Quando Sinto Que Ja Sei (2014) - full transcript

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!