WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, FDCA, Il Cantiere #20: The importance of pedagogical research - Paola Perullo (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

Why is it important to have pedagogical research? Because the choice of

one pedagogical theory or another depends on what philosophical and
therefore political thought one has about humanity. It becomes important
to know everything that progresses and advances in terms of discoveries
in the scientific field of human biology (1). Consequently, starting
from a progressive and harmonious vision of how human beings learn, we
will set up teaching that is consequential to the pedagogical vision we
have.
In conservative theories, it was thought that the child learned by
imitation, a position that led to considering the time of childhood as a
preparatory phase in which the transmission of knowledge, knowledge and
skills depended exclusively on the adult, while the child he received
passively and his mind was considered a tablet of wax to be moulded.
But if vice versa, it is stated, on the basis of proven research in the
field of human biology, that the child learns by "inventing", then we
must look at a completely different perspective and ask ourselves what
are the relational modalities that put him in a position to invent (like
when he learns to speak).
How can it be demonstrated that the child thinks from birth, that is, he
is born a philosopher? What type of thought is produced in the preverbal
era? In the new discoveries in the biological field, it is argued that
everything that is fantasy, affectivity, sexuality, vitality, the child
perceives in body to body with the mother. Long before the appearance of
verbal language, it is thought that he was able to understand the
progress of relationships between the people around him, first and
foremost his parents. If the relationships are satisfactory, the child
strengthens his vitality and his imagination, safeguarding his unique
and unrepeatable ability to imagine. By building a primary relational
network that will be the basis for the construction of cooperative
knowledge and skills that closely resemble Kroptkinian theories on
mutual support. Sociability and socialism in children are often the same
thing. They intertwine and overlap in an inspiration of primitive
egalitarianism between equals. For this reason, one could almost say
that the human species would naturally be led to experience socialism.
Children do not tolerate injustices, privileges and disparities in the
peer group and are driven and animated by a feeling of social justice
which often leads them to experiment with original and creative
solutions to self-regulate relational conflicts between them.
Knowing this enormous heritage of humanity that we have at birth, as a
gift of the species, imposes the responsibility of protecting the minds
of children from the barbarism of capitalism, which ends up making
public schools a company, on the economic model of the liberal market.
Then it is urgent to return to active pedagogical reflection and action,
because the choices we make in the pedagogical field can make a
difference. Today, more than ever, I think that the battle for public
schools must be played on theoretical knowledge of what boys and girls
need to remain human as they are at birth. Today, theoretical knowledge
of the development processes of the human mind can become a strong
argument for resistance to the cultural impoverishment of public
schools, caged in market and corporate logic, a lever to be used to
connect colleagues and colleagues who they shy away from the private
business model training circuit, a lever to de-bureaucratize the
training and educational relationship, as well as a point of reference
and starting point for the search for new approaches to prevent and
address those mental disorders that block learning.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
The moment we come into the world, we know how to distinguish the human
stimulus (warmth, affection, psychic presence) from what is not human
(objects, inanimate things), and it is this immediate fantasy that makes
us breastfeed. and suck that emotional nourishment that is not just milk.

Instinctive trust in humanity is fueled by the emotional continuity that
we manage to have in the relationship with those who take care of us.
Observing nursery age children, I realized that they know, but they
don't know that they know and this, long before the appearance of verbal
language. In an era in which conscience and reason have no weight,
before emotional disappointments alter perceptions, children know "that
the most beautiful thing in the world" is the ability to read the latent
expressions of faces (perception of the human feeling underlying the
codified expressions), even without understanding the words, in a sort
of simultaneity between feeling, perceiving and understanding. Thus,
even the perception of a stimulating space, full of affective meanings
and materials to be known, becomes an immersion in the game, which is
not far from the primary perception of desire satisfaction. I have seen
that if children sense the possibility of recreating the possibility of
satisfaction in play, they separate from their mother and open up to the
world, drawing, even before with their hand, with their body, that
skilful movement that tells their thoughts. , in perfect harmony between
mind and body: a dimension in which sensoriality amplifies the affective
experience, engaging all 5 senses. So I saw each child build their own
work, and what matters most is not the final result, but the "while it's
being done", because that's where you can glimpse those non-verbal
intentions that contain the essence of their ego. , and therefore of
their ability to imagine. The extraordinary thing is precisely that we
are all the same in what lights our imagination, but we are all
different in the way we imagine, unique and unrepeatable. The traces
that children leave, even when they do not yet know how to draw, are
always attempts to represent images, which are not concepts, but
affirmations of the Ego that feels and sees. If we take the children's
traces, for what they are, without wanting to make them adhere to
schemes guided by stereotyped models, then we see an evolution from
signs to drawings, extraordinarily everyone with their own style. The
house, for example, is spontaneously represented by all children, but
each house has its own meaning. I choose the word "sense", because the
meaning is shared by everyone, being linked to the function of the
object, in this case, the house. Sense is what everyone puts into it to
express affections and feelings, making their emotional states legible.
Thus, the house becomes the place of the irrational ego (intuition,
imagination, affection and sexuality), which will have shapes, colors
and movement different from the homes of others. What puts children in
the position of having the pleasure of creating and representing is a
continuity of relationship with the adult's gaze, which holds together,
that is, "understands", their mutual feelings and perceptions at all
times. It is a presence that continuously unites the body with the mind,
without separating the cognitive part from the affective one, and
sensoriality becomes the driving force of their action. All this becomes
an authentic narration of their ego, without external conditioning,
without exhibitions, without stereotypes (see psychomotor-based project,
when in the symbolic game they build real theatrical scripts which they
put on stage, and it is there that their thoughts are touch with their
hands. At 5 years old they are also able to subsequently graphically
represent the story they invented and acted out in the game). The moment
they know how to express their thoughts, no longer just through body
movement, writing will be the tool with which they will narrate their
stories.
The psychomotor methodology, taking into account the developmental
processes of the young child, facilitates the child in his evolution
while respecting his developmental phases.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RELATIONSHIP
Dealing with children means realizing what "times of the mind" mean.
Simultaneity, reciprocity of actions, are fundamental times for tuning
into thought. The transmission of a technique, however, requires a
deferred time, because there the child must imitate. Therefore, if there
is a temporal separation, it is on the level of doing, in which the
interaction between the known and the new must allow the child
additional time to "fix" what he already knows how to do, with what he
does not he still knows how to do it. But in relational exchange there
is a need for that immediacy and reciprocity, which is called
"presence". An adult cannot be absent with thoughts of himself, in the
presence of children. He can only think in relation to what they do,
listen to their non-verbal requests, to which he will give the right
words and actions. Today's children, accustomed to the physical presence
of many adults who take care of them, but unaccustomed to exchanging
thoughts with adults, are constantly looking to fill relational gaps
with video games, television, crowd at the supermarket and snacks. In
this way they are continually distracted by confusion, and when they
find adults who help them say the important things they think, they
become happy, their eyes light up. From this point of view, the
relationships rich in meaning and meaning that can be established in
extra-familial relationships are fundamental, starting from the
educational experience of the nursery. It has now been demonstrated in
practice how an early experience of socialization in educational
contexts other than the family one contributes to maintaining the
natural human inclination to enter into harmony with others,
experimenting with different relational strategies among peers and with
other adults who they are not parental figures, but who become important
points of reference.

WHAT DESTROYS A CHILD'S ABILITY TO IMAGINE AND THINK
There is no greater violence than the coercion of ideas. If we think of
a dog running in a meadow, everyone thinks of it with different details.
The imposition of a single image is violence. If you think of
imposition, of coercion, you think of someone who commands and who
forbids you from thinking freely. Today, I believe that this violence
that destroys critical thinking, after having destroyed creative
thinking, is more subtle, because apparently without impositions. It has
become a form of conformism that seems like a free choice, because the
market rules confuse you with the choice of product, but they have
already imposed the object on you. Even the approach to teaching is
designed from above, and to distract you from thinking, from reflecting,
from trying to understand what the children express, they load the
teacher with bureaucratic work, which kills the imagination. I agree
with those who compared the act of teaching to the inspirational
dimension, which precedes the creation of a poem or music. What would
happen if at that moment, the poet or the musician were asked to fill
out forms to be authorized to make their composition?
I believe that defending and protecting creative thinking is fundamental
to developing critical thinking: creative thinking seeks new solutions,
approaches and different uses of known reality. Critical thinking also
rejects a single interpretation of reality and facts.

Note

(1) An example for everyone could be the discovery of the "Birth Theory"
of the psychiatrist Massimo Fagioli which states that we are all born in
the same way but with an original ego capable of immediately producing
forms of creative thought.

Il Cantiere n. 20 ottobre 2023 ilcantiere@autistici.org

http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
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