Science and children at the first journalism festival dedicated to children, the expert Accinelli: “Always tell the truth by simplifying the facts”

Kicks off on Friday 27 May International Kids in Reggio Emilia the first journalism festival for girls and boys (between 7 and 13 years old). At the center of this new edition is the interpretation of an increasingly complex reality and the power that words have in its definition. And one of the protagonists will be science, investigated and explained to the little ones. There is one of the characters who will answer the children’s questions Gianumberto Accinelliprofessor, eco-narrator (that is, he explains, “I tell stories about nature”) and entomologist, “star” of science explained to children, with whom we talked about just this.

How do we talk about science with children?
«I don’t think there is a universal recipe or a specific method. I can tell which one is mine and that is tell the truth in a simple way but always saying, on every occasion, how the facts stand. We must have the courage to say that certain things we do not know, if they ask us questions for which we do not know the answer because rather than a false answer, it is better a simplified truth».

What are the children of recent years, who come out of a pandemic and end up seeing the horror of war, even passing through monkeypox?
«In life I am also a teacher, although I teach in a high school so I mainly deal with teenagers. But I do a lot of public events even with younger children and I must say that I have never seen so many problems like this year. There are tons of teenagers that they have panic attack, depression, school phobia, in an exorbitant way compared to previous years. The little ones have suffered strong anxieties, they have breathed an anxious air and now the effects are coming. Then, when we are dealing with minors living in families with very anxious members, they are themselves very anxious. And with this we must deal and understand that at that point we must intervene on emotional plan».

Has science lost credibility with the pandemic?
“I think we must first of all make it clear that we need to trust more of the scientific community than of science itself. In general, I think the scientific community has been excellent, of course there have been venial sins like the one above Astrazeneca, but to be able to come up with such a powerful and high-level vaccine was an extraordinary, crazy undertaking. Instead, I find that there have been some communication problems ».

That is to say?
“I find it was completely misleading. In many debates it was called medico provax and one novax not taking into account that they belong to two very different communities: the first is part of a huge reality, while the second of a microscopic community. Yet on TV they seemed to be on par. Instead, a proportion is also needed in the representation. Because otherwise one thinks that the scientific community is split. But in reality it is not at all ».