Today we celebrate Teachers’ Day in Brazil. It’s a day to express our appreciation of the work and dedication of teachers. Consequently, it’s a day in which the focus of interest and debate should be on learning and education.

I basically keep two things in mind throughout my work:

• The student is not a bucket.

• I want to give the students the resources for them to think about their issues, understand them and find the answer by themselves. I want them to think for themselves. Hehe…

Although it is difficult to swim against the current, we do find support along the way. The Pink Floyd song, Another Brick in the Wall, back in 1979, already said that!

Roger Waters wrote this song about his views on formal education. He hated his grammar school teachers and felt they were more interested in keeping the kids quiet than teaching them. The bricks in the wall were the events in Water’s life which propelled him to build this wall around him, and his school teacher was another brick in the wall. The song is meant to be satirical. Waters explained: “You couldn’t find anybody in the world more pro-education than me. But the education I went through in boys’ grammar school in the ‘50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion. The song is meant to be a rebellion against the government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that.”

Don’t miss it! Learn and practice the lyrics here!