This week, I share information about a superb training that I followed last week on “Violence in school and the lack of educational authority” that was given by Mr. Jorge M. Dias Ferreira, School psychologist at the Department of Education, Assessment and Student Monitoring at the General Directorate of Compulsory Education and who also represents an NGO at the UN. For the sake of information, this article constitutes simple course notes and therefore does not claim to be exhaustive with respect to all the content that has been covered during the training.
In our current society of consumption, the dominant culture often advocates “pseudo values” relating to wanting to have everything, immediately, with the least possible effort, the maximum pleasure and maximum profitability. Children can be victims of such a system that can lead to the “objectification” of the human person. The person thus becomes a simple means or it must be the finality. For a child to grow well, some conditions must be met, at the risk of causing emotional development disorders that in turn cause cognitive difficulties in the child. In order for him to grow well, the authority of the adult is then necessary for his development.
But what exactly does the word authority mean?
It comes from the Latin auctoritas which is relative to auctare and augere and which means to favor, to increase (to make bigger and more considerable). Refer to the attached article:
Deficiency of educational authority
It should not be confused with authoritarianism, synonymous with tyranny, which signifies the tendency of a person to abuse his authority, to exercise it with rigor and to seek to impose it.
To avoid emotional development problems and cognitive difficulties, as emphasized by Mr. Jorge Dias Ferreira, it is about showing authority to the child: “From an educational point of view, parental authority is also it is necessary for the children that the affection […] of a father or a mother who exercises his authority does not do it to assert his personality, but to help the child to overcome a difficulty, to protect him from a danger, to allow him to grow and become independent. On the other hand, poorly understood, rigid, tyrannical family authority is as harmful as lack of educational authority. Without authority, education is uncertain, the personality remains weak and inconstant, the moral conscience becomes deficient, the individual lives in insecurity and anxiety “(Educator, pp 24-26, October 2002).
The film “The City of God” which takes place in a violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro and this perfectly illustrates the real consequences of a lack of educational authority, malaise, aggression and the extreme violence that it generates. for children living in this very poor neighborhood. An excellent film to see absolutely
Stanislas Komkewiczs, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, studied inmates for a long time and studied their history. He noted that the detainees had common factors that could explain some of the violent acts committed.
Examples:
- Emotional deficiency in early childhood.
- Violence suffered by the parents, especially by the father.
- Addiction to alcohol, drugs …
Criminology has asked the question about violence committed: What is the point that is common to people who have committed violent acts? How is it that some people do violent acts at once, when they have no judicial past? The fact is that these people have evolved in a family and school environment in which there were no limits, standards and without ever having had educational sanctions and without having ever had a feeling of guilt. The problem with this lack of standards is that the child does not develop the feeling of guilt and sends him the message that he can continue and this unfortunately favors the crime. It is therefore essential to invest the child and to love him unconditionally.