Piero Angela’s wonderful reflection regarding the important social role of teachers
We could hardly say that there is someone who knows children better than their parents; yet, with confidence, we could certainly say that there is someone who knows a different aspect of their children: teachers.
In fact, school represents a type of community that is different from the family - due to the nature of the ties of its members - in which, although the principles can be the same - peaceful coexistence, tolerance, respect, and cooperation - a school nevertheless has its own rules.
Sometimes, however, parents forget this and claim to know everything about their child and use this as justification when teachers reprimand their child for some unorthodox behaviors.
In these cases, the mother and father's instinct for protection threatens to keep their child trapped in a bubble, away from the concept of community within which, instead, the school by definition and vocation operates.
At the moment, in which children start to attend school, they become a part of society, in which there are no longer only mum and dad - who for their part must recognize this fact and accept the consequences.
What these consequences are, is clearly explained by the Italian journalist and science writer Piero Angela, while remembering - during a television interview - the period in which his now adult son, Alberto was a child and attending public school:
"My son Alberto failed the fifth grade. He was very upset. How did I take it? Very well! Because if one does not study, one must be punished. Nowadays, we tend to blame the teachers. But, I thought, if he did not do well, he must repeat the year. I believe that his failure triggered a virtuous spiral. What's the secret? I do not know, maybe it's because emotions leave a mark, not just words."
Parents must, therefore, recognize the central role that teachers play in the lives of their children and in service to their community, and also to support teachers in their difficult task - because as explained effectively by Piero Angela:
"The teacher is the person to whom a parent entrusts the most precious thing that their child has: the brain. They entrust it to transform it into a thinking object. But the teacher is also the person to whom the State entrusts its most precious thing: the collective of the brains so that they become the land of tomorrow."
