Quando sinto que já sei

On the first day of school in Ouro Preto I went to take my seven years old daughter to school. They had the opening class and the headmistress made an opening speech like this: “Welcome, children are like white pages, where we should write a beautiful book." I said "My God, let me go" If a school ́s headmistress considers a child as a white page, She doesn’t understand children at all. "When I feel that I do know" Will it be possible for us to create this school, a happy, pleasurable school? Or schools need to be the mandatory

military service at age seven? Now [in Brazil] it is at age six, isn’t it? The ruling educational system worldwide sells a product that the client doesn’t want to recieve, and doesn’t ask the client’s feedback, if he liked it. And the client is a child. How do you confirm that education is a failure, ot only in Brazil but in many places all over the world? By evasion. The admission rate is really good in Brazil, it is almost universal, but the evasion rate is almost one third of the admissions, in other words, at some point schools stop

making sense to the students. A doctor from the 20th century enters a surgery room from the 21st century, is he able to make the surgery? He cannot operate. He barely can understand what he has there, where is his pacient. If a teacher from the 20th century, from the 21st century enters in a classroom from the 21st century Will he notice the difference? No. There will be a blackboard, the chalk, the student’s desks aligned, everything as it was in the 21st century. The only thing that he didn’t counted on was the student’s mind from the 21st

century. There is where the conflict lives: Classrooms from the 21st century are no longer a room, they are practically the planet, because with new technologies, the planet is people's learning space. Historically we have been a country where many ideas were developed but few things actually were achieved. We created theories, created ideas, the academy is a place of really interesting educational ideas in Brazil, but deep inside there was little practice, little of it were build in terms of educational practice. Why the educator don’t leave the table, why do they need to be the star? Why not

the student? And run from the system, but this needs to be an educational revolution in the whole country. This is no longer a model anymore, this is Middle Age. Seat each one behind a another student’s desk and stare at his neck. And there's the final exams, that content... Periodic table for example, Damn it! What is it for at that point? What educators say inside of schools? From basic education all the way throught high school, they say: Little ones, rule; big ones, lesson. You ask one person to deal with 15, 20, 30 children, because this is

an industrial model. It is a simple equation. It is an educator, living all his share of angusty, desire, fear, will, insecurity, taking responsibility for an institution and having to develop a learning space with a group of forty children. How does he deal with it? This curriculum thing, that we only care about the cognitive part, we know that humans have many dimensions, they have the emotional question that commands a lot of our lives. f we stop to think, how much time of our lives do we spend dealing with our emotions, the consequences of our emotions. Can

you manage your anger? What do you do when you are angry? Why do you hit people? The school needs to deal with this kind of thing This thing of saying that you need to suffer to learn, this is Saint Agostinho ́s thing, a problem from the Middle Age. You can learn pleasurably. And if the school wants, it can be a happy place, pleasurable, good, pleasant. Will there be a day, that we are going to do such a nice school, but so good, so happy and so pleasurable that the students, teachers, employees will demand classes on

saturday, sunday and holidays? This is a challenge for us, all of us. This school still does not exist, not that I know of. The NGO has existed since 1995 as a project of social assistance. In 2012, the educational activities of the project won the status of formal school. There is no division by grades or age, free learning spaces and strong integration with the community When I went to other schools I felt really trapped inside a classroom. But not here, in here you can come, seat and complete a lesson on your book, even with a classmate.

And it gives you that freedom taste. You don’t feel trapped. There were a lot of lessons, the teacher shouted at us a lot and we were inside the classroom all day long, all day long. We wanted them to explain it to us but they didn’t, in here we can pick up our books and do the lesson we want to. If we have a question about that lesson we want to do, we raise our hand and the teacher comes, says “do you need any help?” and we say we need help with the text interpretation, I can’t

write this or I can’t understand that and then the teacher explains it to us, he doesn't say "use your brain!" You can study alone, or with someone if you want to. It’s different from other schools in which they make you stay in class And you can’t get out, only on recess. Here's different. Yesterday I chose to be in class because it was my job and I needed to finish it and it was very quiet, better for me to be thinking about what I was going to do. School can’t close in itself. It needs to be

open, connected with other instances. I see a trend, a trend not only in our schools, but in our society, to live in condos, clubs. People, when they go outside, they go in fear, it’s an unprotected environment with a lot of violence and we are really tempted to put these people in guarded places. Here we make researchs and essays. Then we go to a tutor and say "look what I have learned" Then we learn from the tutor as well. In these days, with the internet, I push a button and I get the best teacher in France

or in Brazil to teach me. Now, when he is truly an educator, when he stops his class to listen to a student, when he truly invents and reinvents himself that’s when he is really successful at his role of educating. Because education is not all books. it goes from brushing teeth, checking for illnesses, checking their sight. There’s all that before any class can start. It’s really hard for that teacher to work, for him to be a true educator he has to be free, independent, he has to read, go to the theater, to the movies. Where’s the

money for it? The time? I got to this school and it was exactly like other schools in the program other than the community it was a school like all others, but it was full of bars, all gray. We gradually put a stop to it. I remember the day where I took the bars away, I was scared because I hadn't passed it through the school council. During recess I would see children hanging on the bars and swinging back and forth, there was an awful factory’s alarm. I took everything away and when I took away the bars

I went to recess and a girl came up to me and said: "Teacher, I'm glad you took the grid away because we're not mad or prisoners to be locked up." The school as it is shaped on lessons, grades and standard schedules etc is a recent invention. So it proves that school has changed, an invention that comes from the 18th/19th century, together with the illuminist intentions that, in Brazil, come with the cartesian and positivism segmentations, and even further with the jesuit influence. When it is said that the school hasn't changed it's because it stopped making sense

as a social construction that survives and promotes millions of illiterates and that provokes unhappiness and a lot of waste of people. This school hasn't changed for a reason. Today It doesn't have any support from judgement not even the science. Education is much more than what happens in a classroom. Education is a human invention to transmit the human. It's a way of transmitting the human across generations. So the classroom is just a tool for this to happen and not it is always the best one. The teacher's role is much more connected to a facilitator between the

student and the knowledge than someone who holds that knowledge and will pass on to the student. - So we eat a lot of things that we don't know if it ́s good or not for us. It weakens our bodies. ­ - Like Coke ­ - Coke is horrible - It corrupts your bones. And you know, Victor, everything can become an addiction, anything can become a drug. Anything that you eat too much, use too much... Do you know that consumerism is a drug? ­- ­Yes, that was what I was about to say. It's not junkie, it's

addicted. It's an addiction that the person gets used to it and can't quit. In the other school I was tired of sitting, staring at the teacher and not being able to argument about anything. - Why will we be able to take chocolate? -­ ­Why? Because we agreed that sharing with everybody we could take it. - Because we would be collective. - Does it justifies? -­ Of course. Hunger justifies. - But Victor, then they will ask why we’ll bring chocolate if we don't eat chocolate here. And I will answer we got chocolate from school in the

past and everybody ate chocolate. so the problem is that there won't be enough for everyone on the school trip Of course it can’t be everyday or it will become a school full of obese children. There's no such thing as a teacher that comes and prepares the class. An educator is simply a teaser, someone who provokes action In order to generate better and more effective learning processes everytime. And what is to study? Everything! Everything in what that group's interest about, in their rhythm and time Small children or big ones, it doesn't matter. It is like this,

look. It is not painted. There is only one little stem on its side. Can you see? 1, 2, 3, 4. But it sound during 1, 2. 1, 2. Pause. Right? It is called semibreve. For now its name is not important, we will talk about it later on. Rocinha community was the first to receive GENTE, a partnership between the Municipal Education Secretary of Rio, Education Ministry and private sector. Usage of technology and students divided into learning groups called "families". Everything changed a lot for me. Because then we had the teacher at the board explaining the subject.

Now we have to study, search, uhm, make it happen. The teacher helps in one thing or another that you really don't get. Here, I believe, it was not only the walls that came down Because our classes are learning spaces. But it wasn't just that, it's a total change of paradigm. You have "families" composed by six students. Every 3 "families" you have a team. These families are assembled with students of different grades. So in the teams we have 9th graders, 8th graders and 7th graders. And teacher now acts as a mentor. as the term expresses someone

who`s gonna mediate the student's learning. That is why it is a total break of paradigms. I'm starting to get used to it now. In the beginning I hated the idea, I hated it. Because I thought I wasn't going to learn anything. So everything that I didn't know I started to cry, full of anger: "Hey, teacher, I'm not learning that" And he said "take it easy, you will get used to it". Like that, we spent eight, ten years of our lives learning in a certain way, just with the teacher at the blackboard And then it changed

so we have to adapt little by little I think like this, I'm not gonna say I’m enjoying 100%. No, I'm getting used to it. It's still in transition, the children learn very fast, it's impressive how easily they adapt to changes. I believe that adults and teachers have harder time to do it. However it's another method, another paradigm. another way of looking the relation teaching­-learning. We need to help this student become a new student who is interested, who wants to learn, who searches for knowledge, who wants to go further. I think that in municipal network, as

in the whole traditional education network, there is a lot of "teacher, classroom, lessons, coping, memorizing, taking tests." This is not the profile of the new student. The new student receives knowledge like a challenge and he needs to find solutions for this challenge. I thought it was cool because it won't be, like, one student here and another one there. There will be people side by side, you can talk to the person who is on your side and solve your question in group. You know? So there's going to be a group and we can discuss with it.

but when we were in line we tried talking to the person in front of us but the person was more entertained in the notebook than in you. "What's up man, hey, leave me here coping alone!” Bow we`re working with "families". But at the beginning of this very year we studied only with people our grade. And so, I got used to work with the 9th graders, right? Then it changed. Now there are mates from the 7th and 8th grade. And I`m the only 9th grader on my "family" So most of the things they don not know,

they ask me. Once I said “damn, teacher, I'm going to stop doing my work to teach them?” And the professor said "when you teach you learn two times more". Then I started getting used to it. And then I help in everything they ask. And they ask me most of their doubts If there's something I don't want to explain, I tell them where to search for the answer. We know that many people that live in slums neighborhoods a re ashamed of living there. There are many companies that don't hire if the address is from these neighborhoods.

Then if I start working with students of 12, 13 and 14 years old, the nice things from his neighborhood, that there are things to be appreciated, He starts to grow and become a citizen adult. I would like to build something like this ... for example "I know how to make fuxico, I am a mother of a student and I know how to make fuxico" Then we will open workshops of fuxico. For what? For that mother that is unemployed or that one who can't go out because her son is little, sicky, so that she can also

make some money. And by another point of view that student who thinks that his mother doing fuxico is nothing, that he starts to see his mother differently. So the student who thinks that everything that he has is nothing, may appreciate it, may value himself as a human being. And the teacher Antonio Carlos Gomes da Costa insisted that anytime we should have what he called a "bossa nova pedagogy". That means that we brazilians need to bring the strongest things we have to the education process That is creativity, that is swing, the strong relation with the culture,

diversity of having to be creative to solve problems. Go in one of these favelas to see how creative they have to be to solve their problems. But we don't bring this to the formal process of education. So I think that my obsession is basically how we can recreate an educational process allied to what we brazilians have as our culture strength. What is pedagogy with a Brazilian soul? This public school has more than one thousand students. It is located at Heliópolis, the biggest poor community of São Paulo city, where more than 100.000 people live. - "Students

Republic" - Multi-grade rooms - Organization of "peace marches" - My name is Isabela, I am advisor of culture and sports. - My name is Mayara da Silva Pinheiro, I'm the 8th graders spokesgirl, councilwoman and the secretary of Culture and Sports - My task is to improve activities at the saloon, as part of the committee and as secretary as well. - My name is Raíssa Antunes Passos, I am mayor of the school and I’m thirteen years old. - My name is Vitória Leme da Silva, I am thirteen years old and... what am I? - Nothing. You

are from the committee. Three years ago we started thinking what could be done to approach the student to the student and the students to the teachers. So, we had the idea to create something that we call a student republic, where a group of students and teachers was made and they made a regiment about how would be the elective process. The republic was made as the committees. The committees came first, they are the basis of everything that is made on the saloons. Each saloon has it's own committees that is voted by their own students And then

there was the campaign. The candidates had to do posters, videos, to show what was their expectations for the post that they were proposing. - Then the person had to go through all the saloons as well. - Then we had the pools there were photos of each person with their names on the computer, and the people were clicking and seeing who they wanted to. Braz has his own team and we respect his team. I have mine - the one of Sports - that has twenty two people. And I told them “I'm not here to boss you

around, I'm here so we can work together, but if you don't want to work you can leave that I won't miss you.” As people try to find a solution together, they also create conflicts and contradictions. Because when we talk about the construction of democracy, conflicts and contradictions are welcome. The choices that we make are not only for us, they are for the whole school. As the politicians out there, I mean, you know, quite like them Because sometimes they think only about themselves. But here, we think more about the others than in ourselves. We think about

the neighbors. Yes, people ask me what is the strength of the project? The team work! What is the weakness of the project? The team work! It is the strength because people who don`t develop this ability nowadays cannot be happy. On the other side we live in a capitalist society that primes for the individuality and people have a hard time to join a team. And, pedagogically talking, it is clear in this project that school is not the only place for learning. Up to now, all that we made wasn’t thought just for ourselves, We thought about the

others, who will enter and who are coming and, we, who are going, Because, that way I will be very happy when I come back here ­ cause I will come I ́ll say: “Look at the work we’ve done, it still there!” Right? That's still very incipient, we think and imagine that in a year and a half or two, this school will have given a great leap and on the issue of student­-student relationship , students­-teachers, who will have greater power to elaborate the rules will be the students. It is not always that Braz can be here

at school and it’s not only him who can solve the problems. With this mayor we are noticing that we have the ability to solve between us, among the students. We don't need a teacher, school director, coordinator to solve some of the problems. Some of them we can solve ourselves. - I was walking, and she said: "Laysa, nobody listens to me, can you do it?" These girls, one said that I strangled and then the boys also were picking on me. Then the teacher took me aside, passed the hand on my hair, said that I was wrong

and I got mad. I went away and I looked for Laysa because I thought she was the best one, because she is from the committee and she will hear me and say right thing. So I talked to her, she gave me a flower, I started to calm down, we walked and talked. - For her to remember and calm down I said some nice things. Campos Salles isn't going to help to have a new being, If we don’t make a new being born in the society. Nothing changes, the school all by itself doesn't change. Something that

this school has been doing over time is to fight the violence, this school hasn’t reproduced the violence from society. Because the education is not meant to <i>prepare</i> for citizenship, but to be <i>made in</i> the citizenship with the practice of responsible freedom. To know what we are, where we are, where we are leading with the other, that is the great question. Substitute <i>for</i>, because in Litman’s heritage of children philosophy, there is too many <i>for</i> Everything is ready for the kid ́s philosophy class. We don't want classes. We want that everyone manifest themselves in their incompleteness all

the time, because that is what all is about. And, within this incompleteness, whenever we come across problems, conflicts, mediated by an educator, we learn with each other how to be and to live. The project exists since 1984, at Curvelo and Araçuaí cities, state of Minas Gerais. - Integration with the community - "Under the Mango Tree" Pedagogy - Creation of learning communities When you look to the empty side and you invest on the empty side, you don`t have a change of mind. Because the solution for the empty side is to fill it up. And then, it

doesn't change, because it empties again, it goes away. You continue doing more of the same thing. And why don't we look over here? Because it involves another tool, another look. It's not to learn how to measure neediness but to measure strength. Not the HDI, but the HDPI, which is the Human Development Potential Index of certain community. And how do you measure Human Development Potential Index? We have to learn how to do that. Thus, in CPCD, we made us our own HDPI. What is it? It's the capacity that people have to shelter, To produce nests, to

shelter each other, accept each other’s ideas, to cuddle. So we don’t have to lose anything. Oh hell! It's raining! It's raining! CPCD’s way of working, it’s methodology, is way different than what we see in somewhere else. All the time, the activities we do with the kids, we do them thinking about enriching the kid as a person And cooperating the best way so this kid can fit the world. We highlight what this kid’s best. We grouped 120 kids in a loitered space behind the church by that time. 7 to 14 year-old kids, I told them: “Here's

the deal: we will do everything playing. We are going to study, read, plant, wash, all playing, are you in?” Of course, the kids’ role is to play, right? To invite a kid to play is the same as inviting a bird if to fly. It's obvious. Then a smartass came and said: “Tião, then where are the toys for us to play?” I said: “There is none.” “So how do we play without a toy?”, he said. I said: “This is the first question that I ask you. Let's make a bet: the day that we cannot invent our

own toys anymore I will buy one, ok? Closed deal. I’ve remade this bet for 27 years. Are you mistaking the plants. What is that for at your ear? At the ear you put herb­-of­-grace. I got confused among the plants. If you want herb­-of­-grace go to the flower bed and take a branch. This one is a clover, right? Look the size! Look! If there were four leafs, right, Leandro? It would give us luck. I already got one, Rosa! - Here in the flower bed? - No, close to home. Deniston was eleven years old and he was

flunking 1st grade for the fourth time. He enrolled first grade every year. So Deniston was a flunker, obdurate, resistant, patient. Every year he would be in the same grade But he wouldn't learn the four operations. At the Project he knew how to play checkers. So I looked to Deniston and said “Deniston, you are a guy that knows logic! You have spatial vision, you know mathematics, why don'tcan’t you solve this? Then, one day, I discovered that math and arithmetic are different things. He is good at math and not arithmetic. Machines are good in arithmetic. We took

a checkers’ table and in the white and blacks houses we filed with numbers randomly and created a rule: We can only capture a piece if we make the operation, the one who doesn’t loses its piece. I don't know what happened on Deniston's head but he went: “3 times 3, 9, plus 6, 15. Checker!” Then I said: “Oops! He learned to make operations.” But you have to play the right result, Igor! This one is out. And there is no “playing time”, learning can be a continuous playing. There is no such thing as a time to play,

during recess. You can make everything joyful and playful. You can change this attitude, break these rules. Of course the children here never failed again at school, Smart kids do their homework in ten minutes, after that they're wasting time of their lives. After all, school work never changes, you do the first one and the rest is the same That sheet of rubbish that repeats over and over the same thing. Get over with it and go to play. What to play? Play learning, play learning. Our role as educators is to make the learning meaningful. Sometimes, I have

a kid here who just doesn't make it. Everybody has limitations. Sometimes this kid can ́t go exactly to where another kid is, but the path this kid ́s been through is already good and worths a lot. So this is our role here in this institution as educators: to value them as much as we can, to see that bright being and to make it flourish even more. It is to shelter, to accept always. And to make this exchange successfully. We can't make this exchange without accepting, when we shelter someone we captivate them and we are captivated.

Did you remember it, Matheus? So look, when it stops at blue we have to praise our friend, and whenever it stops at yellow we have to sing a piece of a song from the project. When the relationship is between one person who believes holds the knowledge and one person who believes doesn't know this isn't an educational relationship, it is instructing, stuffing the other one, An unbalanced relationship. One who thinks and another who doesn't. One who thinks he can and another who can't. One who rules and another one who obeys. This is not an educational relationship.

And it doesn't matter if it happens inside a school, it happens in life as wel. it can be a husband towards his wife, a father towards his daughter. The more balanced these relationships become, the better. here's a fundamental exercise here, the comprehension of understanding the other, to capture the other and to learn how to take the things from the other that make us better. - Learning Spaces - Walking classes - Community participation in the school The drawing of Araribá’s project was made upon our kids needs They were used to be outdoors, to the street, to

play in the street. Then what we did, we remodeled the school spaces. I said: “We will create learning spaces” Initially there was a resistance to change. People said "this is a project that comes from Escola da Ponte which is a portuguese school that has nothing to do with the Brazilian reality." But what if we adapt and if we feel and experiment to see what comes out of it. I believe that the experimentation of this project was essential. This autonomy is guaranteed by the 15th article of the Basis and Guidelines for Education Law The school needs

to have autonomy in pedagogy, management and finance, according to the federal constitution And if the school has this autonomy ensured I don’t have to follow the established model Then we divided the school in two themes: Literacy project and research project. There are six spaces where only literacy work is done. It is in the school without walls that I truly believe. Because I don’t understand why we have to stay locked in a small room. School is not a punishment; the school has to be pleasant By the end of the day, we are not only learning content

the Education Ministry stated. But we are learning how to have a sociable life, greeting people. Being humans I think that is what is missing in the world, to be human. When you start to challenge these limits and seek for the project’s maturity, we end up dealing a lot with your own issues This is one of the most difficult things, free yourself, throw away ideas and concepts you thought were very much significant for a long time, and now they're not important anymore. A school without walls, without classrooms, without classes, this is our goal When I said

to the teachers “The alarm will sound and the thing is going to happen, how do you feel about it?” I’ve noticed the teachers were anxious. And something happened. the kids came in, they went to the spaces and acted naturally. So we’ve understood the wall was inside of us. The kids understood it by heart. We were going to act, act with the community and with the Mayor, with the city councilmen, with neighborhood leaders, to solve the issue of transportation. We are making a project now. We’ve got to do everything we can to make it happen, because

here the bus only passes every two hours and in the rest of the city they pass every half an hour. We are very behind here. We are going to do everything to get more buses. Now even the school’s principal is saying that here we have one bus line, in other places there are two. Why only the teacher has to build it? The parents, the community leaders, they can share that knowledge as well. Every June we gather people around to make the party happen. The first straw house was made by the school community. The children too.

It is a tradition that we cannot simply let die, we have to keep making that straw house that was made a long time ago. We came here to teach straw handicraft. There was another man that worked here as well Mr. João that helped the kids with the handicrafts and paintings. We always tried to help in the APM (Parents and teachers association) and I was not part of it. until the day the principal invited me to join and I said: “yes, I can join”. And then the parents felt part of the school. When they felt they

could participate actively. So everything we need in the school we ask to the parents first. nd they collaborate a lot, and afterwards we provide what is still missing. There are the teachers that can’t teach in both school periods, so we are looking for a way to implant this system here. The kids would enter in the morning and only leave in the end of the afternoon. Pacheco came with that project, and told that what we made here, they took like ten years to make in Portugal, we took two or three years. But we only made it

because the principal gave all the support and got the documents. Without it we would have failed. When we made it, some said “you want to turn it into a private school”. We are not making this, we want a school with what the community needs, with what is useful for our children, so they can come here and actually learn something. You need to bring the drawings to me for us to start making this. I’d like you begin to look inside of your houses with the colleagues what toy you can make. Wireless phone Great! Wireless phone. Who

else? If you let the kids locked in the school all day long they will be exhausted. They want new things. We always have other schools coming here and we always walk outside the school. I was here having breakfast and one of the kids came and told me there was a frog and I went to see it - Where is it? Where is it? - Put your hand in there Before it, I was already here in the patio. Then I saw they turning the bench upside down. I didn’t know what was that so I went to

check Then I saw it was a frog. All the kids were running afraid of it. - Turn it, turn it, turn it - What frog is this? - Ah, it is a small frog I went there and got the frog All the kids were running from the frog, afraid of it. I wanted to get him because I love animals. I'm not afraid of this cutie. - If it sticks in your hand it will never come out anymore It will stick in your hand forever I want to show my sister, let me show it to my

sister. I just went walking with the frog and all the kids were grabbing me I walked slowly so it wouldn’t jump. It is gelid. Don’t know why everybody is afraid of it, just like my mother. I advocate to have recreation time all the time, that means education being a conscious. smart act, And to happen all the time. This should be all the time because learning happens in anytime. And rarely during class. It seems to me that learning happens more during recreation time than during class. This is my assumption. Scientific education project from International Institute of

Neuroscience of Natal Edmond & Lily Safra (IINN-ELS), idealized by Miguel Nicolelis. - Scientific education focused on citizenship - Continued training of educators - Monthly meetings with teachers from public schools in the region We really started with a project of complementary schedule for public school, but our idea was never to complement the public school or to remedy the deficit of public school. Our idea was to offer our children another model of education completely different. A model where they have voice, where they are the protagonists of education, where they have the right to express the things they

like or those they don’t like, and where they learn by doing it. They don't learn having to accept as valid the truth that someone tells them. Traditional education is an extremely passive education To tell you the truth, there was only good thing in our arrival here. we were really welcome. I don't remember of having any problem of acceptance. Instead, people wanted our acting. When it started, Natal had a list of about one thousand students. And, at that time, we had five hundred spaces, now we have six hundreds, So we had to raffle. Here in Macaiba

we also had to raffle. And here we have the autonomy to enroll, because the kids arrive here and this is a rural region and you see it, the children come here they walk 10 ­ 15 Km to enroll. What I can tell you is that our project promotes changes when each student that's here takes home a little from what they learned. If the kid learns to share the material that he receives, learns to listen mindfully the other, to look the other in a different way, learns to share, to create groups, to speak, to have voice

and action. The moment that this students take with themselves to their communities and to their homes this learn, I believe that change happens. And the kids....the questions, the problems they live in their reality... hey bring the problems they live in their families and, our role, our duty while teachers, is to guide them to find conjoint solutions to those problems. And also all the teachers that we hire come from the same reality, they live in the same context, they know the context, the cultural expressions, Therefore it doesn't make sense if you don’t work with teachers and

students simultaneously. Macaiba is a commuter town in Rio Grande do Norte and its neighbourhood is full of factories. Their parents come to work in those jobs, there is the quarry, the camp... so the students that are here with us they also bring those “teachings”. Today I know things about the community of Macaiba that I would never know if I weren’t here with them. Thus learning is collective. First of all there is the right of a voice, here we have assemblies where we can discuss school problems. Not only the problems, to discuss the school's rules, whatever

we have here. So, first, students have voice here. Second the interaction with the teachers. We have recess with them, they talk with us as they were students too. And something else, there are students from 9th, 6th, 7th grades in the same class. Different ages, everybody together. This is good, the socialization of ages, different ideas. My formation as teacher began right here. Of course I think that theory is very important, But theory when you are in a classroom in contact with students works totally different. They shaped me, they made me a teacher. I am a teacher

thanks to them. For example, a teacher come to talk about politics. We saw in the news an issue about that theme. We bring it to class,. This boost other students to talk and debate. I think that is good and I don’t think teacher would lose power. Instead, it would help his class. Because if he gives the power of voice to a student, others will be convened, spinning this continuous wheel: students will start to be interested in that class because they are able to see the power of speech they have there. Students will be able to

to give their point of view, and this is good. It's a rupture. I am not a teacher anymore, I am the teacher, wooh, you know? It is something closer. It is together. It's not someone bossing and someone obeying. No, it's what we built in group, what we build together. You go to a school and tell what we do. In general, the first reaction of the teachers and directors is: "But it's not possible here because at three PM it's snack time." Or "there is recess at 1 PM. So, we can’t have teacher training." Everybody is in

the comfort zone, everybody is more than accommodated in what they have. And then there are the children that don’t know how to read, don’t know how to interpret a text. And nobody stop to think about it. And nobody ask the children why they hate school. Ask them, what if they don't need to go to school anymore? 99% of them would say "ok"". Sometimes a teacher is tired, stagnant in that situation and thinking that nothing can be changed. I think that many teachers also need to go through this process of breaking off, of transformation, so they

can that is possible to do it differently, that if they want they can do it. There are many things that we do here that is not about financing, that is not about space. It is about is the bond you establish with the student, the relation of affection about the care towards the student, about your commitment with education, your commitment with the class, your commitment with the student. You've gone half the way when you affect the student. Thus it ́s not about speech. It is possible to change legislation, state and municipal ones. Whoever manages a school

needs to believe that the possibility of expanding schedule, reducing the daily amount of subjects and makint them longer, is a gain. I think social transformation only happens in the places we live in. “You don’t change the society from two meters high” as Bispo do Rosario used to say. You change here and now. We are together transforming something right now here. So we change the groups we belong. And education is about belonging to groups, especially because nobody learns alone. Escola Livre Inkiri is the project of early education of Piracanga community, at Bahia's coast. Education for autonomy,

intense nature contact and integration with the community. I am one of the founders, director, teacher and cleaner of the school. Our school is a free school. A non­-directive school. Here we do not guide the expression of the being. We believe that everybody has inside of them an evolution and their way to evolute. Each one has its own way. What we do is to create a protected space so the child can express who she/he is. It has been 30 years that I was born so I know what the fire burns, I know that you can drown

in the water, I know what I can and what I cannot do. So in the free school is not... I do whatever I want. No! There are plenty of rules here and discipline and order. Each object II get,I put it back. Here we don’t curse others. Here we don’t hit. Here we don't disrespect anyone. "I have pink, you don’t..." No! Here we don’t do it. They are limits that actually don’t limit. For example we don’t run inside the classroom, but we run outside. You always can do what you want But with respect and at the

right place, in the right way in communion. We don’t jump out of the windows, but we jump the small house in the park or in the trampoline. We don’t eat inside the classroom but we eat in the kitchen. Everything has its own place. We don’t scream in the kitchen but you can scream whatever you want outside. So... at the same time the child gain their expression strength, she/he learns how to live in harmony and respect with everybody. Here you find children from one up to thirteen years old, all together in perfect harmony, with respect. Freedom

doesn't exist without self governance. It's really easy to say that a child has freedom but there are some imposed rules and punishments, right? So you can choose what you do the whole day but if you break a window, I will tell you what happen and this is the punishment, Other schools appeared as time has passed I think, that the schools called democratic today, each one has its... own peculiar way. Summerhill works that way, as a boarding school. but others school work their own way There are schools where parents join the assemblies. More than a democratic

school, more than a free school, it is a community that have a huge number of children and some adults together. So they get along there, so they have, they are asked for or they are invited to learn the maturity to get along. A judgement or a look from an adult It can erase the expression of 40 children in a second. A simple look full of judgment or with an expectation underneath it erases the expression of a child. Because the children’s energy, their expression, is really strong. A two­ year­-old’s expression is really strong. they don’t care

about anything, they are expressing themselves. But when they start to grow up, children’s energy to express themselves lowers down. They've been judged by the adults so much that they don't have the strength anymore. - The wolf can’t kill me, neither the bad bear. - But Henry he is gigantic, his legs are so long - And I can use a fire gun and "Pishhh", yeah. - But Henry, he is gigantic, he jumps really high and there is a giant hole. Our children know how to think. They know how to think for themselves They don't need the

way that someone taught them, they have their own way. So, to do a calculation, imagine a sum or a division. Each person has its own way of doing it. And it is personal. Understand a child as the capable human being tha he/she is. And then treat her as a regular person. The difference is that the children have autonomy for some things and for some they don’t. If they do something wrong, what is the worst thing that can happen? Fall on the floor and cry? Well, let them try. Or they’ll put some sand in the mouth?

Let them try. Oh, they are going to fall from the third floor? So don’t let them try. So, it’s about having this sense and give the children the chance to dare within the safety zone and outside their comfort zone, so they deal with things by themselves. This was the work Cecilia did today. When I looked at it, I saw the proof that each person has got its own way of expressing a self. Nobody can do this in the same way. She created this, this is an expression of Cecilia. This is Cecilia. It’s an unique expression,

the shape, it’s unique, it’s from Cecilia. This is inside each one of us. Each person has their own way, thus there is no unique way of adding or studying something. It doesn’t exist. Each person has a way. And how do you discover this way? You don’t, because it is inside each one of us. I told him to drop it and then I hit him and then he spit on me. hen I said “Ok...” Then I ran after him to spit on him, then he ran away. “Ok, later you will see ...I’ll spit on you” then

I ran after him and he grabbed a stick to hit me. - So you spit. And, was the problem solved? Was it solved? As you said, to apologize the child should be aware of, understand what he did what is the consequence, so later, the child can rescue that. Sometimes, the apology itself is not enough. I’ll need to fix or review something and which procedures I use. If I only apologize and that’s enough I‘ve forgotten everything I could’ve learned from the situation. I’ve ignored it already. So, be careful, because, very often, apologies make us forget an

important step that is reviewing, rescuing, rebuilding, understanding the consequence. - Then he said, him and Ricardo. - He is here, talk to him. - You said “So spit, spit” - I did not! - Then I said... - No, it is a lie. He didn't say it. - Wait, just a minute, Do you want to join the discussion? So seat here and we will agree the time of talking And we will talk with the other, not about the other. Alright? Time is a problem. Because, sometimes in schools, teachers have a lot of workt to do, content

to offer, that they have no time enough. So when something happens and children say: “Teacher he did this”, “He hit me”, “He cursed me” Teacher says “You can’t do this”, “This is ugly.”, “Apologize”, “X solve this”, “Don’t do this, don’t do that”. From far away, she can fastly intervene like this. But the chances are huge for this situation to happen again. It’s different from assuming a role an adult must be in to solve this situation: a real mediator. So, the teacher goes, listen to the child who brought the complaint. Meanwhile the other child, who’s being

accused, is also going to make a listening exercise and will listen to how the other faced his attitude. After the first speech the other one will talk. After both of them have spoken and their consciousness level raised a bit, Because maybe they saw the situation from a totally different point of view. The teacher can propose, “Now, how can we solve this?” - But when we didn’t like something, what are we supposed to do, Ricardo? - I don’t know... say that I don’t like this... - Can you see? If, at any moment, you’ve said something like

that: "Guilherme I didn’t like that you held my neck." - What would you do Guilherme, if he had talked to you instead of hurting you? - I would say: “stop bothering” - He would ask you to stop disturbing the situation, and you? - I would go away. - Can you see what the problem is? - They don’t know how to chat. - Everything started with the lack of respect. The respect. When you call him fat he gets offended, you disrespected him. Then he didn’t talk to you, he grabbed your neck. - But everybody calls him

fatso. - Is that a reason to do the same? So, Ricardo, now it is time for you to start explaining to everybody who calls you fatso that you don’t like it. - No, call me fatso is ok. But "you are bothering me. YOU FAT!", that no! “What do you think that a mate must do to make you feel better?” “You, that was considered the aggressor, what do you think that could have been done differently so that this wouldn't happen?” Then listen to the kids. After the observing what they've been through, children need to express themselves

about what happened, what is the idea and the suggestions that they have for that situation. Without the teacher writing a decree of how it should be solved. - There will always be someone to talk to - But at some point it won’t work, right? Someone will have to start the aggression. - Do you think that somebody will always need to go for aggression? - I don’t know, if the guy doesn’t listen, we are asking him please to stop and he doesn't! - And have you tried asking for help? And if at the moment you asked

and it didn’t work, if you leave, isn’t it better than creating a situation? If nobody helps you to dialogue, will anybody help you to hit? Or to protect you? It will be harder, won’t it? Are you calm? Of course it will take much more time than saying “be quiet and apologize” from far away. But it’s more effective in terms of education. Next time, those children will try to solve by themselves they will use this model that was offered by the teacher They will solve the conflict “So, did the other understand what I meant to say?

why did he get offended?" But that was not the intention, so let’s rethink and say it in another way” Only when people stop to talk and listen to each other we’ll be able to create. People only learn when while face something, and this something can be a need, a problem, a desire, a dream, whatever. Someone asks a question, someone else gets closer And both of them in relation to the source of knowledge that can be a person, a book, a lan house, a library, the internet, the cyberspace together they make an arrangement, a project. And

when it happens, learning changes from being centered on the traditional “learner” - the student, and on the traditional teacher, to be centred one the relationship. Education is focused on the relationship. And it is from the relationship’s quality and the tools that support it that information is transformed into knowledge That knowledge is produced. It’s in the relationship. I’ll understand him and seek consensus. Therefore, here there’s no space for representative democracy, there is space for direct democracy. Me and you, you and I in the middle, in the relationship lives the answer. To make a school project I'm

pretty sure you will need time, patience and courage. Because it is tough, really tough. In the beginning everyone asks: “Oh, but everyone likes the project.” Obviously not. There are lots of parents that oppose to the project, So it's also a work that starts with the community. Are there children that leave the school because of the project? There are. But there are also children that get in the school because of the project. If you are taking your child to a school that is no good for you and no good for your children, then change it. Don’t

wait someone to change it because no one will change for you. We are the ones that must change. And those innocent children here, with their big bright eyes, they trust 100% on us. They trust that we create a true space for them. So, if we are taking them to a school that provides an education we don’t believe in, that we know isn’t cool, and we don’t change it, we keep waiting for someone else to do it for us, it will never change. I believe so much in this model that it’s what I really want for

Miguel. You know, today... if I work so hard to get to this point it is because I do believe that the institution school has an enriching exchange. My dream is to find a place where my son can be happy and learn with pleasure. And now, that I’m nine months pregnant, just about to have a baby, if I’m working at this school, it’s because I believe that is the right way. The question asked by many people is “Well, that is the way they study here, then they will leave and how will it be in the other

school?”. We are not concerned about it. We are concerned about whether we are reaching or not the project’s principles experience. I If we are progressing regarding autonomy, responsibility, solidarity. Those students that we notice that are developing autonomy, responsibility and solidarity, they will do well anywhere! Progressist, conservative, I mean, it’s never been a problem for us. In one hand I think that a militancy is needed, on the other hand society needs to understand that education is something that needs to be discussed, that needs to be thought about; that needs to be considered. And we need to

get away from reductionism thinking that education is focused on vestibular or on labour market. To educate is much more than that, it goes beyond that. Education is a choice. I have to choose to be. I have to choose a path and the path is made within a collective. To do something alone doesn’t exist. So we need to think about the collective. I think there are many things to change. So I am where I've dreamed about in an education that is possible and changing here and now. It’s the boy that’s by my side it’s the boy

that’s in the corridor, the boy that’s on the shift with us. this boy, together with another one, and another one and one more, they’ll make the difference. Parents know how to criticize the teachers. Teachers know how to criticize the government. Students know how to criticize the school. But nobody helps each other. First, there must be a partnership between all these actors. Without that there would only be individuals fights. Only teacher’s fight for wage questions, students for a better education; part of the government want to improve education, others can’t due to lack of support. So, first,

there must be an agreement between the parts, they need to help each other. I think this is the starting point. For me, education will always mean something that can only happens in the plural. because for it to happen you need to have at least two people, me and the other. That’s why it’s plural. For the teachers: daring. Those who don’t dare, who don’t create opportunities, who don’t seek, don’t budge. They should give the students a voice and time. Give the possibility to learn together, because the teacher learns with the student and the student learns with

the teacher. It is not “FOR”, it is “WITH”, Teacher with student, It is not student for the teacher and teacher for the student. This needs to be disseminated. Learn in order to live. Learn in order to create. Learn in order to balance. Learn in order to dare!