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Buenos Aires, Sunday, August 21, 2005

Father Oscar Pezzarini

School violence, a reflection of both Family and Society

For a long time now we heard of regrettable events related to violence experienced at schools and to aggressive children, many of which attend school with arms, and even of situations where some of them caused real “massacres”. We know that if a child lives in a hostile, selfish, violent environment with envy and resentment, for sure it will learn to live this way, and it later will carry that what it has learned to all the environments it lives in. We must look in the “adult world” for the origin of many of these situations by which we are passing on to them those adversities which we cannot avert.

Not just in Argentina but in many other places, for a long time now we heard of regrettable events related to violence experienced at schools and to aggressive children, many of which attend school with arms, and even of situations where some of them caused real “massacres”.

The first reaction is the search for “reasons” or rational motives for this, that is to say all that is wrong with childhood and youth, stuff they get through the media, etc., all of which can't be denied, although I think we should wonder if all these violent actions or gestures are not also actually the outcome of this same “violence” which is experienced by society itself.

In any case we should ask ourselves if these displays of violence in an environment and at an unexpected age does not end up being in fact a reflection of what happens in our “modern” society where many times it is believed that resorting to violent methods will make us find solutions to our problems.

It is frequently said that a society is known by those events which happen inside her, which are just a reflection of how this society “feels”, and today we must say that what we will not find inside our society is “brotherhood”, peace, forgiveness, tranquility, solidarity, but many times just the opposite.

We must also recall that the first thing a child gathers for good or for worse, is what it gets in its family, and the values it experiences in its family are what is going to “shape” its own personality.

We know that if a child lives in a hostile, selfish, violent environment with envy and resentment, for sure it will learn to live this way, and it later will carry that what it has learned to all the environments it lives in.

We must not forget then that what a child learns since its birth and while it grows is what “brands” it for good, and this is what this person is going to pass on. This is why I think we must question ourselves in all our environments which kind of conditions we are setting up for the growth of our children, since we know that they will assimilate whatever they get, thus if at home they perceive violence, aggressions, any kind of rejections, this is what they will build up in their daily environments.

Watching how children who should be concerned about learning, about trying to gather teachings which may help them to grow as decent human beings, are nowadays often immersed in a “world of violence” and aggressions is regrettable, but many times they are not directly responsible for this behaviour, and we must look in the “adult world” for the origin of many of these situations by which, maybe in an unnoticed way, we are passing on to them those adversities which we cannot avert.

Father Oscar Pezzarini
General Commissioner of the Work of Don Orione in Argentina

Father Oscar Pezzarini makes us think on Saturdays from 8 to 12 AM (GMT-03:00)with "VENTANA A LA VIDA", the Don Orione radio program he conducts on FM PROVIDENCIA, 106.5 MHz together with some residents of the Claypole Cottolengo (Raúl Romero, María Laura Andrada, Alberto Zoroch, Américo Torres), with the production of Roberto Beluzzo and Ignacio Cavalli as technical operator. You can also listen to FM PROVIDENCIA by clicking here.

Pequeño Cottolengo Don Orione 0800-333-6746 in Argentina, or +54 (11) 4268-7722 from abroad.

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