Some people think that young people don't listen because they don't want to, they are not interested in complicating their lives, they go their own way. This is not true. Often what happens is that they do not know how, or cannot, for whatever reason, listen. Perhaps a voice is whispering inside them that, despite the difficulties, they can. And they need to be told to listen to that voice, not to let their wings be clipped too soon by the environment, to aspire to all that they are capable of, like artists.

During his meeting with university professors at WYD in Madrid, 2011, Benedict XVI characterized the educational task as follows: "An ideal that must not be distorted either by ideologies closed to rational dialogue, or by servility to a utilitarian logic of the simple market, which sees man as a mere consumer" (speech in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, August 19, 2011). This is so, because educating is not above all "teaching", but "forming"; it is not only that the student learns, but that he becomes more or better person.

That is why mere utilitarianism or pleasure, today often merged in the "cultural" offer, do not give an answer to the meaning of life. What is needed is a Education in the authentic values. This is what R. Spaemann addresses in one of the chapters of his book "Ethics: Fundamental Questions".

The German philosopher sample first of all defines values as valuable contents that we perceive in reality, motivated by our interests. Already the linguistic usage differentiates between "joy" and "pleasure". And in a problematic case, no one will doubt which of the two is a higher "well-being". The most valuable thing is that against which something else can be dispensed with, even pleasure (because, we say, "it is worthwhile"). Values are grasped to the extent that one learns to objectify interests, to have interests beyond mere self-interest, which does not lead to a successful life.

Going a step further, Spaemann observes that they are grasped in their mutual relation or ordering: we say that something is worth more than something else. Once again, we are talking about values and not only about tastes, and a mature person distinguishes them, he knows that it is better to take care of an accident victim than to go through life without complicating it. He who has training is the right one.

In order to train in values, this teacher focuses on some interconnected conditions : to encourage the knowledge of an "order goal" that makes it possible to reach harmony with oneself and with others; to open to the hierarchy of values above simple "tastes"; to compare the difference that exists between what is less and what is more valuable, even if the latter requires more attention and effort.

Finally, he points out two obstacles to the grasping of values: apathy and passion-blindness. Apathy (lack of passion) made Esau choose a plate of lentils, in exchange for the inheritance that was his due as Isaac's firstborn. On the other hand, passion caused King David to be seduced by Bathsheba's beauty to the point of committing a great crime.

Passions guide us towards values (such as beauty), but at the same time they disfigure the proportions in which they should be contemplated; they reveal values to us, but not their hierarchy. And it is no excuse to invoke passion, because we are not animals.

Besides, passions are transitory. And when anger, the compassion of a moment, or infatuation (the first phase of love) disappear, the test of fidelity is still required, to do justice to the reality of things and the value of commitments. (Hence the difference between the passions and the virtues that are already "good habits"). Otherwise, those in love would always be doomed to the anguish of losing their love. If, as this love matures, they know that it will not happen, it is because "love has taken possession of their free will, or because their free will has grasped love".

Spaemann is absolutely right, for to educate is to help to commit oneself. And this requires training to be free. In turn, freedom demands listening to reality about oneself, others and the world.

In the movie "October Sky" (J. Johnston, 1999), the teacher gives the discouraged Homer the decisive committee : "You are not always in a position to listen to what you are told. You have to listen to yourself." To give that committee, she had to listen to herself first, to be creatively faithful to her task.

Educating is more than preparing students (school or university) for what is usually understood as "success" in life (with that mentality, the person can be led more surely towards failure in life and in his or her task in society).

For this reason, Benedict XVI said: "Young people need authentic teachers; people open to the total truth in the different branches of knowledge, knowing how to listen and living within themselves this interdisciplinary dialogue; people convinced, above all, of the human capacity to advance on the path to the truth".

This is true. Only in this way will they be able to prepare their students to make the most of the "Carpe diem", listening to Plato: "Seek the truth - which for him was linked to goodness and beauty - while you are young, for if you do not, it will slip through your fingers later on".