In this unexpected spring, the most beautiful flower is a word: closeness.
A shared reflection on a necessary (ongoing) revolution
In these days when all human passions parade, hardly contained in the face of strong external agents of constraint, and shouted in every direction, I feel the desire for a reversal of priorities, a real revolution based on awareness. And I don't want to lose faith in mankind.
Everyone can ask themselves where to start, what to work to do their part - like the now well-known hummingbird - in this case to rebuild.
This is a reflection that must not wait, we can do it now.
I choose to start from a word: closeness. I am fortunate to be able to work with schools and inside schools, with a special role: I am a psychologist. I define my role as 'special' because it has the specific task of promoting well-being, health, prosocial behaviors and a sense of community, and closeness is a major tool.
I won't hide that being a consultant sometimes brings with it an experience of distance, of marginality. As psychologists, we must find our space in the complexity of schools, our positioning, and we cannot do it alone, as we would end up representing the "extra project".
Therefore, we must and want to weave relationships, taking care of interactions, finding delicate and respectful ways of being a resource in complex contexts to carry out what, from our point of view, remains the main lever of learning and healthy development: taking good care of our emotions, and those of others.
I often say to children: "it will seem a little strange, but taking care of our emotions every day is almost more important than brushing our teeth!". Personal hygiene passes from emotional hygiene, and in times when we teach children to wash their hands more and better, we have the task of teaching them to care for their hearts.
I work with people capable of great care and attention to the social and emotional aspects of learning (SEL), passionate and proactive leaders, courageous and open-minded teachers, colleagues who are generous in sharing their thoughts, creating together what - if alone - should be done anyway, but it would work less indeed. And this has to increase further.
We need more uniformity and cohesion in order to embody what Dr. Lucangeli calls the role of 'development differentials' (Daniela Lucangeli, 2020).
We heard about closeness learning, 'didattica di vicinanza', when educators understood these days that distance learning needed to be rethought, and quickly. And this term, 'closeness learning', could be the most beautiful flower of this spring.
There are two other words that I feel I can bring to my intent without delay: one is mindfulness, the other is flexibility. It is my intention to talk about it these days to help the readers understand why these can be the engine and fuel of a necessary revolution.
A clarification: the revolution is not understood here as innovation, new content, unpublished thoughts or new inventions. This revolution is already happening every day in the intentions and gestures of those who see this as a priority, in teaching and in other areas.
It will be revolutionary if we know how to share this focus on closeness, and if it becomes a new polar star to guide the route of schools, managers and teachers. If it will remain the direction of a minority of people, we will defend it strenuously, as always, as acrobats in complexity.
But if you will give voice and value to your educational experiences of closeness, if you will keep them as something to be cultivated, mastered and brought into the 'after', then it will be a true and powerful reconstruction.
It is an opportunity to not return to our previous lives, but to open up to a new life.
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