The other day, one of my former students—Luis Alberto Bassoli— today a renowned educator in Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais, posted a video on Facebook, where Silvio Matos, on the Copacabana boardwalk, beside the bronze statue of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, masterfully portrays the poem “E agora, José?” Bassoli commented: “Genial interpretation of Drummond’s brilliance… All the while I kept remembering Antônio Carlos Santini, number one fan of the number one Brazilian poet of the twentieth century…”
Then an additional commentary followed by the former alumni of the Macedo Soares College, from Volta Redonda.
Márcio Luiz added to the conversation, “I remembered the handouts that we bought at the canteen …”
Bassoli: “Until today, I think he was the only teacher who wrote his own textbooks… of all the classes… rs … ”
Márcio Luiz said, “At that time we didn’t know how much we could learn with such rich scholastic material! I wonder sometimes what it would be like today if we edited it with all the diagramming, illustration and printing capabilities we have now almost 40 years later…” to which he added, “Ever thought about it?”
I replied: “No, never have. I guess I have the impression that the world has changed too much. I see the current compendia as disrespectful to the students’ intelligence; shallow content, unchallenging assignments.”
Márcio Luiz: “I’ll never forget the day when you came in with a tape recorder and played ‘A Um homem chamado Alfredo’, (A man named Alfredo), for us to compose an essay about it. We were only twelve or thirteen years old at the time and there we were getting true lessons on humanity, including sociology, psychology, anthropology and many other logias we were invited to reflect on that distant morning … That’s teaching, to etch into our hearts and minds lessons that we’ll keep with us for the rest of our lives!”
I replied, “It was from our hard disks. Very inspiring! Teachers need to have values and consider it important to transmit them unto others. ‘Neutral’ study content just doesn’t draw in the student’s attention. Thank you. That’s nicely remembered of you.”
Another former student of the Macedo Soares College, Adelso Ramos Vilela, who also participated in these same school assignments, jumped into the conversation:
“Teacher Santini, in the midst of all that inspiration, I wrote an essay (which my father kept with him as long as he lived) in which, following your recommendation, I met with Padre Gregório, who awarded me with a plaster statuette of St. Joseph Calasanz!”
Bassoli then made a special request: “Please write, before the 25th, a short article about how ‘Teachers need to have values and consider it important to transmit them unto others. ‘Neutral’ study content just doesn’t draw in the student’s attention.”
“I’ll give it a try …” I replied.
And Márcio Luiz reiterated: “We’ll be looking forward to it!”
* * *
What can I say on the subject? I was a passionate student. I had good teachers. I grew up in a home with books and records. My father gave me a reader’s example and intellectual exercises, even if it was only a simple train trip. While visiting my grandparents in Lavras, I devoured the book encyclopedia “Tesouro da Juventude” (Youth Treasure) like someone savoring the ambrosia of Olympus. To me, knowledge and beauty were two sides of the same reality.
At 16 years old, in Belo Horizonte, I was entrusted with the first class of students who were preparing for the old gym class entrance examination. My natural inclination was to pass on to the students everything that pulsated within me. It was to be twenty-five years of classroom work—15 daily lessons at times! Accompanying youths and adults, participating in their anxieties and their dreams, coaching the basketball team, accompanying the student body, advising impassioned teenagers…
On the other hand, I learned a lot from the students. For example, when I prepared a series of projections on the History of Literature (60 years!), I counted on the help of photography by Nile Toniolo for the slides, a recorder by Claudio Yabrudi and the intelligent reading of Vania Lannes Rock for the audio script.
I know I was very demanding and several students have complaints about this. But they all witnessed that I vibrated with my work. Recently, a former student commented that I was very “opinionated”. And it’s true. Students want to know our opinion about the facts, about life. If distance is felt between the teacher and the message he conveys, the student becomes uninterested. Intuitively, he knows that the main lesson being offered by a teacher is his own personality model. The student watches, compares and chooses.
Take it or leave it…
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