Far fiorire la consapevolezza delle emozioni: una filosofia dell'educazione affettiva

This paper presents a philosophy of emotional education as a theoretical basis for the development of an educative experience to help children reflect on their emotions. After having addressed the basic questions of why emotional education is important and whether it is possible, we propose an educational theory that focuses on the practice of affective self-understanding, considered to be a method of emotional “cultivation” that can promote the “flourishing” of emotional awareness. In order to assist children in understanding their emotions, we propose two educative instruments: the “journal of emotional life” and the metaphor of the “vegetable garden of emotions”. Empirical research demonstrates that the educative effectiveness of these instruments consists in fostering the activation of some specific ways of self-analysis that allow children to gain emotional awareness.