Assessment/tasks | Valutazione/compiti

Childhood has always been considered a complex concept that over the years has undergone various changes and evolutions, both positive and negative. It is a topic addressed by many pedagogists and psychologists that encompasses a thousand aspects. It is a fundamental period of growth and evolution of the child, as it is precisely in this period that the child develops physical, cognitive and social skills that are fundamental later in life. It is the period, in fact, of social development, in which one begins to know one's emotions and also know how to manage them. The concept of childhood has evolved a lot over time thanks also to various cultural, scientific and technological changes. For example, in the Middle Ages, children were immediately put in the position of carrying out adult activities in family activities and in some way they were deprived of their childhood, not living it fully as it should be. In most cases they did not have the right to an education and were not understood, their needs were not highlighted. They lived in a context of oppression, and not of freedom, as Paulo Freire intended, who intended the concept of childhood as a process of liberation, of adult-child dialogue, of taking the child into consideration and not ignoring them just because they were "small". He gave importance to the creativity of the child, encouraging them to express their ideas and promoting curiosity. Often today in many adults/children these abilities are lacking, perhaps because during their childhood, they were not allowed to express themselves, to be curious, to express their ideas because perhaps they were not considered important since they were "children" and perhaps now they find themselves having this insecurity and this difficulty in opening up to others too.

Others instead keep the child inside us active, because yes, even if we are adults, we would always be children deep down. Our imagination, our creativity, are often connected to our childish part, they are elements that must be cultivated over time and that allow us to enrich ourselves in adult life and without which we would be nobody. Recognizing and appreciating the child inside us I believe is an important aspect of our adult phase as it allows us to reflect on past experiences, childhood, both positive and negative, it can allow us to heal from any traumas or not to repeat the same mistakes in the future. Very often, playing with toys, or simply having a passion for certain games, cartoons, as adults, is considered an object of insult by some, often quoting phrases such as "but you're still a child who plays with these things" or "but what do you have Peter Pan syndrome that you still watch certain cartoons, or that you get excited like a child when you see an object from your childhood again". But I think it is a wonderful thing, in certain moments or situations, to go back to being/feeling like children because it allows us to rediscover the lightheartedness that we had and that we often lose for various reasons and consequently it can be useful in facing the various difficulties with moments of lightness and fun and lighten a little the commitments, obligations, work deadlines, the weight of the family, that adult life puts before us.

There are children in the world, who unfortunately do not live and do not know what it means to live as children, they do not know what fun, play, cartoons are, and they will never know. As adults, they will not have the fortune of cheerfully exploring the child that was in them. I think it is wonderful to allow ourselves to go back to being children sometimes and rediscover that lightness that characterizes us as children and that freedom that Paulo Freire talks about so much.

Sometimes I would like to roll around on the beach and get all covered in sand just like when I was a child, but maybe I don't do it because people might think I'm crazy or that I'm not behaving like an adult. I often play on the beach with children, build sandcastles and in those moments I am filled with a sense of lightness, tranquility, happy memories, but also a sense of embarrassment for what the people around me might think, but then I think about how I'm feeling in that moment and I let myself be carried away by those emotions without looking around.

Or maybe I often have those childish attitudes in a fun way together with my sister, taking up a bit of what our attitudes were as children, recreating that warmth that distinguishes two sisters and that as adults can sometimes vanish due to the thousand commitments that surround us.

These are not silly or “non-adult” attitudes, they are attitudes that make me feel good, full of memories and that distance me for a few moments from adult reality, from those thoughts that often pervade my mind about “why are we growing up, why is it no longer like when we were little” and that make me relive that joy and lightness.

Trivially, often, also, when I have particular periods, when I am very thoughtful, I find myself coloring drawings, cultivating what has always been my passion since I was a child, that is, coloring, mixing colors together, and then arriving at the end of the work with my eyes lighting up with joy at seeing all those colors come together well together in a masterpiece. An activity that relaxes me a lot and I am happy to bring it out in these moments, from the child that is in me