Scuola, libertà religiosa del minore e politiche di integrazione

Abstract

It is undeniable that great interest is aroused by the subject of protecting the religious freedom of minors and their families in the dense web of interwoven relations between them and school, the institution called upon to cooperate within the function of educating young people. Between parents and schools, a peculiar synergy is or should be established in order to ensure that minors receive education and training that respect the confession to which they belong or the spiritual orientation of their families, at the same time able to guarantee the self-determination of minors from the perspective of their best interests. In the current globalized, multi-ethnic and multicultural society, it can happen that the right of relatives to educate their children according to the precepts of their professed faith – and the minor’s right to religious freedom – enters into conflict with the secularity of state schools; it is also possible that the school environment reveals contrasts between parents, who expect their children to comply with religious precepts, and children who, on the contrary, wish for more scope for self-determination in their existential choices. The paper sets out to demonstrate that schools themselves must offer concrete recognition and effective protection of the right to religious freedom of minors, in the sense of putting the best interest of the child first, and that this can be effectively pursued through reviewing the principle of secularity in the welcoming sense and the implementation of inclusion policies.