Meaning of School (What it is, Concept and Definition)

It is the institution that provides the teaching process for students (students), with the aim of train and develop each individual in their cultural, social and cognitive aspects..

The word school comes from the Greek school, which means "leisure" - the same as "leisure or free time". This meaning comes from the concept of school in Ancient Greece, which, unlike what we see today, was a meeting, a moment, when Greek citizens took some free time to discuss philosophy and some behaviors. social.

The emergence and development of schools in the world

In 2000 a. C., in the period of Ancient Greece, schools had the objective of educating men in their integral formation, that is, developing their ethics, political thought and their religious knowledge.

However, with the fall of Ancient Greece to Rome in 763 a. C., schools now have the function of training men with critical capacity, through teachings on philosophy, arithmetic, politics and the arts, where the teacher (great philosophers) encouraged the construction of ideologies based on the social behavior of the time and not on his own knowledge.

During this period, the school trained only males, considered citizens Greco-Roman, with the aim of making them leaders of the people, as politicians or representatives religious.

The institution represented a constructive exchange of ideas, where people were free to develop their own thoughts and conclusions.

Image representing the Greco-Roman educational system.

Understand everything about the history of Ancient Greece.

With the social and religious domination of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, the right to education became restricted only to the clerical elite, with the other social classes being excluded from any knowledge or teaching. taught.

The teachers at the time were the religious themselves, who taught reading and writing, based on studies of the Catholic Church. Classes took place inside the monasteries, with children and adults sharing the same environment and teachings.

It was from the development of the economy in this period that the nobles realized the need to read, write and tell for their businesses. The elite understood that with the economic growth, they would need more and more people educated and trained in the operation of machines and in carrying out negotiations.

The school, then, takes on a new meaning: to train workers selected by the nobility to work in the labor market in favor of economic development.

The emergence of public education in the world

On October 28, 1717, the then despot of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm I, decreed that schooling for children aged 5 to 12 in his country was mandatory. However, the school institution at the time was still selective, that is, only a few students were chosen to have access to public education.

However, the biggest milestone in the history of public education happened during the French Revolution, in 1789. This year, France instituted the first public school with state management, for French citizens.

Years later, in 1792, France also played another milestone in world education, its public schools were declared as lay people, that is: free from any religious influence, mainly from the Catholic Church that dominated the general educational system until then.

School as a right for all

With the rise of public schools in Europe, other continents have also adapted their education using the European model as an example.

However, it was only in the 20th century, precisely in 1948, that United Nations declared the school as a right of every human being, guaranteed by Article 26 of the Declaration of Human Rights, as follows:

Every human being has the right to education. Education will be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental degrees. Elementary instruction will be mandatory. Technical and professional education will be accessible to everyone, as well as higher education, which will be based on merit.

After this decree, it was the State's duty to provide and maintain regular basic education, giving the right for parents to choose the educational model that best suits and makes sense for their parents. sons.

type of schools

In Brazil, these educational models were gradually adopted over the years of national and international pedagogical studies. Currently, schools can follow one of the following lines:

• Traditional School: this is the most common pedagogical line in Brazilian schools. The Traditional School places the teacher at the central level of teaching, as the holder of all knowledge, and the student as the passive recipient of information. The teacher clearly conveys the teaching and assesses the students through tests, assignments and lessons from home, which function as a thermometer that assesses the level of knowledge acquired by the student in each subject.
• Freirian School: this line is based on the theory of one of the greatest Brazilian pedagogues, Paulo Freire. The Freiriana school defends the critical development of the student through practical actions within the classroom. Here, the teacher presents content to his students, taking into account their social and cultural experiences, as individual humans, making mutual learning between teacher and student. The main objective of Escola Freiriana is to make students aware of their power to transform the world. It was designed not to apply tests or any other assessment method, as it respects the pace and vision of individual learning.
• Montessorian School: created by Italian educator Maria Montessori, the Montessoriana line has as its central idea that the student achieves acquire knowledge independently, through activities presented by the teacher within the classroom. class. Here, the teacher is like a guide and aims to help students create a sense of responsibility for their own knowledge trajectory, focused solely on the reality of each one.
• Constructivist School: in this pedagogical line, which has Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget as the main inspirations, the student is the protagonist of his learning process. In other words, education is not a simple transmission of knowledge, it works as a support, allowing students to create and experience their own learning process. As in the Freiriana school, tests or any other type of assessment are not applied here.
• Waldorf School: is a system based on the studies of Rudolf Steiner and aims at the integral development of the student, that is, not only his intellectual aspect, but also his bodily, soul and spiritual aspects. The direction given to the student here is "education for freedom", developing them in their human sense, in favor of a full social life. A teacher is chosen to accompany individual students in all their cycles and there are also no assessments.

The emergence of schools in Brazil

School in Brazil began with a religious sense, still in Colonial Brazil. In 1549 the Society of Jesus, formed by the Jesuits, arrived in Brazil using education to catechize the Indians, teaching them the Catholic religion.

Education in its full sense, with literacy and teaching of exact and human sciences, was directed only to the children of Portuguese nobles who resided in Brazil or to priests, important figures religious.

Painting representing the Society of Jesus catechizing the Indians in Colonial Brazil

Until the nineteenth century, schools in Brazil were unsystematic institutions, with traditional education and with few physical places to house students. It was only in the "Era Vargas" that school was declared a right for all citizens, guaranteed by the 1988 Constitution.

In the 20th century, many educators, with Paulo Freire, changed the course of schools in Brazil, along with educational models, bringing new concepts to the functions of the school in the lives of citizens.

The school's functions in the formation of citizens

The school, like the family, has essential functions in the development and formation of individuals as citizens, professionals and, above all, as human beings. In addition to its practical duties, such as literacy, the school also has three important missions in the lives of its students:

• Socialize: prepare the individual for life in society, teaching local culture, symbols, politics and native language;
• Humanize: show the individual the social, religious and cultural differences, making him able to live peacefully with the other;
• Teach: alphabetize and cognitively educate individuals, preparing them for the professional and academic world;
• Develop critical sense: prepare students to research, question and reflect on social, personal and political concepts, building their own opinions, avoiding the possible alienation of common sense.

Division of Basic Education in Brazil

In Brazil, the basic cycle teaching is divided into:

• Child education: duration of 4 years, with students from 0 to 3 years;
• Pre school: duration of 3 years, with students from 4 to 6 years old;
• Elementary School: duration of 9 years, with students from 6 to 14 years old;
• High school: duration of 3 years, with students aged 15 to 17;

Each cycle can be made available by state schools (in the management of the Government of each state), municipal schools (in the management of Municipalities) or private schools (private management).

The importance of inclusive school in Brazil

One of the biggest current challenges facing Brazilian schools is the inclusion of people with disabilities. Fur MEC (Ministry of Education) and by the Law guidelines and bases of national education, inclusive education is mandatory in Brazil, and it is the duty of schools and the State to provide projects that involve integration actions and teaching strategies that are able to meet all students.

However, the current scenario is still worrying about inclusion. Many schools do not have good facilities and even trained professionals who can teach and include students with disabilities.

School Without Party Movement

The Escola Sem Partido Movement was created by prosecutor Miguel Nagib, in 2004, motivated by his opinion contrary to any type of political or ideological propagation within schools Brazilian companies.

The project, considered by its creator as non-governmental and non-profit, aims to create means so that teachers do not transfer or explain to their students, their moral and political opinions, so that they are not influenced in their own conceptions.

This initiative became a law project in Rio de Janeiro in 2014 (PL 2974/2014), and from then on projects were presented in other states as well.

See also the meaning of:

• education;
• Politics;
• Cognitive;
• School inclusion;
• School management;
• education;
• inclusive education;