“Let’s train ourselves to respect”: sport at school to fight bullying

Countering the phenomenon of bullying and the gender violence among high school adolescents through the values ​​of sport is the objective of the project.

“Let’s train ourselves to respect” presented today in Rome in the presence of the Minister of Sport and young people, Andrea Abodi, and the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara. The initiative sees the champions of combat sports, the boxer, as testimonials Angela Carinithe judoka Pino Maddaloni ed i kickboxer Armen and Giorgio Petrosyan and Elena Pantaleo. The central role of the project is in fact sport and in particular martial arts, which, at an age such as adolescence, allow important educational values ​​to be conveyed through a high-performance language in relation to the reference target. “This project that we wanted is a contribution that must enter into civil society, which must become a widespread, daily heritage – said Abodi – If a boy or girl aged 11, 12, 15 takes their own life, which is the most precious thing, the supreme good, because psychological violence, moral violence manifests itself around these people, it means that we must continue to talk about it, it will never be enough. I am convinced that this sensitivity is consolidated precisely with the. training and the great alliance between sport and education that we will not fail not only to declare but to practice and demonstrate”. The 2025 edition of the project will be “experimental” and will involve 10,000 students from 500 classes of secondary schools in Milan, Rome, Naples and Palermo. “We live in a society where education in respect, the idea of ​​respect as a central value, is no longer as strong as it once was – underlined the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara – this is why bullying has become , not only in Italy, a dramatic, devastating social phenomenon. Putting the person at the center means respecting everyone and school must be the place where the culture of respect towards the person, any person, is taught. And how to do it? that sport comes into play. Because sport has of rules, sport presupposes respect for rules, rules of behavior. We want to invest in sport, invest in these projects, but also invest in sports infrastructures. Pnrr had allocated 300 million euros for gyms, now we have arrived with money ours at 890 million and we will invest more”.

The “Let’s train with respect” project will be developed through the organization of free multi-sport courses held during curricular and extracurricular hours, within school gyms and in collaboration with the National Sports Federations (with particular reference to those in the martial arts sector ), workshops and meetings in schools, aimed at students and teachers with the involvement of experts and sports testimonials especially of combat disciplines, information and awareness webinars aimed at teachers, technicians and families, also with the participation of psychologists and members of the “Sport and Health Illumina” team. “It is a project that is part of a series of other initiatives where we try to intervene on the entire study cycle – added the president of Sport and Health, Marco Mezzaroma – Sport helps to respect the opponent, helps to work as a team and the role of athletes is fundamental in speaking with young people”. In a video message the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaciexplained that it is essential “to invest more and more in correct lifestyles and in sport to guarantee full psychophysical well-being for everyone, everywhere, especially boys and girls”.