Happy Teacher's Day? My reasons to still be hopeful

In Brazil, we celebrate Teacher's Day on October 15th. Unlike most of the planet, which has chosen October 5th for this well-deserved commemoration, there's a reason why this corner of the world decided to wait a little over a week to show teachers how much they matter. Our emperor D. Pedro I established, via decree, on this date in 1827 that "every city, town, and village had their 'first letters' schools". It was the creation of elementary school in Brazil. Today, nearly 200 years after, Brazil still struggles to improve the quality of its educational system and, to make matters worse, seems to be going back in time.

I have written about this so many times that, to be honest, it might have numbed my senses. When I first wrote that we were the world champions in violence against teachers, I was profoundly shocked and sad. Now it doesn't feel so shocking any longer. When I shared the statistics produced by PISA that place Brazil at the very bottom of a list of almost 80 countries in math, reading, and science skills, I nearly cried. Now it sort of makes sense. When I looked at the reality of Continuing Professional Development in my country, I asked myself what was the point of my career ambitions. Now I've made my peace with it. I have realized through a series of events and a lot of reflection that it would actually be shocking to expect anything different from a country that systematically attacks education, undermines teachers' ambitions, and places such a stigma on this profession that will make virtually no kid or teen growing up say "I want to become a teacher".

What a disappointment!

Many parents would say if their children came to them and announced they have decided to pursue the teaching career. Some would go further and say that that's for lazy people, for those who don't like to work. This is the result of centuries of indoctrination by a system that prioritizes doctors, lawyers, and engineers as the pinnacle of human achievement. As if these professionals, and every other, didn't have to learn from a teacher, to begin with.

You know what's the funniest - most tragic, in fact - thing about all of this? It's that there's a widespread notion that the indoctrinators are, yes, you've guessed it, us! The teachers. Apparently, there's an incredibly elaborate conspiracy to turn our students into communist activists who will start a revolution. Perhaps, if education had done its job well, the population would realize that many of the ideals of social democracy and socialism are appealing to those who work long hours with terrible benefits, if any, and the worst salaries of any category that ranks, or at least should rank, among the pillars of a healthy society.

Can you see why the educational chaos that we're living in makes sense? On top of that, we have now a government that is clearly against critical thinking and good quality education from the perspective of successful international parameters. Just look at the statements uttered by our president or the measures taken by our minister of education. Yeah, apparently, there's no reason to be happy on this teacher's day. But you know what? I am - sort of. Mainly because I got to spend time with teachers from so many different parts of the world in the last weeks. I met teachers from Spain, Montenegro, Romanian, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary at the conferences I presented and many more from Ukraine, Russia, Portugal, Colombia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Italy, the USA, the UK, and more.

We're not alone. There are wonderful professionals like us trying their best to improve and learn, just like so many Brazilian teachers I know. Christopher from the UK, based in Poland, Ania from Poland, based in Poland, Tyna from Greece, based in Greece, Lyn from the USA, based in Slovakia, Claudia from the UK, based in Hungary, Oksana from Ukraine, based in Ukraine, Dijana from Montenegro, based in Montenegro, and Ana from Romania, based in Romania are a few examples of teachers who have inspired me and from whom I learned so much in these weeks. Spending time with you brought me back to my origins when I had no idea what I wanted to be and sort of became a teacher by chance.

Yes, that's right. Due to the stigma I mentioned above, I didn't really want to be a teacher. It just happened. I became an English teacher because I could speak English, I had some international experience, and I saw an ad in the paper. Today, thousands of students from 4 different schools after, tens of training sessions, workshops, and lectures after, a master's degree in Psychology of Education, and hundreds of texts after, I know I could not do anything else in my life other than teach. It is my passion and my calling if there is such a thing. I am hopeful, despite all the bad things I've mentioned, because I believe in the power of education to transform society and I believe we can make others believe in that too. We can teach them to believe. After all, that's what we do.

The number 1 enemy of the current government in Brazil, the internationally acclaimed educator Paulo Freire, once said that education didn't transform the world, but it changed people, and people were the ones who changed the world. Another famous quote by him was that if the structure doesn't allow dialogue, then the structure must be changed. I couldn't agree more with him, who was rightfully selected to be the patron of Brazilian education, even though the new government wants to remove his title. May Paulo Freire rest in peace and may all the teachers out there keep changing the structure and keep changing people's minds and touching their hearts so that we can leave this state of numbness and shock those who underestimate us and wants education to stay the way it is.

Whatever your context, whatever your subject, my fellow teacher, Happy Brazilian Teacher's Day.

If you want to follow my teaching journey, please check my website below and follow me on Instagram (@edcrocks).

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