On education in the pandemic

Image: John-Mark Smith
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By NATHÁLIA MENEGHINE*

Between possible textures and mistaken wars

Initially, a teacher takes on the task of transmitting the knowledge accumulated by humanity, transmitting History, weaving a thread between the past and the present. In this context, it is responsible for safeguarding tradition so that we do not have to “start all over again” with each generation. In this act, she provokes the emergence of the future in an articulated way with our choices, as a society in the present time.

In this perspective, the function of Education is also that of affiliation, of insertion of the subject in Culture, enabling him to recognize marks of identification with the other, to make room for differences and to build his own place of speech in this world.

Educating is a loving act, in that sense. Whoever offers himself to this job transmits something of himself, of his position in the social bond. You are taught not only formulas and grammar, but how to relate to your own desire to know.

This cannot be done without an educational link. No learning is possible outside this loop. And, weaving an educational bond, without a voice, without a body, without looking, has a certain dimension of the impossible. However, it is precisely through our desire as teachers to transmit, that we have invented new strategies so that our word remains in force, that teaching and transmission operate, reaching our students through the most different and creative ways of access. .

At the end of last year, I read a text by Professor Jeferson Tenório, in a newspaper from Rio Grande do Sul, where he textually stated: “teachers are the last trench against an uncultured and barbaric society”. He is correct. Since then, this has become even more evident. And, our lives, as well as that of most of the Brazilian population, more difficult.

What happens in the territory of a classroom is not replaceable. So we are missing a lot. It has a huge void installed. There is no way for this real to be buffered. Nor should it.

The school is not, nor can it be, out of life. We recognize the difficulties and losses that the pandemic contingency imposes on us, but we do not paralyze our work in the face of them. Precisely, it has been from the recognition of these difficulties that we have also learned new ways of sustaining the educational bond, so that learning continues to happen, even if it is not ideal. Incidentally, it is always outside this field of ideals that they happen: learning is conveyed by desire, therefore, also, to a certain extent, it is transgressive.

Aware that our work inserts the subject in Culture, remembers tradition, makes the subject desire and, thus, engenders the future of our society, we are aware of the density of our responsibility. For this reason, even away from the face-to-face meeting, we do not give up working, betting that something of us reaches our students, and gives them news of our support of this desire to transmit.

For safe criteria for returning to face-to-face classes, it is up to us to submit to the word of the authorities in the matter. By the way, this is also one of the important transmissions that we owe to our students: recognizing our limits, that we do not know everything, and, also for this reason, we need to address ourselves and recognize the knowledge of others, even if they do not meet our personal wishes. This will help them to understand that the social bond demands narcissistic renunciations, behavioral guidelines, and exercises of alterity.

School and family are not in the same place, that's for sure. However, that does not mean that we must consider that the responsibility for Education does not place us on opposite sides, as some dissolution speeches want to convince us. There are fundamental meeting points, for approximation, so that we can talk and offer a more dialogic view of society for those children, adolescents and young people we care for.

If teachers are the last barrier against barbarism, families are the first. It makes no sense for these functions to antagonize each other. At that moment, the common risk we face is not the loss of the school year, but the collapse of civilization.

The risk is that, while those who should make a barrier choose to turn their shields against each other to make war, barbarism will pass and take hold.

* Nathália Meneghine She is a psychologist, psychoanalyst and teacher.