Sapateiro faz Sapato, Professor faz Gente | Lourdes Atié | TEDxSaoPaulo

Translator: Bianca Oe Reviewer: Leonardo Silva I'm a teacher and from my trips throughout Brazil - and it's been 30 years, I practically live inside airplanes - we hear many cliches in our area. You probably heard one of them. It says that the school is from the 19th century, the teacher is from the 20th century, and the student is from the 21st century.

So, it's an unsolvable equation. Another proverb that we hear is that Brazilian education is bad because teacher training is bad. What isn't said in any moment is that the state of Brazilian education, that has such alarming rates, only exists because we live in a society that doesn't take responsibility for its educational role, demanding from the schools what it doesn't do.

So, my compromise with the teachers is to go around Brazil to tell them that they themselves are, in fact, the force that can change education, because there is no top-down solution. There are false solutions. The people that really make changes are the ones who are there every day.

And being a teacher is not by mission nor by lack of choices. Being a teacher is an intellectual job of utmost importance. All of you are capable of remembering one or more teachers that completely changed your life.

Only teachers are capable of looking at each of their students, who are their captive audience, and say, "You are going to be big. " "You are capable of learning whatever you want. " "You truly have the force to promote change.

" But for them to do it, they need, more than anything, to stop doing what isn't their responsibility: stop being a cop, stop being a nanny, stop being a doorman, stop being a psychologist, stop being everything that is put on our shoulders. And we need to be simply the teacher, which is already a lot, because there are people who make chocolates, there are people who make furniture, but it's us, teachers, that make real people. And I fight for us to stand tall and tell people, "Nice to meet you.

I'm a teacher. " And that is what makes all the difference. (Applause) When I talk to teachers, they always start their questions with "how," asking me for answers, and I always reply that every time we search for the answer outside of us, it won't be a true answer.

They have to look for this solution collaborating with other teachers, with those who are on the school grounds, not with people that think they know what they don't know about the ones who are there every day, facing all the problems of the school. So, I always - when I finish my talks, some people would come to me and say: "Teacher, thank you very much for your motivational talk! " In the beginning, I got very frustrated, because I felt like a self-help guru.

Until one day, a teacher explained. She told me: "Mr. Atié, I understood everything you said.

I just didn't know that I knew. You connected the dots. " And I loved this definition, because what is motivational is not self-help, especially because self-help harms education.

What makes the difference is to be able to connect the dots. And connecting dots comes with experience, comes with what I live. So, teachers have to stop the automation of the action.

They have to get in touch. They have to stop and look, and listen, and reflect, stop being a test-giver just to rank the school, stop reproducing what we are told to teach. We need to have the courage to throw out the subjects that we are told to teach and that connect zero to naught.

We need to slow down. We need to stop doing useless things. We have to say, "I know what I'm doing because I'm an intellectual.

" And the work is very, very hard. That's why I want to tell you that I hate World Teachers' Day. The teachers' day, for me, should be called the day of the rebellion, (Laughter) because we shouldn't accept, under any circumstances, one day of homage.

We should demand an entire year of respect, a lifetime of respect, because our role is much bigger than what society says it is. It's about time that society, that says all the time that education is important, stops demanding from schools and teachers what it is not able to do. Therefore I travel throughout Brazil.

I talked to almost 13 thousand teachers last year making their eyes shine, for me to leave with the certainty that I'm not doing self-help. I'm simply telling them they have the power, and that they have to take on this power. They have to be proud of what they are doing, because they are, without any doubts, the most important professional there is, because they make people, and that, we have to be proud of.

That's it. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you.

(Cheers) Thank you. (Applause) Thank you.