Meeting with Father Bruno Varriano on child-educator dynamics

On Wednesday, May 22, 2013, a meeting took place at the Saint James Vicariate between the team of educators (religion teachers and counselors) and Father Bruno Varriano, a Franciscan priest and psychologist. The main subject of the lecture was the "attachment theory" of John Bowlby – a psychological and developmental theory that posits that in the soul of the child there is a primordial interior need for attachment with a care giving figure for the purpose of protection and intimacy.

Under this general title, a discussion took place with the specialist, who also made space for the many questions that arose out of the personal experiences of the educators, teachers and counselors, and he tried to answer them.

As Christians working in a non-Christian society, we discovered afresh what is our place and how important the task is that has been given us. Of course, we must be aware that we fill a rather marginal place in the lives of our children, and yet we are invited to be partners with God – the great Educator and wise Pedagogue – and the parents.

From this meeting we received much information about types of behavior in our children, information that will help us identify and decipher some of the needs of our children. We can only pray that we might be able to provide for our children a personal and spiritual experience that might have significance for their lives.