Nicole Zatz - Living and Learning in São Paulo
Animals are born, grow, reproduce and then die. That is one of the things we learn at school. And because humans are also animals, we should follow that order just like school books tell us to do. They also tell us to sit in tiny uncomfortable chairs and obey, until our brains get tired and then we rest for a few hours every night.
Well, the city I grew up and live at now never sleeps. In the midst of a ton of bars and clubs, film festivals and all niter events of all sorts São Paulo keeps running, unfortunately no one told that to the transportation system so it could follow the rhythm.
But one question that would not leave my mind was, how exactly is it that so many things can be happening, that there can be so many initiatives - if everyone has to graduate, follow a set of rules and be graded by a linear system of learning? Something seems way off here.
Hopefully for the sake of us all, including (but not limited to) the children, traditional schools are not the only learning institutions that share a space in this huge global city. And for the last couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to get to know some of those not so traditional spaces.
See, before I share this info I think it is fair to say I do not have a background in the education field (B.A. and that sort of thing, although it was a close call). However, I have spent the last four years doing volunteering and social work in public schools in the center and it is amazing to watch how much those kids learn when they are outside of the classroom, you really listen to them and let them be artistic and playful.
So that said, I have had the opportunity to visit schools like Amorim Lima, a place where the principal actually listens to the students and accepts projects that come from initiatives other than the traditional curriculum. Projects such as doing stop motion videos in a class as part of learning science and geography, bringing people from traditional cultures and bike collectives to interact with the students and hosting Non Violent Communication workshops. I also got to visit the amazing environment of Projeto Âncora, a school that has its own circus arena and the students are free to walk around the campus and choose the projects they will work on with peers and mentors.
But the thing is there are also a bunch of adults, such as myself, who have finished their school time (sounds like prison? It should) and want to know more about alternatives and how the system can change. Luckily for me, one of those people was my colleague in an entrepreneurship training and I was there to witness the very beginning of the online platform Cinese, which is a place where you can create your own workshop about the theme you want to teach, or join one about something you want to learn. And in one of the times I was participating in a workshop where they showcased La Educacion Prohibida, one of the speakers was talking about unschooling and her experience (it was Ana Thomaz). I actually saw her speaking again in a film festival about educational initiatives and in between those two times I participated in an event where I found out about Edu on Tour, and there was also guy who knows a lot about unschooling, he’s thirteen and one of the coolest most influential entrepreneurs I know. His family created project called Escola com asas (School with wings) which helps people with learning outside a formal educational environment.
More and more I get to witness the growth of learning communities lead by people who are extremely unsatisfied about the way the system operates now. I’ve seen it at international conferences such as Festival Transformar, or at smaller events in book shops run by people who have a pre-school where kids meditate and eat veggie meals. I’ve had my eyes covered for over two hours for an artistic experiment with people from Piracanga Ecovillage and witnessed the first steps of a social project in a permaculture center in Rio de Janeiro (Sinal do Vale), where the 12 year olds lived and didn’t know about the beauty and biodiversity until a small group of North American volunteers designed afternoon hours to show them.
Right now my twelve year old self is cheering with this perspectives and initiatives. The girl waking before 7 a.m. to put on a boring uniform and sit through 6 yours of lectures plus homework, and sketched her perfect school in a notebook finally found more people with the same ideas.
By the way, my name is Nicole and I am working on my own enterprise called Radiko (roots in esperanto), we are building an online program that uses creative learning mostly through arts to explore themes related to sustainable living such as organic gardening, Non- violent communication, collaborative consumption and more.
