I remember imagining about the hard time I would have once I got my job in the public school while I was studying for the admission test as an English teacher. However it is even harder. I’m not complaining or trying to find the guilty in the scenario, even so, I feel like talking about the school background in Brazil.
First, students from public schools have different goals (no news here), which doesn’t mean they don’t want what the students from private ones do. But more than just things, they want access to love. Exactly. They want to be loved and respected and considered. And unfortunately their family don’t give them enough. Can you imagine society? Not rarely they come to school with dirty clothes, without showering, wearing no perfume or whatsoever and hungry. Food is an expensive commodity which not everybody has access to. They want to hug and feel part of the ‘team’ by the teachers all the time. If you give them a special tendered look, they have won the sky!
Secondly, the proportion of students who suffer some kind of violence at home are way too high if compared to those who go to private schools. And why is that? Alcohol is the main factor but we also have other kinds of drugs, depression and hunger as causes for the violence. Not to mention the pedophiles among them, such as the father, grandfather, uncle and also female relatives, including the mother and sometimes sisters, who sexually abuse them. But the question is: why do we have so many maniac assaulting the poor kids? I really believe that is because of the range: we have more poor people in our society, and consequently more mental diseased are to be found in this social level category.
Thirdly, students usually don’t come to learn new contents, to acquire knowledge. They come because they have to and sometimes because the food given at school is the only food they will have for the day. So, the tendency of these children not to go to college or graduate and start a family (or have a baby) while they’re teenagers are really strong, which inserts them in a low level reality they can’t change easily, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
And finally the quantity of students with some kind of disorder. Let’s say that while we have one or two students with ADHD in each classroom and around four autistic people in the whole school (attending from elementary to high school), that number amusingly grows at public schools for fifteen to eighteen ADHD students per class and an average of one autistic per group. It is really astonishing and almost always hard to work some English content with them at the same way I do at the private educational institution. I almost never speak in English with them and the activities must be as simple as possible.
Again, I’m not trying to blame society or the school principal or the mayor, or comparing to say that one institution is better than the other one. I’m just trying to show Brazilian students’ reality. I hope you may understand my point of view.