The promotion of transversal skills in school education is currently among the primary aims of the European Community's educational programs (EU, 2019), so that young people are trained in an integral way and so that they can deal with the global challenges and continuous changes (personal, social, technological, ecological) which characterize today's society. These challenges and changes open up an uncertain future, especially for the new generations (Roubini, 2023; Schleier, 2018): consider, for example, the uncertainty and precariousness with respect to possible future professions, also in relation to the development of AI Technologies. Moreover, take into consideration the ecological challenge that could cause potentially adverse scenarios if not oriented and managed respecting the value of all human and non-human living creatures.

The school task is therefore to accompany the new generations early in the process of training those transversal critical-creative skills that are necessary to critically (thoughtfully and carefully) examine and evaluate reality (its challenges and continuous changes) and intervene in it, tracing divergent paths to manage existing problems and overcome them creatively. In this regard, it is crucial to promote and develop a specific field of critical-creative transversal skills, not yet considered in the most relevant current classifications, the so called “contemplating skills”.

These skills enable the new generations to overcome the widespread tendency to seek and find immediate solutions to the problems that gradually arise (Merlini, 2009), as they usually do not dwell long enough to examine these problems in depth, understanding their meaning and possible nuances. As a matter of fact, contemplation allows one to defer decision-making time, reflecting on the problems details under consideration and recognizing their specific characteristics and reconstruct the meaning. This allows to be prepared to the current challenges in a critic and thoughtful way, limiting worries and concerns (Canto, 2006). Young people, by practicing “pausing” in reality, are thus able to contemplate it through their own “feeling”, and to reconstruct its problems while thinking, together with others, of the human possibilities of regeneration.

Some references to the skills of contemplative type can be found in the lesser-known skills literature (Levit Binnun & Tarrasch, 2014). Their epistemological matrix (“contemplative skills”) can be traced back purely to the field of medical sciences, neurosciences and psychology. However, these skills present some critical issues from a paradigmatic point of view. In fact, they aim to work, through meditative practices of different types (Kabat-Zinn, 1994), on the predominantly psycho-physical dimension of young people, affecting health-related factors that influence the spheres of personal fulfillment and positive integration and adaptation within society (Ducasse et al., 2019; Zajonc, 2016). Such skills, therefore, tend to neglect the most sensitive, reflective and spiritual parts of the new generations and, at the same time, do not sufficiently enhance the essence and potential of an authentically contemplative attitude towards reality (Arendt, 2017; Zambrano, 2007). An attitude that has as its primary purpose the interest of catching reality in its intrinsic value and meaning, for the purpose of not mere domination and/or exploitation (Mitchell & Van Gordon, 2023).

Starting from the need to form the dimension of “contemplating skills” by trying to overcome its current criticalities, the research questions attempted to be answered are the following: is it possible to rethink these contemplative skills so that they are able both to awaken and exercise the critical-creative potential of each person with a view to their integral development (not only in its intellectual components, but also the “non-cognitive” ones) and to enable them to face nowadays global challenges? How could these new “contemplating skills” be configured? How should they be promoted by school?

It was possible to reconfigure the new “contemplating skills”, though a phenomenological-hermeneutical theoretical approach (Ricœur, 1993), basing the argumentation on María Zambrano’s thought and articulating it on two levels: the level of the paradigmatic structure and the one of specific critical-creative skills to be formed in order to promote it. As for the paradigmatic level, the new “contemplating skills” find a significant theoretical support in the María Zambrano’s thought, with reference to her works El pensamiento vivo de Séneca (1944) and Filosofìa y educación. Manuscritos (2007). According to the philosopher, a deep approach to the unveiling of experience and reality that enhances one's own and others' feelings and point of view, is only achievable by placing oneself in a state of “contemplation”. This consists of “pausing the mind” (Zambrano, 2007) on reality “suspending” ordinary time (lived in an unreflective, routine, accelerated manner). Thus, the person performs his ability to humanize time (Pezzella, 2024) extending it even to moments “not occupied” (Zambrano, 2007) by daily worries or tasks. These moments, represent the spaces necessary to critically discern the problems of reality and to seek for a possible creative solution. In fact, only by adopting a “crystalline” look is it possible to reach that “discovery” (Zambrano, 2007) that allows one to transcend and transform reality. Regarding the critical-creative skills level, of primary importance are Zambrano’s works: Persona y democracia (1958), La atención (1964) and Esencia y forma de la atención (1964). Specifically, there are three main skills absent in today’s scenario: 1- White spaces skill The first skill leads the person to create an “empty” (white) space (mental, physical and temporal) (Hu & Xu, 2019) to be dedicated to reflecting on “why” and “what” the object under examination is, and not only on “how” (Arendt, 1998, p. 295) it could be used. 2- Attentiveness skill The second skill enables the person to both pay attention to reality (Gallen, 2023) passively - perceiving and accepting things as they appear - and actively - processing them through one's capacity for critical judgement (Canto, 2006). 3- Point of view skill (POV) The third skill enables the person to feel the experience, discerning it in detail and always considering it in its overall vision as well (Fernandi, Firman & Rusyati, 2017; Parente, 2021). One is thus enabled to think and communicate one’s point of view about it in a complete, understandable and respectful of others' sensibilities.

Starting from this framework, it is necessary to reflect on the creation of coherent school training practices according to the renewed “contemplating skills”. These practices focus not only on the “cognitive” dimensions of the human being, but mostly on those linked to the person feeling (reflective, spiritual and poetic). In this regard, for meaningful and effective training practices, Zambrano's essay La destrucción de las formas (1945) is an essential reference. Among the possible experiences, those of aesthetic-artistic quality allow the person to stay in a contemplative relationship with oneself, with others and with reality. In particular, artistic-painting experiences are considered the most relevant, with specific regard to the representation and/or contemplation of visual work (Canto, 2006). The representation of one’s inner face is one notable example of those visual works highlighted by Zambrano (Bombaci, 2010; Lacau St Guily, 2023; Zambrano, 1945). This experience, in fact, puts the person in contact with the subjective, personal and unrepeatable dimension of one’s feelings which, close to the mystery of the sacred and the poetic, is unfathomable only through the use of cognitive-rational approaches (Zambrano, 2007). At the same time, this experience urges the recognition of the cosmic dimension (Zambrano, 1945) in each face, becoming a place of expression of the universal feeling that unites all human beings (Hue, 2006). Aesthetic training practices on the theme of the inner face, if designed and conducted through workshop-based approaches, enable young people to practice in the “heartfelt” contemplation of experience and reality with respect to different topics (news, social, political, economic, cultural issues, etc.). Due to contemplation, these themes are treated through a careful observation of their details, a thoughtful evaluation, a deepening of each one's feeling in relation to them and a restitution to others of their meaning, reconstructed in its essence and unity.

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