argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Infantilization
Tere Maldonado @teremaldon 2022ko irailaren 29a
Antton Olariaga

The school is not the house or the family, but it's conceptually closer to them than the school, and this more than the university. In the latter, families have nothing to say about the learning process. They have more to do in high school (although it is not the same as the first year of the ESO as the second year of high school, where some are older) and in school even more. But school isn't home either. At home, the child (or the only child), the son of a few, is another student at school. It's good to learn to be just that. Of course, we are special and unrepeatable to our loved ones, but in the public sphere we must all be equal. I have not said the identity: equal, because nobody is more or less than anyone. You have to learn that at school. It does not exist among curricular themes, nor in objectives, it is not a competence. But it's something that you learn through the facts.

Some time ago, we arrived at the institute at fourteen years old, at the end of compulsory education. Since a Spanish PSOE government implemented the LOGSE in the 1990s, it has reached twelve. Before, the students of the institute were treated in a way that approached the university students. For example, we didn't control them as much as going to class now: to some extent it was their choice. Yes, then the futures: it was unthinkable that a student who did not appear in class during the school year would not protest, or that parents would appear asking for explanations. Most of them used freedom very well, acting responsibly and attending classes. Being obligated in high school, hindering the class, was unthinkable. Well, over the years, the students of institutes have increasingly appeared as children and less as young people on the road to adult life. At the same time, the work of the teachers of the institute has approached what is done in the schools, moving away from the university.

The teachers shouldn't take care of the students at the breaks, but they put us to take care of the courtyards and there we are, because we are a demobilized body that devours everything that gets on us. I've ever been told that at breaks you can see a lot about how students relate, which can be valuable in preventing some behaviors. No doubt, but if we spent weekends with them, we would also get this kind of information. If students are to be cared for at recess (this should be a discussion of their own), this would involve hiring staff, such as hiring glass cleaners. A teacher of mathematics, history, biology, philosophy or any other subject must work mainly in the classroom, or in educational exits and excursions with the students during school hours. And at your work table: the hours of a teacher are always few to prepare classes and correct exercises and exams.

The general process of mass infantilization in institutes is absolutely devastating. Some simple things we should know seem increasingly forgotten: freedom and responsibility, rights and obligations are the two sides of the ditxosa coin. Without freedom there is no responsibility. In order to enforce the obligation, a number of rights must be recognised. The over-protection of families and schools eliminates adolescents, who have become mutilated, human beings unable to take care of anything that has to do with their lives. Castrated beings, not interested in being treated as adults, submerged on the screen until they drown.