Ms. Carla Nunes, our newest High School Portuguese teacher, has taught the subject since 2004 after completing her undergraduate, master's, and doctorate degrees in Literature at UFRJ. She’s a teacher of all ages, educating students from sixth grade to college, and has taught in multiple Brazilian schools in the public and private sectors. Ms. Carla has transitioned from the Gávea campus to the Barra campus due to the extra need that her daughter, Clara, currently requires - besides, as she lives in Recreio, the Barra campus is much more convenient to commute to - and we’re all pleased to have her here!
PP: What do you think is the most significant difference between your experiences in public schools in Rio and private schools?
CN: They are two completely different worlds. The first challenge that we face in the public sector is infrastructure. If we want to prepare an exercise for our students to complete, the teacher has to pay for their costs. I've had experiences where I had to buy a white board because ours was in such a degraded, precarious state that we couldn't write in it. I've worked in a school where water would leak from the ceiling onto students' heads and classrooms did not even have fans. Likewise, there is also a considerable lack of value in teaching professionals. Concerning students, pupils are pupils anywhere and will express themselves according to their experiences. Therefore, it is evident that in the public sector, how they treat teachers often reflects their vulnerable lives. Sometimes we have more heightened behavior problems in public, rather than in private schools. However, behavior is just the result of what one has experienced in their family and life.
PP: How do you think these different teaching experiences have impacted you as a person?
CN: We develop empathy by putting ourselves in the other's shoes. Students from less fortunate communities often become victims of a system that has everything to fail. We often have a student that does not know who his father is, whose mother is an alcoholic, an addict, or absent. Ultimately, the grandmother becomes responsible for taking care of them. They live in communities where there is the naturalization of violence, weaponry, police invasions, and drug trafficking. When we understand this, I, as an adult and a teacher, begin to look at that classroom from a different perspective, no matter how challenging and complex it can be. I'm not trying to romanticize the situation; I am trying to convey that there's a reason for them being who they are.
PP: After experiencing these two completely different environments, how was your transition from teaching in public schools to private schools?
CN: There was, in fact, no transition. Currently, I still teach in the municipality of Nova Iguaçu. Until last year, I taught students in the prison system for minors, a system that we call Criade. I've always worked in parallel, both in private schools and in public schools. It develops an understanding that the student, regardless of his financial situation, has his shortcomings, issues, and needs due to the different natures that each comes from.
PP: If you could give any advice to Carla from ten years ago, what would it be?
CN: From a more personal perspective, it would be to have more trust in myself and the person I am, and to care more for my emotional and financial independence. To understand that I should never force myself to stay in a situation that diminishes, belittles, or undermines me. The advice I’d give to my past self is one I would give to many girls. In terms of profession: to always keep myself up to date about my field, so that I can better understand our students' language and their needs.
PP: You talked about always keeping up to date; what do you think is the impact Chat GPT is bringing to the teaching world?
CN: It is creating a need to reformulate and rethink how we, as teachers, approach the learning of our students. We live in a century of significant technological advancements, and we cannot control, stop, or avoid them. It is a challenge that the system will have to know how to deal with. Although Chat GPT is familiar, how the platform was presented is innovative. However, questions of plagiarism and asking or paying someone to do a job have always existed. Thus, some issues are beyond us and can only be controlled in possibly more traditional and conservative ways. Indeed, it is essential to rethink the questions that will be assessed by making them more reflective, personalized, and focused on critical thinking. This will then allow teachers to evaluate one's reasoning, and as far as I have read and informed myself about Chat GPT, its line of thought is not as strong as a human's. Of course, it's difficult to detect, but its answers have "less personality" and can be more generic in certain aspects.
PP: Do you think the social disparity in education will aggravate as technology advances furthermore?
CN: Yes, you've already answered your question. Advancements like these only distances and reinforces this abyss and inequality that exists between social classes in Brazil. The pandemic, for example, highlighted our social differences. While top private schools and their students had access to all the required resources, the public sector stayed for an extended period with no classes and no resources, and without institutional support. I had students who bought a chip monthly because there is R$10,00 of credit for each chip you buy. The only way they had to communicate with the school was with that chip credit, thus, having to change monthly numbers. There were students who, due to the lack of school during the pandemic, were left without the main meal of the day because they often went to school to eat. Therefore, there were problems involving hunger and a need for job opportunities. Technology will continue reinforcing social inequality, where those with less access to resources will be less updated, thus, less well-educated. Consequently, failing to reach universities ultimately subjects them to the worst jobs and underemployment. On the other hand, those from a more privileged class will have all the resources to enter a qualified university, therefore, accessing more cutting-edge jobs. Eventually, a vicious cycle forms and education is the only way to break it.
PP: To end on a good note, where do you see yourself and the country in the future? Do you believe that the government will start to value education?
CN: That would be in the ideal world. The possibility of changing the country is directly connected to the governors, so the only way to talk about investment in education is by talking about the government. I still see myself fighting for the same things that I fight for now in the future, standing up for the rights of those who I think are socially less privileged, and making those who have this privilege aware of reality. When the time comes, this knowledge will benefit the students who become administrators, entrepreneurs, or politicians who will finally be able to look at the most vulnerable people with a different perspective. Ten years from now, I see myself saying what I say today, but with the hope that we have stepped further.
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