Brazilian Education for Dummies
The clamor for public policies to the generation of students in schools needs to remember the methodologies that worked. Saying that in the past there was a large contingent of children out of school does not show the quality of the classes of the portion that was in the school.
The NGO @TodosEducacao is disclosing this data as if it were a consequence of the pandemic. My doubt about this (and distrust) is that the data is not very different from what was already happening, but to say so would imply criticizing the educational model of literacy, which is not the exclusive fault of this current (and terrible) government.
When we talk about “education” in Brazil, we limit ourselves to thinking about schools, but between us, we all are, or should think that we are, educators. A doctor educates his patient, a firefighter educates the community, and so on. If education is reinforced in schools, why shouldn’t volunteer work for the common good count towards student graduation? To reject this possibility is to assume that school and community must be separate instances.
A recurring criticism of Brazil is its centralization of power. One proposal to change this situation, from the base of society to higher levels, is to vote for our local representatives, such as school principals, sheriffs, etc. The zeal for the community must start from the political responsibility of the citizen.
Brazilian society looks chaotic for many foreigners. This is observed empirically, it is observed in the physical aspect of daily coexistence as in vehicle traffic. How about if we could change this reality from the schools? If we assume that vehicle traffic is a good indicator of a society’s educational level and quality, we would have to do something about it. It is no secret that the rate of accidents and deaths on Brazilian roads is very high. It’s not just about cars and motorcycles, it’s about individual space. Knowing how to drive and move among your colleagues is an essential condition for knowing your limits and how rude and capable of generating imbalances invading other people’s territory is. If we understand the school as a space for education and not just for teaching school subjects, this should be one of the main objectives.
Months ago, in the midst of a pandemic, we had movements of parents, minority is true, but they wanted to return to school before the vaccination program. Now that we have returned, where is the concern with educational quality? Such movements disappeared, which attests that they just wanted to get rid of their children at home. Their speeches “in favor of education” did not go beyond excuses and empty justifications for keeping children away and handed over to the teachers.
Years ago, debating with a student about security issues where I worked, I suggested that there be police officers within the institution, two at the very least. The rejection was immediate, “this looks like a dictatorship”. The mistake of this conception is to believe that the police do not have to interact, in a civilized way, with the population for which they owe protection. The mistake is to think that children and adolescents should not learn to respect laws from an early age in the school environment. The mistake is also to jettison police work from something essential, the school space. Now, if we really want to change the face of our schools, why not integrate these public services?
In Brazil, we tend to attribute responsibilities to the State, this imaginary entity that seems to hover over our heads at the same time that we see it as an opponent, enemy, despoiler. The interesting thing is that it is someone from the left, who claims for the duties of the public machine, “this is an obligation of the state”, or someone from the right, “the state only exists to screw you”, both political-ideological positions do not understand it as a series of public agencies and institutions that reflect our disposition and action on them.
So, if there is any country where the same conditions of education are guaranteed regardless of the region, city, neighborhood being richer or poorer, if there is public transport that guarantees your travel to school, if there is a permanent traffic guard in front of your school, if the fines and penalties are severe for anyone who breaks traffic laws, especially in front of schools, if there is internal security and constant police presence, if there is a sense of duty taught as important as mathematics and portuguese, chemistry and geography, this is not just because “the state imposes these obligations on us”, but because our valuation of what is really important is reflected in a code of law and, more importantly, in our acceptance of that code.
Do you really want to change this reality? So don’t walk away from it, interact and change it.
