Happy Birthday to the most precious dad and grandpa. You have a great soul, dad, someone who taught me to observe and listen to the birds, respecting the silence of our hearts. You are the best!

Negotiating the meaning of politics

Each one of us in a different path needs to figure out that we should work to become, and not to acquire. Politicians definitely forget this concept and completely ignore what is right and good for people they are supposed to protect and guide. I am a teacher who fights for a better world because children out there should have the right of a good education, no matter what. So how come we still find public libraries closed and people in charge with a reactive discourse as if none of this is their fault? How come art and culture in this country is still something aimed to the privileged ones? Why teachers and schools still have trouble connecting curriculum, life and culture? Why do people take things for granted and don't move a muscle to change the environment around them? Due to some personal issues I have been facing with loss and grieve, I have had my share of this twisted politics in Brazil and all over I guess. I was invited to work as a coordinator January 2009 in a public office, but quit May, 22. I was asked to stay a little longer in order to help things get settled. August 15 I gave a formal letter with all the itens that made me sick in this position. They put me on hold for 90 days and I can hardly wait to be back in the classroom. That's where all of us teachers make a difference, children and teenagers and young adults and even older citizens are better politicians than those who have a chair in public offices. So I want to be back to the place I belong and I never left because of my other two jobs teaching at my language school and the community college. We have to straighten things out and tell the world out there that we have had with all this wrongdoing. Enough is enough, people are alert and can tell the difference. It is not OK or normal for a pilot to cause an accident just because he or his company have hidden agendas, it is not OK for Congress to cover up bribes and hidden favors just to guarantee future elections and it is not OK for teachers and coordinators in small towns exchange favors with the mayor's office and connections, completely ignoring what is best for the children and the schools as a whole. I suggest these people grab Gabriel Chalita's book Os dez mandamentos da ética. Maybe this brilliant author, politician and educator would straighten things out at once and make people in public jobs more proactive and alert to ethics. It is also worth reading O segredo das quatro letras. For Gabriel Chalita, I have 2 words: thank you! Thank you for being there for the people you represent and respecting the true meaning of POLITICS!