Non-Believers in School: Beyond the Social Stigma with Media Education and Critical Thinking

In democratic societies education has, among its main purposes, the elimination of discrimination, respect for diversity, the creation of a school climate suitable for dialogue and comparison. Despite these positive premises, there are cases in which students do not feel free to express their ideas (which, moreover, may vary over time) in a context that is increasingly open to the presence of multiple religions, but not towards atheist positions. Children and adolescents in particular suffer greatly from the social stigma that identifies them - together with their families - as immoral and unreliable individuals. The intent of this work is to show the usefulness of digital resources in order to combat social stigma and to introduce the opportunities for knowledge of theoretical and experiential contributions of the "atheist world" into the educational context, making sure that students can also recognise themselves as subjects worthy of attention like the others.