Rome, July 2 (askanews) – “While there is a lack of community centers, a certain policy is practicing pigeon shooting against the youngest, trying to convince us that negative behavior is the result of the individual, who therefore must be punished, and not a burden to be shared among the entire educational community. Today it is the turn of Zaia and the baby gangs, with the proposal to lower the age of judicial punishment. These are catchphrases that imply a lack of understanding of the subject”: thus the authoritative Piacenza pedagogue, Daniele Novara, intervenes on the topic of baby gangs, rejecting the proposal of the governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia. “The attack against boys and girls continues unabated, seen as a melting pot of delinquency, transgression, all sorts of psychiatric problems and other atrocities.
I am shocked to see institutions that decide not to invest in educational prevention, in real support for schools and teachers, in educational help for parents”, continued Novara. “The problem is clear. They prefer to put money into roads, logistics and various construction sites instead of focusing on future generations, from nurseries to training, from schools to professional development of teachers”, explains the author of books such as “Nessuno si educa da solo” (2023) and founder in Piacenza of the Psychopedagogical Center for Education and Conflict Management. According to Novara, “boys and girls of that age, pre-adolescents, cannot be brought to trial or to juvenile prisons. Fortunately, our laws rightly give priority to aspects of formative and educational growth rather than punitive and judicial persecution. A boy who ends up in jail, with very rare exceptions, can only worsen his behavioral standards by learning the art of violence and delinquency”. The trainer and pedagogue invites us to use common sense: “We must insist on educational tools, promoting and financing communities and recovery centers. And going up the chain of needs, perhaps understand the deep reasons that see parents in difficulty struggling in the desert of help and in the absence of support”. Finally, the denunciation of a reality that those who have children know well: “Summer centers, this year too, represent a real problem. Paying from 100 to 150 euros a week is not for everyone, these are truly significant figures that should not be placed on families. Prison for minors under 14 years of age is something else”, concludes Novara.
