"Algum dia vamos encontrar o nosso verdadeiro eu?"

Por causa do texto que cito abaixo (o livro esteve novamente nas minhas mãos este fim-de-semana) apeteceu-me acabar a aula com o pedido de que fizessem perguntas sobre si próprios (aproxima-se o tempo da despedida, sei o muito que cresceram nestes dois anos e apetece-me conhecê-los ainda melhor...).

Para além de perguntas de natureza mais biológica, sobre o funcionamento do nosso corpo, fui surpreendida com duas perguntas de uma profundidade arrepiante. A primeira de uma menina e a segunda de um rapaz.

Oh professora... esta pergunta não é bem sobre mim...também é sobre as pessoas, mas é também sobre mim... Às vezes as pessoas têm atitudes que não percebem por que é que as tiveram... O que eu queria perguntar era: algum dia nós vamos encontrar-nos a nós próprios, o nosso verdadeiro eu?

Por exemplo, se o meu Avô morresse eu ficava triste e depois para a próxima vez que acontecesse uma coisa assim, será que eu não ficaria tão afectado e conseguia defender-me melhor? Será que a dor é uma coisa positiva?

Ainda ficámos a divagar um bocadinho nos últimos minutos da aula de Matemática... mas tocou... Maldita coisa fabril que impregna a escola e que nos empurra sempre para a frente, sem tempo para nos demorarmos no importante, na magia de certos momentos.
Às vezes apetecia parar o tempo... saborear as pessoas guardadas em cada criança. Ir ao fundo, perceber bem tudo o que se constrói dentro delas num silêncio a que quase nunca se dá voz.

Fiquei no intervalo com outra menina que me perguntava se os poetas escreviam o que escreviam porque tinham lá um sentimento dentro deles... E eu recitei-lhe Pessoa (O poeta é um fingidor...) e ela sorriu e falou-me dos Avós que escrevem poesia... ela também gosta de escrever poesia (Saio a eles, dizia orgulhosa, recitando-me de seguida um poema doce que o Avô lhe dedicou).

A escola é feita com gente.
Pormenor simples esquecido por quem decide que a escola é só uma coisa feita de outras coisas. Coisas sem a mínima importância ao olhos de quem não sabe os segredos que moram dentro de cada aluno, dentro de cada professor.
Um dia esta dor vai passar.
Quem sabe a dor pode mesmo ser uma coisa positiva...
Quem sabe, um dia, a escola vai conseguir encontrar-se a ela própria, descobrir o seu verdadeiro eu...

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(...) Some teachers are able to teach in ways that involve a variety of disciplines. However, their ability to do so requires more than a set of general teaching skills. Consider the case of Barb Johnson, who has been a sixth-grade teacher for 12 years at Monroe Middle School. By conventional standards Monroe is a good school. Standardized test scores are about average, class size is small, the building facilities are well maintained, the administrator is a strong instructional leader, and there is little faculty and staff turnover. However, every year parents sending their fifth-grade students from the local elementary schools to Monroe jockey to get their children assigned to Barb Johnson’s classes. What happens in her classroom that gives it the reputation of being the best of the best?
During the first week of school Barb Johnson asks her sixth graders two questions: “What questions do you have about yourself?” and “What questions do you have about the world?” The students begin enumerating their questions, “Can they be about silly, little things?” asks one student. “If they’re your questions that you really want answered, they’re neither silly nor little,” replies the teacher. After the students list their individual questions, Barb organizes the students into small groups where they share lists and search for questions they have in common. After much discussion each group comes up with a priority list of questions, rank-ordering the questions about themselves and those about the world.
Back together in a whole group session, Barb Johnson solicits the groups’ priorities and works toward consensus for the class’s combined lists of questions. These questions become the basis for guiding the curriculum in Barb’s class. One question, “Will I live to be 100 years old?” spawned educational investigations into genetics, family and oral history, actuarial science, statistics and probability, heart disease, cancer, and hypertension. The students had the opportunity to seek out information from family members, friends, experts in various fields, on-line computer services, and books, as well as from the teacher. She describes what they had to do as becoming part of a “learning community.” According to Barb Johnson, “We decide what are the most compelling intellectual issues, devise ways to investigate those issues and start off on a learning journey. Sometimes we fall short of our goal. Sometimes we reach our goal, but most times we exceed these goals—we learn more than we initially expected” (personal communication).
At the end of an investigation, Barb Johnson works with the students to help them see how their investigations relate to conventional subject-matter areas. They create a chart on which they tally experiences in language and literacy, mathematics, science, social studies and history, music, and art. Students often are surprised at how much and how varied their learning is. Says one student, “I just thought we were having fun. I didn’t realize we were learning, too!”
Barb Johnson’s teaching is extraordinary. It requires a wide range of disciplinary knowledge because she begins with students’ questions rather than with a fixed curriculum. Because of her extensive knowledge, she can map students’ questions onto important principles of relevant disciplines. It would not work to simply arm new teachers with general strategies that mirror how she teaches and encourage them to use this approach in their classrooms. Unless they have the relevant disciplinary knowledge, the teachers and the classes would quickly become lost. At the same time, disciplinary knowledge without knowledge about how students learn (i.e., principles consistent with developmental and learning psychology) and how to lead the processes of learning (i.e., pedagogical knowledge) would not yield the kind of learning seen in Barb Johnson’s classes (Anderson and Smith, 1987).