AQUELA TIA ALI VAI CONVERSAR COM VOCÊ

AQUELA TIA ALI VAI CONVERSAR COM VOCÊ

Veronica Pinheiro

12 de março de 2024

Massinha: Pérola, 06 anos

In the first week of class, my job was to shelter those who cried. I thought that was funny. Then I realised the size of the responsibility. My little mates would talk about this pain in their tummies and, as well as tears, they would carry helplessness in their eyes.

When welcoming them, I would say that I would stay there for as long as it took. I'd ask where the fear was. And their little hands would go straight to their bellies. Is it hunger? To my heart's relief, the answers were all negative. Then came the last question: I think I saw fear in your eyes; what are you afraid of?

In general, the process of schooling deterritorialises within the territory. It leaves the child's identity in the background, determines what is important or not to know, determines what to eat, how to dress, it sets the sacred apart and imposes new ways of life. The so-called universal knowledge, basic knowledge and basic education guide the curricula. Little by little, an individual becomes a class; little by little, bodies are docilised. And when we least expect it... all the drawings are painted inside the lines.

São tantos os complicadores sociais que a escola tornou-se a principal agência de (de-/con-)formação humana, invadindo aldeias, quilombos e periferias como braço do Estado. A escola apresenta o mundo às crianças. E para muitos, em muitos lugares, é a única instituição habilitada para transmitir conhecimento. No entanto, se existe um pensamento que norteia, se o mesmo está a serviço do colonialismo para sujeição dos sujeitos e adormecimento das memórias… deve haver um pensamento que suleia.

I suggest we seek to turn southwards concerning the way we are at school. Let's create safe environments for teachers and children to paint outside the lines that outline the drawings. Let's accept the troublemaker and his insubmissive body. I think that, during the process of turning southwards, life memories and the sustaining principles of the territories will be awakened. Turning southwards means pluriversalising ways of existing and relating to life.

In a certain way, those children, who cried during the first week of school, knew that they would have to leave behind, in addition to their homes, a bit of themselves outside the school walls. I know someone is going to say: 'But some children go smiling!' Yes, I know, and those worry me the most.