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
