Education for young people and adults and new opportunities
Rafael Bruno Abrantes Ferro
Thursday | May 28, 2015 | 3:34 PM | Last update: September 22, 2016, 4:07 PM (Brasilia time)
When properly motivated, dreams may be the drivers of great ideas and achievements at any phase in life; and education is one of the most effective ways of making them come true. It is through access to knowledge, allied with a constant dedication, that many stories of those aiming for a better future are written. This is even truer when we are talking about an innovative and quality education that prepares individuals for facing up to the challenges in their lives with wisdom and confidence.
Such is the case of Maria Neuza da Silva, 61, who was helped by the Legion of Good Will (LBV) in its Education for Young People and Adults program (EJA, in Portuguese). Maria Neuza learned how to overcome her difficulties and find the hope she needed for fulfilling her dream. She says that the first few years of her life were not the material of a happy story. Because she spent her childhood confined to a bed with rheumatism, she faced financial problems when it came to obtaining treatment for her illness and was unable to finish school. Even so, she stuck to her objective of working in a bank.
After being cured, when she was already an adult, she began working as a hairdresser. She did a course, looked for the training she needed to work in the area, but she did not know how to read or write. For this reason, she was unable to do the written tests that would allow her to obtain a diploma. But she did not give up: “People who don’t have dreams are people who merely exist.”
Maria Neuza’s dream of professional growth motivated her to learn how to read and write when she was already at an advanced age. She is currently attending free EJA classes directed towards low-income people—, from Monday to Thursday, in the José de Paiva Netto Educational Institute in São Paulo (Brazil).
+ Invest in Education; donate to the LBV!
With regard to this initiative, the teaching coordinator of the program, Vera Perugini, explains, “We do everything possible to encourage them because many of them have very difficult life stories. They want to study, but family problems or even work issues prevent them from continuing with their studies. Their biggest challenge is getting this far, but once they arrive here they see it’s possible.”
To encourage them even more, those who are assisted receive a complete school supply kit with everything they need for their school day. “Sometimes our financial situation is not good. And we’re thankful because we receive this help from the LBV,” says Maria Neuza.
People frequently give up studying on Young People and Adult Education courses because their age and reconciling school and work may be very challenging, but Maria Neuza guarantees to everyone she meets: (she will finish this) course.
EDUCATING WITH ALL-ENCOMPASSING ECUMENICAL SPIRITUALITY
The basis and unique approach of all the social and educational actions of the Legion of Good Will are the Pedagogy of Affection and the Educational Citizen Pedagogy, which comprise the Organization’s teaching method that was created by educator Paiva Netto*. With its own methodology, this proposal allies quality education with the discussion and practice of ethical, ecumenical, and spiritual values. This approach aims to develop human beings in their entirety, because it considers their physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects.
____________________
* Educator Paiva Netto — An innovator and one who is constantly concerned that everyone has access to quality education, based on values of Solidary Citizenship, the president of the Legion of Good Will created a teaching method comprised of the Pedagogy of Affection and the Ecumenical Citizen Pedagogy. This proposal has been applied for decades in a pioneering way in all the LBV’s teaching units. One of its fundamental concepts is in the following words of its creator: “The affection that inspires our pedagogical model, taken in its highest sense, is, besides a lofty feeling of the Soul, a political strategy, equally understood in its most elevated nature, in consonance with Social Justice, as a survival strategy for individuals, peoples, and nations.”
