SCHOOL ORPHANS: understanding the cultural reasons for the failure of the Italian school system
Orphans of the school is the title of an article by Massimo Cacciari focused on the failure of the school's mission in Italy. This article appeared in the Italian magazine Espresso in December 2017.
Right from the title we see the noun "orphan" highlights a contradiction with the school intended as a place dedicated to the creation of a "conscientious of us" within society while the school becomes a place where "everyone must take care of himself " and where" I" is an indispensable word in my language ". The school interprets its role in a form of laxity as an entirely erroneous way of adhering to a dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" and "low index of social distance" within the school itself. In fact, more and more education is focused on the student as a means of "deresponsibilisation" of the school system, with the aim of making the students users "happy" or "satisfied" in terms of cultural dimension without creating any element of legitimacy of its work. . The school agrees to adhere to the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty", which mean to find the school system in Italy living at ease within a legislative-bureaucratic ambiguity enviroment in which the school has found itself for many years.
Cacciari starts from the statement "that it is the family that largely influences the training of young people, which means that the school is failing in its mission. The failure of the school is the unequivocal sign of the decline of an entire culture.
The school as a creator of "belonging" and training of an "in-group" is not taking place because all these tasks are delegated in the hands of the family, that is, which means that young people join their family in exchange for loyalty or protection in order to face external events present in daily life.
In essence, in schools one remains anchored to one's own "individualism" dimension and does not create a sense of belonging as a typical parameter of the "collectivism" dimension. Family-related training pushes the concept of training to adhere to a cultural dimension focused on "short-term temporal orientation" because school success depends on the luck of having a "good" family on a cultural and economic level. From one side, this implies the presence of a cultural dimension with a "low social distance index" into the family because the children need to be treated equally and this implies that the parents cannot have all the answers which brings the family to adheres to a cultural dimension with a "weak avoidance of uncertainty ". This can push the luckiest people with good family into the "satisfied" cultural dimension because it creates a feeling of control over one's life while for those not lucky it creates a feeling of abandonment because things do not depend on my will. This facilitates a society in general with "greater social distance"between its members because having a good family becomes a form of existential inequality and unfortunately the family remains an unchosen one and ultimately the family does not need to legitimize itself.
This situation places students "de facto" in the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" for everyone even when this dimension is not accepted. In fact, the dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" can also be lived totally within the dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty" by students who experience this situation as a permanent threat, with stress and little consideration for their well-being. This is due to the simple fact of being bound to its natural "in-group" as the only pillar of today's society in Italy. This description of the facts represents a strong threat to the need for a negative face on the part of the Italian cultural world, which shows itself incapable of creating a sense of belonging as a typical approach of the "collectivism" cultural dimension with the aid of the tools of the cultural dimension coming from the "individualism". This is the peculiarity of the school that needs a "conscientious WE" through the ability to learn how to learn, with the right to speak for itself, where others are considered as individuals and not groups, where it is useful to seek one's own personal opinion and where "I" is an indispensable word of our language. All these "individualism" parameters must allow the strengthening of one's own positive collective face of the "class" group, placing itself ultimately in the "collectivism" dimension with a "conscientious type".
For Cacciari, these elements of absence in the school are serious threats to the need to protect their negative face from young people. Unfortunately, these shortcomings are the result of a country for solely old people, with a lot of unemployment and precariousness which gives young people a strong economic dependence and political marginality. For the philosopher Cacciari, the real threat to young people's need for a positive face is related in accepting to live in an old and decadent future like the present days in Italy.
Orphans of the school is the title of an article by Massimo Cacciari focused on the failure of the school's mission in Italy. This article appeared in the Italian magazine Espresso in December 2017.
Right from the title we see the noun "orphan" highlights a contradiction with the school intended as a place dedicated to the creation of a "conscientious of us" within society while the school becomes a place where "everyone must take care of himself " and where" I" is an indispensable word in my language ". The school interprets its role in a form of laxity as an entirely erroneous way of adhering to a dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" and "low index of social distance" within the school itself. In fact, more and more education is focused on the student as a means of "deresponsibilisation" of the school system, with the aim of making the students users "happy" or "satisfied" in terms of cultural dimension without creating any element of legitimacy of its work. . The school agrees to adhere to the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty", which mean to find the school system in Italy living at ease within a legislative-bureaucratic ambiguity enviroment in which the school has found itself for many years.
Cacciari starts from the statement "that it is the family that largely influences the training of young people, which means that the school is failing in its mission. The failure of the school is the unequivocal sign of the decline of an entire culture.
The school as a creator of "belonging" and training of an "in-group" is not taking place because all these tasks are delegated in the hands of the family, that is, which means that young people join their family in exchange for loyalty or protection in order to face external events present in daily life.
In essence, in schools one remains anchored to one's own "individualism" dimension and does not create a sense of belonging as a typical parameter of the "collectivism" dimension. Family-related training pushes the concept of training to adhere to a cultural dimension focused on "short-term temporal orientation" because school success depends on the luck of having a "good" family on a cultural and economic level. From one side, this implies the presence of a cultural dimension with a "low social distance index" into the family because the children need to be treated equally and this implies that the parents cannot have all the answers which brings the family to adheres to a cultural dimension with a "weak avoidance of uncertainty ". This can push the luckiest people with good family into the "satisfied" cultural dimension because it creates a feeling of control over one's life while for those not lucky it creates a feeling of abandonment because things do not depend on my will. This facilitates a society in general with "greater social distance"between its members because having a good family becomes a form of existential inequality and unfortunately the family remains an unchosen one and ultimately the family does not need to legitimize itself.
This situation places students "de facto" in the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" for everyone even when this dimension is not accepted. In fact, the dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" can also be lived totally within the dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty" by students who experience this situation as a permanent threat, with stress and little consideration for their well-being. This is due to the simple fact of being bound to its natural "in-group" as the only pillar of today's society in Italy. This description of the facts represents a strong threat to the need for a negative face on the part of the Italian cultural world, which shows itself incapable of creating a sense of belonging as a typical approach of the "collectivism" cultural dimension with the aid of the tools of the cultural dimension coming from the "individualism". This is the peculiarity of the school that needs a "conscientious WE" through the ability to learn how to learn, with the right to speak for itself, where others are considered as individuals and not groups, where it is useful to seek one's own personal opinion and where "I" is an indispensable word of our language. All these "individualism" parameters must allow the strengthening of one's own positive collective face of the "class" group, placing itself ultimately in the "collectivism" dimension with a "conscientious type".
For Cacciari, these elements of absence in the school are serious threats to the need to protect their negative face from young people. Unfortunately, these shortcomings are the result of a country for solely old people, with a lot of unemployment and precariousness which gives young people a strong economic dependence and political marginality. For the philosopher Cacciari, the real threat to young people's need for a positive face is related in accepting to live in an old and decadent future like the present days in Italy.
Young
people in Italy seem to have fully embraced the "short-term time
orientation" dimension where the most relevant facts are all
located in this period. This positioning is a real suicide for young people, who must not accept the
"scale of values" of the old people with their closures towards
the "ius soli" ( Italian citizen for migrant's children), the understanding of new civilizations and integration
of migrants. These closures are all boulders to be overcome if you
want to guarantee a certain economic well-being in the future of the country. How is it possible
to build economic well-being in a country where many are retired and
where very few children are born. Accepting the "conservative"
values of the elderly is a real suicide for young people in the view of Cacciari.
The world of the elderly has fully accepted the "restrain" cultural dimension in its daily life because it cannot understand the surrounding world and therefore feels abandoned, unwilling to remember positive emotions and with little inclination to say " I am happy". They live within a cultural dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty" with a high presence of stress and nervousness and with an intolerance towards divergent people. Their world is only their own "in-group" of reference in terms of identity formation within the "collectivism" dimension, remaining firmly anchored to the dimension of a "short-term temporal orientation". This dimension is made explicit by the fact that the events of one's life are all located in the past, the stability of the person as always the same is an important fact, the traditions are sacrosanct and one's family life is guided by imperatives. To create a future in Italy, young people must reverse the idea of social hierarchy understood as existential inequality and where the legitimacy of other people's lives is irrelevant. Young people are forced to adhere to a cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" because it is necessary to increase tolerance towards divergent people, to accept cultural difference, as well as to be at ease with ambiguity and chaos in order to have greater well-being . Young people must "integrate" and in doing so they can increase the presence of "collectivism" within Italian society with a greater emphasis on belonging and with an expansion of their "in-group". These elements of widening the "collectivism" dimension are bearers of "a long-term temporal orientation" since they place the most relevant facts in life in the future, with a renewed ability to adapt to circumstances, with the ability to modify traditions, by trying to learn from others and perseverance understood as true goals. This new horizon to build is a way to reach the "satisfied" cultural dimension with a tendency to remember positive emotions. These are the preconditions for trying to regain "positive face" from young people after so many years of very high costs for their negative face understood as acceptance of job insecurity, economic dependence and political marginality. These factors are like so many obstacles to returning to a "satisfied" cultural dimension into Italian society. This job insecurity was possible because culturally the "institutional country" did not believe and do not believe in its future. Therefore he condemned the younger ones to live perpetually within a "short-term temporal orientation" cultural dimension and to accept life as it comes. Economic dependence has increased the dimension of "social distance" within society because the social hierarchy is felt as an existential inequality. In addition, my life finds itself in accordance with a "strong avoidance of uncertainty" because there is little consideration for one's well-being.
This economic dependence does not allow many young people to adhere to any type of "in-group" of reference because this situation of "economic dependence" is experienced as a feeling of shame and therefore I am forced to adhere negatively to type values " individualism". In others words, I live in my defence of privacy, speaking for oneself is a good thing and my" I "is conscientious of its own situation. Also the "masculinity" cultural dimension is imposed because the absence of work pushes people to live placing the work in the core of personal and family life within a "short-term temporal orientation" cultural framework. At the same time I find myself living in the "restrained" cultural dimension because I feel a feeling of abandonment, my free time does not count much, positive emotions are few and therefore it is difficult to be happy in this situation.
The political marginality for the young groups of Italian society has resulted in a lack of recognition in terms of belonging to one's own "in-group" understood as the adhesion of opinions, there is no "conscientious US" but only "individualism "understood as" I is an indispensable word in my language "and my right to defend my privacy.
For Cacciari the idea that the quality / energy of the school is decisive for the future of a people is missing in Italy. The author states: "For the young person, the family can never be the place of critical, free and polemical confrontation with the ideas, history, languages and tragedies of his time and all this points interfere with his future."
These concepts expressed by Cacciari can find a translation in terms of cultural dimension with the concept of "in Italy" perceived as an "extended family" unable to develop any "individualism" type dimension placing the ability to learn as a supreme value, where it is important to research one's opinion and develop the idea of speaking for oneself as a good thing. The school is the victim of the absence of a future par excellence because the school is an institution totally focused on the "long-term temporal" cultural dimension, placing the facts in the future, enhancing personal effort and commitment as true growth objectives.
Within the school, adherence to the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" took place on the bureaucratic level certainly not on the level of the philosophical-methodological approach.
The school as a place to learn to navigate in life is replaced by the family in Italy, that is, protection is exchanged in exchange for loyalty as a typical "collectivism" type attitude. This passage represents a very strong threat to the need to protect its negative face by the school as a collective face of a country. Ultimately, the school has the task of developing this cultural dimension of "individualism" within the development of a "conscientious WE" where it is necessary to defend one's personal opinion and the tasks are more important than relationships. The family as a group linked to the "collectivism" dimension puts forward the role of relationships as a more important fact than tasks. This would explain the cultural impoverishment present in the country for some decades. The understanding of the reasons for adhering to this "short-term temporal orientation" are all to be analyzed in the "individualism" dimension in order to be able to recreate the foundations of a "long-term temporal orientation" for the school and for the country in general . Finding a capacity for effort, perseverance as the only way to succeed is the key to reviving a healthy "collectivism" within society, in which the deserving go on and the others are supported to find their own vocation.
This failure of school system represents the failure of an entire Italian culture. The school must teach to seriously and competently discuss the globalization issues. The family house " Oikos" can never be the city " civitas" as a place where young people will have to live and fight. Unfortunately today many people think that the web is the place of training while the web remains the place of information just useful in order to avoid wasting time.
This thought can be interpreted as the essence of a healthy "individualism" by young people, who prefer the safety of their family as a place of no discussion in exchange for loyalty and support in front of the challenges of life. In this way, the confrontation with the reality without the school arena becomes an obstacle to live the space of the city with a "conscientious us".
Today it is often thought that the Internet network can replace this formative and educational function of the school as a place where to redesign tolerance towards the ideas of others, with the defence of one's own personal opinions within a renewed frame of a "conscientious type of us". Instead the web does not allow these steps towards a conscientious dimension of awareness of us but remains anchored on the less productive aspects of individualism as "everyone is required to take care of themselves" as a parameter to follow in every occasion.
Thanks to the Internet, today the young person has more time and therefore freedom, but knowing how to use it is the task of the school. The school must teach a ruthless critical examination towards every good or bad common sense, analysing every family tradition, every dogma or traditional belief. Within this framework, for Cacciari the "son" becomes a regenerating force if his mind is shaped by opening himself to others and to the world. All this seems to be the experience of a small minority of young people today in Italy and this represents the most serious proofs of the cultural and political impotence of those who generated them.
For Cacciari, finding a link with a cultural dimension focused on the temporal"long term orientation" for young people is possible with a regenerative force capable of creating a future, with a renewed ability to learn from others, with a serene and tolerant approach towards diversity and ambiguity present in today's world.
The absence of such experiences for the overwhelming majority of young people is the sign of a total adherence by Italian politics and culture to a "short-term temporal orientation" dimension where there is no horizon for the future and where there is only little attention to the individual development of the youth generation.
Webgraphy:
This analysis is inspired by the article in the following link:The world of the elderly has fully accepted the "restrain" cultural dimension in its daily life because it cannot understand the surrounding world and therefore feels abandoned, unwilling to remember positive emotions and with little inclination to say " I am happy". They live within a cultural dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty" with a high presence of stress and nervousness and with an intolerance towards divergent people. Their world is only their own "in-group" of reference in terms of identity formation within the "collectivism" dimension, remaining firmly anchored to the dimension of a "short-term temporal orientation". This dimension is made explicit by the fact that the events of one's life are all located in the past, the stability of the person as always the same is an important fact, the traditions are sacrosanct and one's family life is guided by imperatives. To create a future in Italy, young people must reverse the idea of social hierarchy understood as existential inequality and where the legitimacy of other people's lives is irrelevant. Young people are forced to adhere to a cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" because it is necessary to increase tolerance towards divergent people, to accept cultural difference, as well as to be at ease with ambiguity and chaos in order to have greater well-being . Young people must "integrate" and in doing so they can increase the presence of "collectivism" within Italian society with a greater emphasis on belonging and with an expansion of their "in-group". These elements of widening the "collectivism" dimension are bearers of "a long-term temporal orientation" since they place the most relevant facts in life in the future, with a renewed ability to adapt to circumstances, with the ability to modify traditions, by trying to learn from others and perseverance understood as true goals. This new horizon to build is a way to reach the "satisfied" cultural dimension with a tendency to remember positive emotions. These are the preconditions for trying to regain "positive face" from young people after so many years of very high costs for their negative face understood as acceptance of job insecurity, economic dependence and political marginality. These factors are like so many obstacles to returning to a "satisfied" cultural dimension into Italian society. This job insecurity was possible because culturally the "institutional country" did not believe and do not believe in its future. Therefore he condemned the younger ones to live perpetually within a "short-term temporal orientation" cultural dimension and to accept life as it comes. Economic dependence has increased the dimension of "social distance" within society because the social hierarchy is felt as an existential inequality. In addition, my life finds itself in accordance with a "strong avoidance of uncertainty" because there is little consideration for one's well-being.
This economic dependence does not allow many young people to adhere to any type of "in-group" of reference because this situation of "economic dependence" is experienced as a feeling of shame and therefore I am forced to adhere negatively to type values " individualism". In others words, I live in my defence of privacy, speaking for oneself is a good thing and my" I "is conscientious of its own situation. Also the "masculinity" cultural dimension is imposed because the absence of work pushes people to live placing the work in the core of personal and family life within a "short-term temporal orientation" cultural framework. At the same time I find myself living in the "restrained" cultural dimension because I feel a feeling of abandonment, my free time does not count much, positive emotions are few and therefore it is difficult to be happy in this situation.
The political marginality for the young groups of Italian society has resulted in a lack of recognition in terms of belonging to one's own "in-group" understood as the adhesion of opinions, there is no "conscientious US" but only "individualism "understood as" I is an indispensable word in my language "and my right to defend my privacy.
For Cacciari the idea that the quality / energy of the school is decisive for the future of a people is missing in Italy. The author states: "For the young person, the family can never be the place of critical, free and polemical confrontation with the ideas, history, languages and tragedies of his time and all this points interfere with his future."
These concepts expressed by Cacciari can find a translation in terms of cultural dimension with the concept of "in Italy" perceived as an "extended family" unable to develop any "individualism" type dimension placing the ability to learn as a supreme value, where it is important to research one's opinion and develop the idea of speaking for oneself as a good thing. The school is the victim of the absence of a future par excellence because the school is an institution totally focused on the "long-term temporal" cultural dimension, placing the facts in the future, enhancing personal effort and commitment as true growth objectives.
Within the school, adherence to the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" took place on the bureaucratic level certainly not on the level of the philosophical-methodological approach.
The school as a place to learn to navigate in life is replaced by the family in Italy, that is, protection is exchanged in exchange for loyalty as a typical "collectivism" type attitude. This passage represents a very strong threat to the need to protect its negative face by the school as a collective face of a country. Ultimately, the school has the task of developing this cultural dimension of "individualism" within the development of a "conscientious WE" where it is necessary to defend one's personal opinion and the tasks are more important than relationships. The family as a group linked to the "collectivism" dimension puts forward the role of relationships as a more important fact than tasks. This would explain the cultural impoverishment present in the country for some decades. The understanding of the reasons for adhering to this "short-term temporal orientation" are all to be analyzed in the "individualism" dimension in order to be able to recreate the foundations of a "long-term temporal orientation" for the school and for the country in general . Finding a capacity for effort, perseverance as the only way to succeed is the key to reviving a healthy "collectivism" within society, in which the deserving go on and the others are supported to find their own vocation.
This failure of school system represents the failure of an entire Italian culture. The school must teach to seriously and competently discuss the globalization issues. The family house " Oikos" can never be the city " civitas" as a place where young people will have to live and fight. Unfortunately today many people think that the web is the place of training while the web remains the place of information just useful in order to avoid wasting time.
This thought can be interpreted as the essence of a healthy "individualism" by young people, who prefer the safety of their family as a place of no discussion in exchange for loyalty and support in front of the challenges of life. In this way, the confrontation with the reality without the school arena becomes an obstacle to live the space of the city with a "conscientious us".
Today it is often thought that the Internet network can replace this formative and educational function of the school as a place where to redesign tolerance towards the ideas of others, with the defence of one's own personal opinions within a renewed frame of a "conscientious type of us". Instead the web does not allow these steps towards a conscientious dimension of awareness of us but remains anchored on the less productive aspects of individualism as "everyone is required to take care of themselves" as a parameter to follow in every occasion.
Thanks to the Internet, today the young person has more time and therefore freedom, but knowing how to use it is the task of the school. The school must teach a ruthless critical examination towards every good or bad common sense, analysing every family tradition, every dogma or traditional belief. Within this framework, for Cacciari the "son" becomes a regenerating force if his mind is shaped by opening himself to others and to the world. All this seems to be the experience of a small minority of young people today in Italy and this represents the most serious proofs of the cultural and political impotence of those who generated them.
For Cacciari, finding a link with a cultural dimension focused on the temporal"long term orientation" for young people is possible with a regenerative force capable of creating a future, with a renewed ability to learn from others, with a serene and tolerant approach towards diversity and ambiguity present in today's world.
The absence of such experiences for the overwhelming majority of young people is the sign of a total adherence by Italian politics and culture to a "short-term temporal orientation" dimension where there is no horizon for the future and where there is only little attention to the individual development of the youth generation.
Webgraphy:
https://espresso.repubblica.it/opinioni/parole-nel-vuoto/2017/12/06/news/orfani-della-scuola-1.315515
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