallel with the dynamics of todayโs society.
A school that abolishes the essay essentially denies children freedom of expression and inculcates in them the belief in the concrete evaporation of certain rights and autonomies.
Another aspect to be taken into due consideration is the segregative action of institutions regarding classical culture, no longer worthy of representing a valid instrument of growth for students, simply because its warnings and teachings across history are not tolerated by those in charge.
I would like to know how many teachers really care about the identity of the student, the current school certainly does not, otherwise classes of 30 people or even more would not be allowed, not to mention DAD, which I want to avoid talking about.
In another chapter of the book, I spoke of โWarm Cognitionโ and the โFlipped Classโ, alternative teaching methodologies that aim to combine studying with the pleasure of doing it; well, today we are witnessing a continuous and obsessive evaluation of children in terms of performance.
The same treatment that is summarily reserved for adults in the world of work orphaned of any attention and care towards the world of values that each one represents.
Globalisation, the consumer race and technology have accelerated the pace of this drift, unfortunately contributing to the elimination of the sense of responsibility that not even Diogenes with his lantern could find.
The school, for those who have not yet understood it, is functional to this preparatory project to oust man from the centre of the Universe.
In this absolute lack of responsibility, even politics has abdicated its task of decision-making, preferring to observe the economy, which in turn, thanks to the Big Data of technology, devises its strategies.
Absence of responsibility
Lack of awareness
Instrumental use of technology and communication
Globalisation at the expense of any sense of identity
Personal brand out of control and determined by others
Universal laws disregarded
This is, in short, the list of causes that have been driving the global socio-cultural backwardness for decades. As far as identifying the creators of this apocalyptic background is concerned, I leave it to each one to his own ideas and reflections.
And we come to one of the pillars of my book: the personal brand.
My aim is to stimulate the thinking of others, especially young people, about the criticality of its management. Taking care of the latter, protecting it, aligning it as much as possible to the real facets of oneโs own world, taking its โadministrationโ away from third parties, is a clear and vital demonstration of a yearning for freedom of expression and a community marked by collaboration, synergy and above all the common good.
To those who ask me: โbut donโt we have hope to comfort us?โ, I reply that, as far as I am concerned, hope represents a passive term that distances us from the concreteness of action and the acquisition of awareness and responsibility for action in line with universal laws. Unfortunately, young people are educated to this passivity and, in this regard, I am pleased to cite as an example the masterpiece โI promessi sposiโ (The Betrothed) which, however, conveys a misleading message: history is determined by providence.
I wrote this book for this reasonโฆโฆโฆ