No to "non-partisan schools," yes to democratic schools!

All the work of a school should be geared towards the reality that surrounds it. Its purpose is to educate young people who can look at the world and challenge themselves to make it a better place through their work and knowledge. For this to happen, we cannot confuse the act of teaching with the simple act of transmitting knowledge. Human beings are not robots. Only through critical reflection on practice can we improve the world, making it more just and more democratic. This is the meaning of a liberating education.

But it seems that the coup government of Michel Temer and its allies do not agree with this vision. They do not agree that the school needs to be a democratic space, they do not agree with the free organization of all sectors that make up the school community. Today, a dangerous project entitled "School Without Parties" is being debated in the National Congress, which recently received the support of the illegitimate government and its Ministry of Education. Instead of defending a free and critical education system, it is, in fact, the opposite. It is an initiative of censorship and persecution of freedom of expression within the school environment, widely guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution after the end of the military dictatorship.

Paulo Freire (one of the most admired and translated Brazilian scholars in the world) said that "by observing, we become capable of intervening in reality, a task incomparably more complex and generative of new knowledge than simply adapting to it." This is the objective that education should have: to generate new knowledge and not allow us to adapt to injustices or to see them as natural things. But the Minister of Education prefers to receive proposals from Alexandre Frota rather than read Paulo Freire...

The parliamentarians who defend the "School Without Political Parties" project are generally people not linked to education or the fight for education, but to the most conservative factions in the National Congress. What they really want is to replace the freedom of dialogue and debate of ideas in the classroom with a conservative ideology. That's right: the "School Without Political Parties" project is extremely ideological! There is no impartiality in it whatsoever! It is the ideology of those who want an alienated population, those who do not want society to change, but to remain unequal and unjust.

The "School Without Political Parties" movement also aims to persecute student unions and organizations, criminalizing and disrespecting the courageous high school student movement that has recently been occupying schools throughout Brazil and gaining public attention regarding the real problems facing schools: the neglect and disregard they suffer in various places.

The project aims to prevent, in an ultraconservative manner, pluralistic debate on crucial topics such as history, politics, human rights, and the fight against oppression, seeking to impede the exercise of a pedagogy that enables student autonomy and the transformation of society. The truth is, there is not a single historical fact that does not have political content. Even the decision about what we will or will not study in school is a political decision. It is therefore necessary to allow debate, to present the diversity of viewpoints. The "School Without Parties" is a school of only one party, of only one side (the most conservative of all), seeking to bury the natural diversity of thought in the pursuit of knowledge and transforming the educational process into an instrument of oppression and censorship.

Those who defend the "Non-Partisan School" movement may not understand the strength of the high school student movement. Students have opinions and defend, above all, democracy and freedom. That is why we will continue in schools, on social media, and in the streets denouncing the authoritarian nature of this project and fighting for the school of our dreams.

No to "Non-Partisan Schools"! Yes to democratic schools!