Pedagogy contemplative: Education for suffering
Mariarosaria De Simone
Turning tragic into a show: the gradual anesthetizing of minds and consciences. Besides the spectacularization of pain, Western society, to confuse even more our children and young people, generated and signed the “biomedicalization” of human life by the mental health community, creating the cult of freedom from physical and mental suffering. Today the prevailing social model is thus to eternal youth and health, where there is no room for pain and suffering. This paper explores the possibility of using, for education about suffering and pain, mindfulness, which is expressed in his purely educational side, through the contemplative pedagogy. This approach aims to increase gradually the potential of individuals, supporting, on the one hand, a better management of attentional processes, cognitive flexibility and executive functions, and, from the other hand, the empatich connection, creativity, compassion and altruism.
Keywords
Contemplative pedagogy, mindfulness, education for suffering, compassion, cognitive flexibility.
