The Open Learning School’s pedagogical proposal involves the formation of people and citizens who are increasingly cultured, autonomous, responsible and democratically committed to building a society that enhances the affirmation of the noblest and highest qualities of each human being.

For the Open Learning School, the school is a social formation in interaction with the environment and other social formations in which, permanently, processes of desired and reflected change converge.

The educational intention of the Pedagogical Proposal includes organizational and relational practices of the School that will also reflect the values ​​that inspired and guided the Open Learning School Project.

The Open Learning School recognizes parents’ absolute right to choose the educational project they deem most appropriate for their children’s education and, at the same time, has the right to propose, to society and interested parents, the educational project that it deems most appropriate. to the integral formation of their students.

The Pedagogical Proposal, being a reference for those looking for certain educational principles and objectives, delimits and guides the intervention of all agents and partners in the life of the School and defines its position in relation to the educational administration.

The curriculum

As each human being is unique, each child’s experience at school, learning and developmental path is also unique. Bearing in mind the principles of the project, the fact that your child is in permanent development must be valued.

The individual needs of each child are met in a particular way, since the specific characteristics of each one imply different ways of assimilating reality. For this reason, every child has specific educational needs, manifesting itself in different forms of social and cognitive learning.

For all these reasons, we always guarantee that:

We pay attention to the student as he is

We recognize what makes you unique, welcoming you in your complexity

We discover and value the culture it bears

We help you to discover yourself and be yourself when interacting with others

These are the educational attitudes that encourage the need and desire to learn.

Both at an individual and social level, the journey of each student presupposes an increasingly in-depth knowledge of himself and a solidary relationship with others. The educational path of each child presupposes the individual (subjective) appropriation of the curriculum, which is evaluated by tutors, parents and herself.

At Open Learning School, we define as curriculum the set of attitudes and skills that, throughout the child’s school career, and according to their potential and interests, they must acquire and develop. The concept of curriculum is understood in a double dimension:

Internal or subjective curriculum

It is a (unique) path of personal development. Only the subjective curriculum (the set of acquisitions of each student) is able to validate the relevance of the objective curriculum.

Objective Curriculum

It is the learning reference: it guides the process and personal fulfillment that results from the Open Learning School’s Pedagogical Proposal in line with the affective and emotional development of the child, as well as the development of attitudes related to the value framework of the pedagogical project.

In this way, your child builds their curriculum according to the evolution of their learning, which is recorded and evaluated on the learning platform. All guardians will have access to all records as well as the family.

How do we evaluate

At the Open Learning School, assessment is formative, continuous and systematic as a regulatory process for learning, constructively guiding the school journey of each student. It also allows you, at every moment, to become aware of what you already know and what you are already capable of.

We accompany your child’s path in the construction of his life project, we manage his learning path in the construction of his Subjective Curriculum and also the progressive consolidation of all the attitudes that define the profile of the individual designed and desired by our educational project.

The evaluation of school performance is understood as a mechanism for diagnosing the possibilities of the student that guides the next steps of the educational process, also having a formative character. It is a continuous, dynamic and cumulative process, with the prevalence of aspects of quality over those of quantity.

In addition to the cognitive dimension, the development of affectivity, socialization, self-knowledge, self-esteem, creativity, ethics and autonomy constitute an essential part of the education of the student and the evaluation process.

The portfolio with evidence of the child’s learning will be duly registered in the computerized system so that parents, children and tutors can follow their evolution. In addition to containing the student’s curricular path, the necessary interventions to help the child are also noted, both in relation to cognitive aspects and in relation to emotional aspects and attitudes.

Your child will have weekly meetings with their tutor. Here, he shows the tutor everything he has produced and, orally or by recording, explains what he has learned, clears up doubts and receives new guidance for the continuity of his learning process.

Every day when your child arrives at school, he plans his day. Depending on your level of autonomy, you can do it alone and then show the tutor to make the necessary interventions, or together with the tutor. The day’s planning is based on the biweekly study guide as a reference base for its elaboration.

The tutor will have individual meetings with the family whenever he feels the need to communicate the student’s evolution. When the family feels the need to better understand the child’s learning, it can also schedule meetings that it deems necessary.

Tutoring

A tutor is responsible for the permanent and individualized follow-up of each student’s curricular path. This will be designated by the School Council, among the School’s educators.

The educators of each learning space are also responsible for the development and learning of each student. Educators are guided by the planning of each child’s day, based on the study guide.

School Assembly

The School Assembly represents the students of the school. Its main objective is to unite and move students to discuss their rights and duties, debating various issues about the school, community and society.

This allows students to discuss, create and strengthen countless possibilities for action, both in the school environment and in the local community. It is also an important space for learning, citizenship, coexistence, responsibility and fighting for rights.

Objectives of the School Assembly

It is important to make it clear that one of the main objectives of the school assembly is to contribute to increasing the participation of children in school activities, organizing championships, lectures, projects and discussions through the formation of Responsibility Groups (elected together and with the objective of to solve problems), making them have an active voice and participate – along with parents, employees, tutors, coordinators and directors – in programming and in the construction of rules within the school.

In the Open Learning School, as a direct intervention device, the School Assembly is the educational organization structure that provides and guarantees the democratic participation of students in decision-making by consensus, which respects the organization and functioning of the School. In this way, the children of the Open Learning School exercise their citizenship and develop their autonomy.

“You cannot give to drink a horse that is not thirsty”, a famous phrase by José Pacheco.

You don’t learn through memorization. Memorizing is not understanding, it is not questioning, it is not exploring or delving into a topic.

Historically, the traditional school was made to form legions of workers around the world during the industrial revolution. It served to teach hundreds of workers, simultaneously, to read, write and do arithmetic, so that with these bases they could be trained in the different manufacturing operations, capable of reading manuals and working in the office. But it hasn’t evolved any further. Subjects were added, and when this became excessive, more curricular years were added. The worst thing is that the material introduced over the years, in addition to the basics of reading and writing and doing arithmetic, added little social value.

Most of the learning relevant to the longest period of a person’s life, the adult phase, is learned within the scope of their profession and guaranteed by professional experience.

Everything that came from the school was useless, and that certainly many readers will understand to be true and will be able to identify with it. All of us adults go through the process and all we need to do is reflect on what we actually learned at school about what is relevant and useful to us as adults: do the square root? Remember who are all the Kings? know that water is two molecules of Hydrogen and one molecule of Oxygen? Do we find this indispensable to our well-being or social productivity? Of course not!

The future belongs to those who will be able to adapt to a world with more and more information and new technologies. New industries and professions. New opportunities and new challenges. They will have to learn to continually learn. They will go global and work anywhere and from anywhere. They will have to know how to sell and be entrepreneurial so they don’t depend on anyone or be hostage to salaries. They will have the tools that allow them to have independence and self-sufficiency without having to sacrifice their freedom.

This is the world that Open Learning proposes. End the traditional/instructional school and introduce the open learning model worldwide!

The School of the same founders of Escola da Ponte, Escola Projeto Âncora and Escola Aberta de São Paulo brings several innovative concepts and different ways of thinking and doing education.

The point is clear: the school we have today is no good.

Traditional teaching is a teaching of the past. Created and founded on the basis of the industrialization era, it is more than proven that it does not serve today.

There are many differences that separate the Open Learning School from other schools. These are the top 10:

Everywhere is a place to Learn

At Open Learning we do not distinguish between time and space. A child does not learn only when he is enclosed within 4 walls in an arbitrary period called a class. On the contrary.

It is in the interaction with his colleagues, educators and school members that he learns and assimilates the most. No child stops learning when he is out of class, just as no child only learns when he is in class.

“Before, there were classes in an enclosed space and recess was for playing. Here I learn everywhere, even during recess.”

Our young people learn through the interaction and crossing of various disciplines/areas of knowledge without the need to separate them in time and space. An Open Learning student will learn to read, write, do calculations among other subjects through their participation and involvement in activities that are most enjoyable through projects, allowing them to associate learning with something positive and stimulating. Our students learn much earlier to develop each of these skills compared to traditional school. The Open Learning School student learns from everyone, anywhere and therefore faster than others.

Motivation to Learn 

One of the many problems already identified in education is that children are not willing to learn or are not curious. It couldn’t be further from the truth. All children have an enormous desire to learn and are naturally curious. However, not all are curious and passionate about the same areas.

At the Open Learning School children will learn through the areas and activities they enjoy most. If you like to paint, you will learn fundamental areas for your development by building your atelier and creating paintings and paintings. Thus, the child will not only gain a taste for learning, but will also develop skills in their favorite area from an early age. At Open Learning School, learning will never be boring again.

“I always want to learn new things because I learn from what I love most” Dinis, 5 years old

Evaluated through projects

20%. Only 20% is what several studies indicate as the amount of information we take in through hearing. This number drops to 10% when it comes to reading. However, if we are learning while performing a related activity, the assimilated information increases to 80%. Exactly, if we are learning to do it we end up assimilating 4x more information. And if we are teaching, how much information do we assimilate? 90%! That’s right, when we present something to someone we end up assimilating practically all the information. The results are clear and yet we see schools all over the world with teachers closed in the classroom, debating information for students to learn.

At the Open Learning School, you learn by doing. Through educational projects, your child will have the opportunity to choose a project or cause that they like the most, and from there they will study, research and practice so that they can present their conclusions and suggestions to their classmates. The involvement and development of these projects promotes critical thinking, an entrepreneurial mindset, the improvement of social skills and even the appreciation of the community in which it is involved. As if this were not enough, as you will have to learn in practice and present to your colleagues you will develop the art of oratory, and you will learn much more from what you have worked on.

And it is through these same projects that they are evaluated in the most diverse areas, always respecting what is the learning curriculum defined by the Ministry of Education.

When carrying out the educational projects, they develop skills in areas as diverse as Portuguese, mathematics, geometry, thus allowing the assimilation of the proposed areas but in a much more effective and exciting model.

“Here I don’t get nervous with the tests because they evaluate our work on the project and the projects are fun”

Learn, not memorize

In the traditional school you hear everywhere “I memorized for the test” and “I memorized everything but I don’t remember anything anymore”. These are just some of the expressions most used by young people. When education is based on assessment models that reward memorization and not necessarily the understanding and critical analysis of a given area; when education models are based on the instructionism of someone defining the type of subjects that should be studied and learned despite not having applicability in everyday life and when children’s passion for one area is not used as a catalyst to learn other things, we end up for having a school where you memorize to pass the test instead of learning for life.

At Open Learning School we teach for life. Based on the mantra “one learns by doing”, we built the learning model that rewards those who learn, those who think for themselves, those who want to solve a problem and look for a solution. We look at what is essential for a child to develop today so that tomorrow they have the tools to succeed in their social and professional life. If the child likes astronomy, he will learn various peripheral subjects through themes related to the planets. If you like cars, you will learn math, Portuguese and geography through the history of motorsport.

Learning square root and arithmetic adds little to 99% of children in their daily lives and even as adults.

At the Open Learning School your child learns to relearn. It develops emotional intelligence, social competence, critical thinking, ability to work in a team, digital skills, how and where to look for information, ability to focus and autonomy. All fundamental skills for the day-to-day of every human being.

At Open Learning School, learning is the only way.

Collaborative and not solitary learning

By all schools it is defined that the teacher knows more than all the others and only from him can be learned. The teacher is the highest figure and it is assumed that all relevant information comes from him and that you learn by listening to someone who has something to teach, making learning something lonely.

At the Open Learning School, everyone learns from everyone else.

By creating their own projects, children seek information from other peers, learn from them and assume that we all have something to learn from everyone else.

“Here I learn every day with my colleagues and it’s great to learn from others”. Amelia, 5 years

Collaborative learning allows for faster learning with direct benefits for social relationships inside and outside of school. When children learn in collaboration with others, their brain’s connections with other areas of learning exponentially increase and they end up assimilating information more easily. At the same time, it naturally promotes teamwork, giving importance to the team and not to the individual as one, a critical and fundamental factor for the rapid social development of the child and the promotion of teamwork, because “together we are stronger” .

Socio-Emotional Balance

At the Open Learning School, emotions are not seen as a problem but as an integral part of what a child is.

The child learns to manage his own emotions by deconstructing what he is feeling and why he is feeling it. Through a set of questions and practical exercises, children understand what motivated a certain reaction and how to manage it.

“Children at Open Learning School have a level of self-awareness and emotional control that I’ve never seen before.” Mónica Antunes, Pedagogical Coordinator

From the moment they start at the Open Learning School, children are used to identifying their feelings, naming them and deconstructing them, thus allowing them to understand from an early age the reason for the feeling and how to resolve it.

“It’s good to know what I’m feeling and then understand.” Dinis, 6 years

At the Open Learning School your child will learn from an early age to understand himself and those around him, this being one of the most important tools for his happiness and that he will always take with him, wherever he is.

Fosters the entrepreneurial and critical spirit

In the instructionist school, one of the main results of the objective standardized education model turns out to be complete grades thinking in the same way and not questioning the status quo. The assumption that it is so because yes.

Children are created and molded to a unique model that is based on doing what we are asked to do. A reactive model that does nothing more than foster dependence on the other to define the solution and problems, creating generations of children who do not question anything and who wait for the other to solve problems.

Here we think and act differently.

At Open Learning School, we value and encourage critical thinking and the ability of everyone to be able to think for their own head. The unparalleled ability we have at a young age to question everything around us ends up disappearing once the critical spirit reduces and we assume everything we are told as an absolute truth.

In Open Learning, questions are often more important than answers. Through exercises and an environment that encourages and encourages questioning everything and everyone, including the status quo, we develop children with an open mindset and the ability to think for themselves.

“I’m not afraid to ask questions here, I really like to question what at first seems obvious” Luís 8 years old

From an early age, children know that we are the solution to problems. Through the creation and development of projects, they develop an entrepreneurial mindset, seeking to identify problems and find solutions for them.

“Here, if the child identifies that there is a problem, for example, with garbage in their city, they can decide to develop a project around it, doing research, questioning people, looking for solutions and presenting them to their colleagues. Thus, we not only develop the entrepreneurial spirit, but also the mentality that the solution and change starts with us. “

Multilingual model with interaction with students of different nationalities and languages

At Open Learning School we exchange language classes for daily experiences that encourage the understanding and assimilation of new languages.

Through a set of strategies and practical exercises, learning new languages ​​becomes fun and much easier.

Thanks to the cultural diversity of the group of tutors and children that make up the Open Learning School, children are exposed daily to other languages ​​and expressions, assimilating the pronunciation and language of the country much more easily.

“Vicky is now 4 years old and speaks and understands 5 languages. She is not gifted, she was simply placed in the right environment with the right approach” André, Founder Open Learning School

The science of education is increasingly clear that it is through sensory experiences much easier to assimilate and understand other languages ​​than through dedicated study.

“I really enjoy learning other languages ​​with my colleagues”.

Designed to develop the maximum potential of each child and young person in a personalized way

In the instructionist model, the series are composed of dozens of children and young people. Based on a retrograde model of education, the objective is to equal the level of education of all equally.

The objective is that there are no disapprovals. Let everyone approve.

The subject is given in the same way for all, defining a unique rhythm of learning and way of teaching. It is assumed that all learners learn at the same pace and in the same way.

In the instructional model, the student’s potential is leveled based on the quality of the grade. If we have a series leveled down, the tendency is that everyone has to submit to the level of the class, neglecting their potential and way of learning. This is not education.

At Open Learning School each individual is unique and must be respected as such.

From an early age, we respect each one’s learning speed, designing individual learning plans.

If all children are different why should we have the same model and speed of learning?

At Open Learning, from an early age, we identify the strengths of each one and leverage them to the fullest, promoting and stimulating each of these characteristics and skills.

“Instead of focusing on each child’s weakest points and making them level up to the average, we promote and develop their strengths. That’s how potential develops.” Monica, Pedagogical Coordinator

With a ratio of up to 1 tutor for 4 children, the support at Open Learning is much more individualized and personalized, which is one of the main factors for children to develop so quickly and positively compared to any other school or model.

Autonomous much earlier

The rigidity of traditional teaching implies immutable rules and models: class hours, eating and playing times, closed rooms, young people always sitting in the same place and with the same colleagues. In traditional education, children are educated to obey, not to be autonomous.

At Open Learning School, we give the child freedom to decide, plan and do. This flexibility, combined with a unique pedagogical model, strongly encourages autonomy, and children love it. We have 3 year olds, who started early in Open Learning and who are self-sufficient in their daily lives at school. They build your path, make your decisions and plan your day. Tutors supervise and are close and available to guide and advise whenever necessary.

Autonomous children at 3 years old! Yes, it sounds absolutely surreal but it is possible. All that is needed is the right stimuli, guidance and pedagogy. At Open Learning School we educate children, like your child, to be adults in the real ascension of the word: independent and autonomous.

My entire professional career has been representing and recruiting internationally for the “best” colleges and universities in the world. Imagine schools with over 600 years of history or with campuses so modern they look like an amusement park, equipped with stables, a golf course and the latest technology. Colleges where monthly fees are over 24,000 reais and which house the world’s elites. Up until a certain point, I was convinced that these were, in fact, the best educational institutions in the world.

However, even though I knew this reality well, when it was my turn to make a decision about my children’s education, I started to consider what kind of education I wanted for them. I began to deconstruct and analyze education critically. I forgot the labels I used to represent quality education, such as “it has more than 600 years of history”, “it has multiple sports such as swimming, rugby, golf, tennis or equestrianism”, “President X’s son went to this school ” or “has the finalist students with the best college entrance grades”, commonly used by all of us as a way of attributing quality to the Institution. If we look purely at education, none of these labels have any value for an educational decision.

Another value that these schools have and that I personally devalue, is the fact that they are the so-called elites, where the children of the most influential people study and, of course, the richest. The child with the worst results in this type of school will certainly have a much higher income than the best student in a public school, despite the fact that the type of education is exactly the same. The differences are purely aesthetic and, in themselves, sales tags. In a practical way, the classes will have 8 students instead of 20, the teacher will be a doctorate instead of a licentiate, and the physical activity will be golf or tennis instead of soccer or volleyball. Despite this, what is certain is that, in terms of type and quality of education, they all offer the same.

The first analysis was about what system and teaching model I wanted for my children. Having knowledge of all teaching methods and models, in deep analysis I understood that all of them are instructional, giving instruction rather than allowing learning. Learning and memorizing for a test are opposites, and my interest was in learning. I want my children to learn any topic that interests them, passionately and in depth. I want them to know how to think instead of copying.

At Open Learning, each unit is a learning community. Every child follows their interests. Many think this is wrong, arguing that children will not acquire all the basics they need, not absorbing knowledge of the 8 subjects that, apparently, and in their perception, represent all the knowledge in the world.

For those who think in this way, it is important to convey to them that each of our children, when doing projects based on their interests, does so with maximum dedication and responsibility because they love and respect what they are doing, because they feel motivated to do something that arouses curiosity and interest.

As a learning community in which each child presents their projects, there is a transversal sharing of all this knowledge with their peers and educators. By presenting a project with which you identify, the message is conveyed in a clearer and more meaningful way. In this way, the child acquires, from the earliest years, a general knowledge of various topics and a deep knowledge of topics that really interest him.

Think about it: normally, we start to specialize knowledge already at university, at 18 years old. If we study continuously and until we finish a PhD, we end up with 25 years. Since it is factual that the peak of human learning capacity is when it is born and that it has been decreasing over time, does it make sense to have 7 years of learning according to our interests, instead of 25?

Bearing this in mind, I decided to delve deeper into the most popular alternative educational methods: Montessori, Waldorf, Piaget. All of them are methods, in fact, with a good scientific basis, such as Montessori adapting everything to the size of the child or Waldorf giving primacy to learning through play. Nevertheless, they are all instructionalists, in the sense that a teacher is in charge of the children’s day and makes decisions that control the timetable and calendar to be followed. Despite being much better and more suitable models than the traditional one, they were still not exactly what I was looking for.

I left the circuit even more in search of a model that I didn’t know and went to see initiatives in China, India, USA, Italy and the United Kingdom. One day, a friend of mine, who knew I was exasperated in this search, with my daughter about to be born and I still without a solution, introduced me to two names that changed my life: José Pacheco and Escola da Ponte. That was my initial inspiration. In research, following the trail of José Pacheco, who had left Escola Ponte in 2004 and gone to live in Brazil, I found a reference to Projecto Âncora, an incredible evolution of what Escola da Ponte was. With the coordination of Edilene Morikawa and Cláudia Santos, and inspired by José Pacheco, they created the most daring, remarkable and innovative education project in the world. There, I saw that children really learned! They followed their interests, delving a lot into each topic and on their own initiative, as it was in their interest to learn. It wasn’t forced. There were no schedules, grades, rooms or exams, and these kids looked like they acted twice their age in reference to their level of experience and knowledge. They even had more than twice the experience and knowledge of ordinary children because they devoted all their time to delving into topics that are of interest and retaining information because it is significant to them, because it has value for them. They didn’t waste time memorizing futile and unnecessary material that they will never use and that has no intellectual or human value.

Meanwhile, the Âncora Project, a social project, ended up being extinguished for various reasons. Fortunately, Edilene Morikawa, brave and enterprising that she is, did not let the flame of this incredible project die and founded the Escola Aberta de São Paulo (EASP). EASP has become the soul behind Open Learning. In this institution, I met the most competent people in the world in education and learning.

With the help of Edilene, I founded the first nucleus of what would become Open Learning in Portugal. The project took the name of A Quinta, for its insertion inside a Quinta with 7500m2, with a vegetable garden and animals and which serves 24 children, two of them my sons, Viktoria and Henrik.

The Quinta helped me to understand even more the importance of expanding the Open Learning Method all over the world. The results were beyond my expectations. My 3 year old daughter spoke 5 languages ​​and read and wrote in 2. From the first year of age, both my children communicated using sign language. The children of A Quinta, in just a few months, show an incredible evolution that amazes me day after day. Seeing the satisfaction of the parents and feeling their gratitude were some of the best feelings of my life. I found the solution, Open Learning was born!

It is possible to learn more and better, without classes, classes and tests.

We have divided the practical explanation of how it all works into 4 areas:

1. How we organize
2. What is our pedagogical proposal
3. How we evaluate
4. Education Model

Organization at Open Learning School

The organization of work at the Open Learning School is based on the relationships between all those involved in the learning process. Only in this way can we help your child learn to be, to be, to know and to act.

At Open Learning School, we prioritize the transition from dependence to autonomy. Children, of all ages and levels of learning, occupy the same spaces and learn together.

Tutors accompany each child’s process, guiding them in the preparation of Learning Project Planning, study guides, organization, study practice and day planning.

The Project Centers begin the pedagogical organization of the work of tutors and children, being units of learning and personal and social development.

Projects are divided into 4 phases

1. Initiation Stage I
2. Initiation Stage II
3. Development
4. Deepening

Initiation Stage I

Playful learning situations, new ways of relating to the world, new possibilities to read and formulate hypotheses about the phenomena, to test them, to refute them, to draw conclusions, in an active attitude in the construction of knowledge, guaranteeing the development of competences and abilities described in the BNCC, as well as the competences and the learning of attitudes consistent with the project, taking into account the action of the family and the community.

Initiation Stage II

Learning situations are developed, articulating the experiences lived in Early Childhood Education with new forms of relationship with the world, new possibilities, new conclusions. In the first two years of Elementary School, the pedagogical action focuses on literacy, so that students take ownership of the alphabetic writing system in an articulated way, the development of other reading and writing skills, and their involvement in diversified practices. of literacies.

Development

Students will be guaranteed the progression of knowledge by improving previous learning and by expanding language practices and cultural diversity, considering both their interests and expectations as well as what they already know and what they still need to learn.

Deepening

Intellectual autonomy, understanding of norms and interests in social life are expanded, which will allow your child to improve their relationship with others, with nature, with history, with culture, with technologies and with the environment. .

The work proposals with the students use the project work methodology. In this sense, the definition of the objective curriculum is dynamic and requires constant adaptation by the team of educators, so that it is possible to facilitate resources and materials in the acquisition of knowledge and in the development of essential competences.

How do we monitor children’s work?

Your child’s learning path, the evaluation of their work, as well as the most relevant documents produced by them, will be included in their individual file.

This document will show his evolution in the different dimensions of his school career. Your child’s work is permanently supervised by an educator, who is assigned the role of tutor. The tutor assumes a mediating role between family/society and the school. You can schedule a meeting with the tutor at any time and the tutor will periodically schedule a meeting with the family to inform you about your child’s learning.

What are the learning spaces?

There are no classrooms here. Learning happens anytime and anywhere.

The excellent conditions of spaces, structures, means and pedagogical relationships make it possible to provide an experience that does not stop at disciplines and textbooks, allowing them to learn through research that gives meaning to children’s doubts.

The Open learning School units have several spaces that aim to also be platforms for learning and creativity. From an auditorium, a room for physical and musical activities, dressing room, study rooms, kitchen, pantries, cafeteria, library, scientific and artistic experiments room, meeting room, secretary, board, break room, balcony and outdoor area with nature.

In addition to the School spaces, the Open Learning School uses other areas of learning, such as:

1. Public facilities close to the School, which allow the incorporation of children’s knowledge into local knowledge, thus experimenting with other ways of learning.
2. Cultural, socio-environmental and sports facilities around the school will serve as learning points and activities for the construction of a Learning Community prototype.

The definition of educational practices to be developed in these spaces will also be available to all those who wish to rethink the role of the school institution in society.

The conclusion is clear: there is a clear, strong and better alternative to learning compared to the way education is structured today.

The reason I created the Open Learning School was not altruistic, it was the need to provide the best possible education for my children. In addition to having experienced education in 5 different countries, where I grew up, I have been in the Education field for over 15 years, more specifically in the recruitment of international students for colleges and universities in the UK. During this period I had access to the most elite schools in the world, with greater national and international renown, those called Schools of the future, schools prepared for tomorrow, schools that, as they claimed, were different from the others. Despite all these parchments and self-proclaimed virtues, as a parent, I didn’t see a school different from traditional schools.

No matter how many rooms, spaces, horses, teachers’ doctorates, and other characteristics they had, they were nothing more than schools based on the same classic, factory and old-fashioned model of instruction and not learning. “You can’t give a horse that isn’t thirsty to drink” – José Pacheco. In other words, learning is not memorizing; only those who want to learn learn, the rest memorize. And as such, all these schools do nothing more than produce the same results as a traditional school, this is not intended. In no school did I find learning, only the memorizing of futile information that masked ignorance.

It took me 3 years of national and international research and I ended up meeting pedagogues and educators who ended up influencing my life. I began to think about learning and not instruction. So little did I know, that I knew nothing. I admit, my light came from the most unexpected corner – José Pacheco.

José Pacheco was the founder and promoter of Escola da Ponte in Portugal. Those who still don’t know the legend should read The School I Always Dreamed About Without Imaginar Que Pudesse Existir – written by Ruben Alves, one of the most influential Brazilian pedagogues, himself a legend of his own. This book describes the school on the bridge, and José’s work with the dignity it deserves.

A world reference school only unknown in Portugal. Approves? The main economic activity of Vila das Aves is educational tourism. People from all over the world come to see this project over 40 years old, which many of you, myself included, never heard of until recently. 40 years after Escola da Ponte, José was the co-founder of Projecto ncora, considered one of the most innovative schools in the world.

José from an early age defended that the School we have today is an outdated school. Thought, created and designed to serve a population based on the work of industries and workers. It is a school to educate people en masse: they put education on the assembly line like everything else in the 19th century. A school designed for the past when the future has already arrived.

“An educational model in which 21st century students are “taught” by 20th century teachers with 19th century practices is not acceptable.” – José Pacheco

A school where the average number of children per teacher exceeds 25, when we all know that we are all different and need different monitoring. He knew there were alternatives to education, and he’d already demonstrated it. I traveled to Brazil to meet him and learn a little more about his history and motivations. I was not disappointed. It was when I got to know more about the projects he was involved in that I realized that what I had imagined was not a utopia. Through him I ended up meeting other fantastic people, some of whom are now part of the teaching staff of the Open Learning International School. I make special reference to Edilene Morikawa (Co-founder Projecto Âncora, Founder Escola Aberta de São Paulo and Pedagogical Director of Open Learning School).

School will never be an end but a means

I started this school with a very simple and selfish objective: to give my children the best possible education. However, a school is for people. There had to be a space, not mine, but everyone’s.

Like me, I assume, you all seek a different education. A different pedagogy, a different way of seeing learning. And that’s why today we are here. This journey was only possible thanks to parents like you who, like me, think differently and who believed in this project even before any other. Together, let’s change education.

“Education, being an act of love and courage, has a complete translation in the Open Learning School. It is an act of love of the tutors’ dedication, and an act of courage that you as a father assumed to create an education of the century. XXI. an integral education that meets the cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, etc..” – José Pacheco