Educación Emocional en Venezuela: El docente como pilar para transformar la crisis de valores

Question:

In Venezuela, we are experiencing an emotional crisis, a crisis of values and principles, with a lot of aggressiveness, anger, emotional turmoil, and rage. You talk about controlling anger, anxiety, and stress—all of which generate these emotions and conflicting feelings. Do you think the answer could lie in education? Because you talk about emotional education, and the fundamental pillar for making that possible is the teacher.  

Answer:

Let me be very clear. For emotional education to be feasible and effective, we must first meet the basic social needs of food, rest, and shelter. If you are specifically asking about Venezuela, in the current situation, based on what I read in the press, I observe that a significant portion of the population is struggling to meet these basic needs. I believe that politics and social services, the government, should address and manage these issues to ensure that the population's basic needs are on the path to being resolved. Because otherwise, when people are struggling to survive, responses can become unpredictable and even violent—simply as a means of survival. We see in extreme situations that a person might be willing to harm another just to survive. It is tragic, but situations like these have occurred.
That being said, Venezuela is a country with vast resources and could be a wealthy nation. The problem lies in corruption. There are also political issues that we won't go into detail about here. However, Venezuela could have political and economic management that allows for large-scale educational projects. For example, about 30 years ago, if I remember correctly, the Ministry of Intelligence was created in Venezuela, which was a pioneering initiative during a period of economic and political development in the country.
Working on emotions is, first, very important. Second, it is possible. But third, it is not easy. It requires, on one hand, raising awareness among teachers and public administration, as they are the ones allocating budgets for teacher training. Additionally, there needs to be a general awareness in society that enables educational institutions to work alongside families in a collaborative effort. This would allow the development of emotional competencies in children from early childhood through primary, middle, and secondary education. In higher education, developing emotional competencies is a lifelong process.
Regulating anger as a strategy for violence prevention is a high-level competency. We cannot expect to achieve it through a single lecture, an intensive month-long course, or even in a year. No, it takes years of training. We are talking about emotional "gyms." Just as physical training gyms exist today, we should have emotional training gyms—for emotional management, risk behavior prevention, and violence prevention. These behaviors often have deep emotional roots, and addressing them requires a structured, long-term approach.