L’enfant au cœur de la transmission

RésuméDès avant sa naissance, l’enfant est le dépositaire d’une infinie richesse de transmissions, quelles soient biologiques, psychiques, culturelles, familiales, sociales ou encore politiques. Pour grandir, il doit apprendre de ses aînés ce qu’ils ont eux-mêmes appris de leurs aînés. Et l’homme, qui se sait mortel, tente plus ou moins à son insu, de léguer aux autres, pour survivre … un peu de ce qu’il a reçu et de ce qu’il est devenu lui-même. Et pourtant, dans notre société occidentale postmoderne, la transmission ne va plus de soi. La rupture de fait avec l’idée même de tradition qui caractérise notre époque va de pair avec une crise profonde des actes de transmission qui, souvent, ne jouent plus leur rôle d’éveil à la vie de l’esprit et de la sensibilité. Cela n’est pas exempt de dangers, en particulier pour le développement psychique de l’enfant. Dans ce texte, il s’agira d’analyser les conditions du malaise lié aujourd’hui à la transmission, dans une tentative d’approche à la fois historique, philosophique et sociologique et d’apporter quelques repères permettant de souligner le caractère essentiel de la transmission à toute vie humaine.

Already before its birth, the child is the depositary of an infinite wealth of transmissions, biological, psychological, cultural, family, social or political. In order to grow, the child must learn of its elders what they themselves have learned from their elders. And the human being, who is aware that he is mortal, tries more or less consciously to bequeath to the other what he has received and what he has become himself, in order to survive a little. The question of the place given to this transmission was, of course, widely discussed by philosophers over the past centuries but it not obvious any longer in our western postmodern society. The importance given to the individual person and to the conquest of an individual freedom to conquer is imposed to the man of the 21st century. Indeed, the break-up with the very idea of tradition that characterizes our era, goes hand in hand with a profound crisis of acts of transmission which, often enough, do no longer play their role of awakening to the life of intellect and of sensitivity. However, this is far from being without importance to the psychological development of the child. Transmission sets limits between the self and the other, while establishing bonds at the same time, and places as such the human being in a relation to the world which surpasses his own existence and will. There are many transmissions, many types of transmission and very precise driving forces which facilitate transmission, hamper transmission and thus engage us in a different manner. The ethical obligation to relate to the other, which gives a particular incentive to the adult to assume the responsibility of supporting the human development of the child, stresses the essential character of the desire to transmit. This desire allows to prepare future generations, giving them the tools necessary to think, grow and create in their turn, helping them understand and share common values, a legacy, a memory, a culture, all serving as foundations on which to build a future that is not the simple repetition of the past or a building without foundation… We analyze in this text the conditions of the malaise related to transmission today, in an attempt to approach the subject from a historical, philosophical and sociological point of view, and to provide some ideas emphasizing the essential nature of transmission to all human life.