Open book: Child welfare in all its forms

Everything you wanted to know about Child Social Assistance (CSA) is not necessarily here. But it is still possible to find answers there

Through its history, the ASE condenses in its name the concerns of our society. What she doesn’t want to know about herself, what she represses in her collective unconscious, but she also arouses incredible expectations, as if she alone were capable of alleviating all suffering. We project our most archaic fears there, as well as our wildest hopes: from the image of the abandoned, mistreated child, to that of unjustly accused parents, from the unspeakable violence done to innocence to the unacknowledged fantasy of a society under control that can protect itself from all the brutalities that inhabit it. So, preconceived ideas and false representations rush to the door, fueling confusion and misunderstandings that help no one.

It is more necessary than ever for professionals to make themselves heard, to speak about their profession with the nuances that its complexity requires.. Social workers must speak out, break the silence and say what they do and why they do it. It is no longer enough to let others evaluate and comment on it; professionals must bear witness to what they experience, transmit what they understand, and what motivates them.

Now retired, Jacques Tremintin has accepted this challenge and he knows what he is talking about, this institution, he has devoted nearly 30 years of his professional career to it.. He knows its mysteries, its smallest nooks and crannies. He knows the people and the organizations, he supported its ambitions, and came up against its contradictions. He has been around so many children that these children have become part of him. He says it himself, he was sometimes wrong, he often tried, but he never cheated. He is the representative of a committed practice to which he testifies in his first work, “Fragment of life of an ASE referent”.

Today he takes a further step by inviting us to revisit ASE based on what everyone thinks they know, encouraging us to go beyond social representations.. A substantial work which will not fail to provoke questions and reactions. To write is to dare to take a position that allows the reader to position himself. And in these troubled times, we need more than ever to think and position ourselves. Every book exposes its author, Jacques Tremintin knows this, to write is to take the risk of being misunderstood, but reality always deserves that we try to say something about it, otherwise deprived of meaning, it dries up.

Will the ASE be able to reinvent itself to get out of the slump into which it has been sinking for years? I sincerely believe it, I hope for it. It will be long and difficult, but I can’t imagine any other way, a society worthy of the name needs an institution dedicated to children, testifying that youth remain the future of a country. And then, let’s say it, I don’t know of any dead end from which you can’t see the sky when you look up. So let’s raise them, let’s know how to look further despite the difficulties that accumulate, let’s know how to see beyond the walls of the present to imagine a possible re-enchantment. Thank you to Jacques Trémintin for giving us a new opportunity to think about it together.

This article is part of the “Open Book” section

column by Jacques Trémintin entrusted today to Xavier Bouchereau

Read also:

Jacques Trémintin: fragments of the life of an ASE referent at the heart of child protection. The reader discovers a book that is easy to read. It is composed of multiple vignettes which are so many fragments. They tell us about moments, sometimes fleeting, which immerse us in the heart of the daily life of an educator.

Illustration : Lenanichizhenova sur DepositPhotos