(ANS – Frascati) – News reports in recent weeks paint a picture of a wounded Italy: teenagers wielding knives instead of words, conflicts escalating into tragedy, violence erupting in the very place meant to teach coexistence and guarantee safety—the school. These incidents raise urgent questions for families, institutions, and educational communities, highlighting a generation increasingly struggling with communication, emotional regulation, and relationships. It is precisely this urgency that the “Parents’ School” program at Salesian Villa Sora School in Frascati seeks to address. At its third meeting, it focused on a crucial question: can emotions be taught?

This is far from an abstract question. It was addressed on January 23 in a room filled with attentive and engaged parents during a meeting organized by the Salesians of Frascati to provide tools for reflection and educational support.

Moderated by Radio1 Rai journalist Diana Alessandrini, psychologists and educators Rosanna Schiralli y Ulisse Mariani presented an educational model centered on relationships, emotional competence, and responsibility, weaving together data, neuroscience, clinical experience, and practical case studies.

The meeting opened with reference to a news story that shook public opinion: the killing of a boy at school, which occurred during the days of the National Day of Respect, established in memory of Willy Monteiro Duarte. A dramatic paradox that, as Alessandrini noted, cannot be dismissed as an isolated event. According to data from the National Research Council (CNR), 90,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 19 report having used a knife at least once to injure or threaten a peer. This rapidly growing phenomenon directly affects families and schools.

In her remarks, Schiralli clarified that emotional education is not simply “talking about emotions,” but a genuine process of building the emotional brain. She explained, “Today’s young people struggle to recognize what excites or upsets them, cannot tolerate frustration, and seek immediate relief through impulsive behavior.” Hence the close connection between emotional distress and the rise in addictions—from alcohol and drugs to digital dependency and self-harm.

Using an effective metaphor—a powerful Ferrari without brakes—Schiralli emphasized that children are born with enormous potential but without the tools needed to manage impulses and emotions. “Brakes are built,” she said, “and their name is emotional education.” Such education involves acceptance, attunement, and mirroring, but also clear rules, boundaries, and limits—elements that are increasingly difficult to enforce today.

Mariani expanded on the topic by drawing on neuroscience and developmental psychology. The human brain is fully developed around age 24, and its growth depends decisively on the quality of educational relationships. “Parents, teachers, and educators are the true architects of children’s brains,” he said. Without adult guidance capable of combining affection with rules, there is a risk of raising young people dominated by impulses and unable to transform them into conscious emotions and actions. Empathy—made possible by mirror neurons—must be cultivated from childhood through education that involves not only the family but also the school, which is increasingly called upon to integrate emotional learning alongside traditional academics.

The meeting concluded with the reading of a letter from a school principal who survived the Nazi concentration camps, urging educators not merely to train competent students, but to form human beings. This powerful warning encapsulates the profound meaning of the initiative by the Salesians at Villa Sora: educating about emotions is not a luxury, but an urgent responsibility—essential to preventing violence and equipping young people with the tools to live humanely in the world.

The Villa Sora Parents’ School thus confirms itself as a valuable forum for dialogue, where parents and professionals come together to seek shared answers to one of the most pressing educational challenges of our time. At a moment when violence often seems to stem from an inability to feel and to wait, teaching emotional awareness is not merely a pedagogical choice, but an urgent act of collective responsibility toward the future of our children.