When I learned that I was headed to Brazil, the first thing that popped into my mind was the poverty found famously in the favelas. While the town in which I was working did not have any traditional favelas, as we are so used to seeing in media, it did have many poor areas.
Having worked with disadvantaged youth for many years, the natural research question for me was, “What is the Brazilian educational system response to children living in poverty?” Coming from the United States, where Title I, McKinney Vento and other protections are in place for children living at or below poverty, it begged the question of Brazil having similar safety nets in place.
As with the US, Brazilian society tends to view caring for children living in poverty as a social responsibility. The federal government provides subsidies, though minimal, to families who send their children to school. Further, there is funding provided at all levels – municipal, state, and federal, in which the government provides materials, clothing, transportation and food to children through their local school systems.
There does seem to be an issue with the government subsidies provided to families. The program is called Bolsa Familia, and many teachers find that parents send their children to school for the sole purpose of collecting the funds – thereby rendering any actual educational benefit to the child useless, as the learning is not necessarily valued at home, aside from the financial compensation.
In an effort to provide students with the opportunity to work in conjunction with schooling, the Brazilian educational system has a high prevalence of classes that are conducted late in the day or at night. Accommodating these working students is beneficial, however, only to those old enough to be able to handle such intense scheduling.
I actually had very little time to actually interact with students, and thus was unable to pick up on their own personal experiences and perceptions, thus I can only rely on my own encounters to flesh out the reality of the day-to-day.
Truly, the levels of poverty are detected in the public schools or on the street. The private schools are filled primarily with students who have parents wealthy enough to afford sending them to such an establishment, thus poverty is either incredibly rare or entirely unseen.
As with the US, the public schools are subject to the funding whims of the government, and oftentimes find materials and support scarce or nonexistent.
It was difficult to establish any kind of student engagement in the classrooms that we visited, as we were there for so brief a time and, more often than not, the teachers were very concerned about putting on a special program or show for us, thus authentic learning was not had. Judging from the behaviors of the students even during the special programming, I can't help but believe that the socio-economic climate does negatively impact the classroom environment, as it does in the US.
We were based in a rural area in Sao Paulo state - as with any rural area, the localities are often defined by their particular traits. A close knit community, Nova Campina was certainly wealthy in spirit, however not in structure. There were very few people who seemed to be living on the street, and the children at the schools all appeared to be well taken care of - again, this is no accurate measure of the impact of poverty, but sheer observation due to the lack of substantive experience.
We did learn that orphans are cared for by the local government, often tended to by hospitals and taken in by schools and nurseries during the day. The children therein are cared for by the teachers and aides. These efforts are supported by the government, however it was indicated over and over again that there was very little oversight aside from that.
It was also indicated repeatedly that the people who grow up in Nova Campina, stay in Nova Campina and have no desire for bigger/better/more/different. This lends itself both to the incredibly tight sense of community, as well as the perception of financial struggle - logging is a major industry there and there are only so many jobs that can create employment opportunities.
In all, it seems that the people and government of most of Brazil have the sincere desire to be of help to those living in poverty. They seem to recognize the importance of education in the role of lifting young people out of the clutches of crippling poverty, but, as with the US, get caught up in the red tape of bureaucracy to actually accomplish their goals of ending it.
At the end of the day, as in the US, the most important role that the educational system can play in working with kids living in poverty is that of the classroom teacher - the adult who sees the children most consistently, and is able to spend time with them to know them best.
Having worked with disadvantaged youth for many years, the natural research question for me was, “What is the Brazilian educational system response to children living in poverty?” Coming from the United States, where Title I, McKinney Vento and other protections are in place for children living at or below poverty, it begged the question of Brazil having similar safety nets in place.
As with the US, Brazilian society tends to view caring for children living in poverty as a social responsibility. The federal government provides subsidies, though minimal, to families who send their children to school. Further, there is funding provided at all levels – municipal, state, and federal, in which the government provides materials, clothing, transportation and food to children through their local school systems.
There does seem to be an issue with the government subsidies provided to families. The program is called Bolsa Familia, and many teachers find that parents send their children to school for the sole purpose of collecting the funds – thereby rendering any actual educational benefit to the child useless, as the learning is not necessarily valued at home, aside from the financial compensation.
In an effort to provide students with the opportunity to work in conjunction with schooling, the Brazilian educational system has a high prevalence of classes that are conducted late in the day or at night. Accommodating these working students is beneficial, however, only to those old enough to be able to handle such intense scheduling.
I actually had very little time to actually interact with students, and thus was unable to pick up on their own personal experiences and perceptions, thus I can only rely on my own encounters to flesh out the reality of the day-to-day.
Truly, the levels of poverty are detected in the public schools or on the street. The private schools are filled primarily with students who have parents wealthy enough to afford sending them to such an establishment, thus poverty is either incredibly rare or entirely unseen.
As with the US, the public schools are subject to the funding whims of the government, and oftentimes find materials and support scarce or nonexistent.
It was difficult to establish any kind of student engagement in the classrooms that we visited, as we were there for so brief a time and, more often than not, the teachers were very concerned about putting on a special program or show for us, thus authentic learning was not had. Judging from the behaviors of the students even during the special programming, I can't help but believe that the socio-economic climate does negatively impact the classroom environment, as it does in the US.
We were based in a rural area in Sao Paulo state - as with any rural area, the localities are often defined by their particular traits. A close knit community, Nova Campina was certainly wealthy in spirit, however not in structure. There were very few people who seemed to be living on the street, and the children at the schools all appeared to be well taken care of - again, this is no accurate measure of the impact of poverty, but sheer observation due to the lack of substantive experience.
We did learn that orphans are cared for by the local government, often tended to by hospitals and taken in by schools and nurseries during the day. The children therein are cared for by the teachers and aides. These efforts are supported by the government, however it was indicated over and over again that there was very little oversight aside from that.
It was also indicated repeatedly that the people who grow up in Nova Campina, stay in Nova Campina and have no desire for bigger/better/more/different. This lends itself both to the incredibly tight sense of community, as well as the perception of financial struggle - logging is a major industry there and there are only so many jobs that can create employment opportunities.
In all, it seems that the people and government of most of Brazil have the sincere desire to be of help to those living in poverty. They seem to recognize the importance of education in the role of lifting young people out of the clutches of crippling poverty, but, as with the US, get caught up in the red tape of bureaucracy to actually accomplish their goals of ending it.
At the end of the day, as in the US, the most important role that the educational system can play in working with kids living in poverty is that of the classroom teacher - the adult who sees the children most consistently, and is able to spend time with them to know them best.