ll cibo nel processo educativo, fra corporeità ed emozione

Abstract

The A. develops an articulated pedagogical reflection about the role that nutrition has in the educational process, from the early age and in familiar environment. Food is deeply connected, in our experiences, to the representations of life and death, body and health, and also to our social relations, because it is introduced to child by loving “nursing” figures, who take care of him. Thus, the food assumes a symbolic and emotional value and meaning, that will persist in adult life. The A. believes as a constituting fundamental educational goal the promotion, since childhood, of an intentional “eating conduct”, and not of an uncontrolled eating behavior. To this aim, school practices must be integrated with family practices, and with adult lifestyles. The initial focus will therefore be an overall solicitation aimed at all adults, in the direction of greater awareness of the educational outcomes of family lifestyle, and of cultural forces determined by the mass media pressure. References to some educational experiences and some empirical data of a more general nature are introduced to give substance to the pedagogical theory here formulated.