Manuel Evaristo lived in a house of wattle and daub covered with coconut straw in the interior of Rio Grande do Norte. I slept on the network and to help with expenses, selling coconut candy. In a street race without training or fitness, the boy of 11 years of bare feet caught the attention of Magnolia Figueiredo, RN Olympic champion in athletics, who then tried to get him to train professionally in Natal. Manuel Evaristo grew, became champion was Brazilian medalist in athletics and today, at 49, is dedicated to rescuing young people from the streets of Brasilia. "If not for the sport, I was even alive," says the coach, who do for others what one day someone did for him.
Ahead of the Institute Joaquim Cruz, Evaristo has trained about 250 athletes, it changed the fate of teenagers living in delinquency and vibrates to see a kid who was armed now studying and working. "Sport is a simulacrum, a great analogy of life," says Renato Miranda, professor of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora and athletes consultant. Author of two books on human performance through sports, he says that the attitude of the educator is crucial, highlighting the knowledge, authority, education and self-discipline, qualities essential for obtaining good results in any matter.
Former coach of basketball and retired professor from USP, Dante De Rose Junior points out some lessons that the teacher can learn from sport. "Often, the teacher of the classroom does not open for students manifest" he says. "In sport there is authority, but exercise authority does not mean being authoritative. I see teachers demanding respect when, in fact, has to be won, "he concludes.
A team game
Master in pedagogy of human movement from the School of Physical Education and Sports, USP, Paula Korsakas explains that the practice of sport can help in education because it is imbued with values, ethical and moral codes. However, it is not an automatic relationship, but something that is built over a lifetime. "If sport, in fact, had the ability to educate themselves, we would only examples of citizenship among athletes, but we know that is not the case," he says.
In the coordinator of the Human Development Programme for Sport (PRODHE), USP Sports Center, Paula puts into practice reasons based on studies and research, which consist in sport use as a learning tool and development of self-esteem, with an approach supported by the Organization of education pillars of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): learning to know, to do, to live with others and to be.
In PRODHE, an initiative to 120 students 8-16 years, teens have the autonomy to organize tournaments, make commitments, control and justify their absence. There is a concrete system in which they experience the causes and consequences good and bad behavior. "Everything is lived," said the coordinator. "So, we built a system in which they realize the importance of values for social organization," said Paula, considering an error of traditional education believe that the development of conduct and social relations are constructed from speeches and moral lessons .
On a trajectory of 19 years of work, with technical partnership of Instituto Ayrton Senna, the PROHDE has become a reference center on the theme, with strategic role to systematize, disseminate knowledge and train teachers, factors that led the program to be part of methodological advice of the Sport for Social Change Network (REMS), an organization that brings together over 50 institutions with a commitment to work the sport in favor of human development.
Living and learning to play
Among the entities that comprise the REMS is the Institute Share, designed in 2003 by Bernardo Rocha de Rezende, known as the technical Rezende of the Brazilian national volleyball. "Rezende always believed that the great transformation happen in school," said Luiz Fernando Nascimento, Nando, executive manager of the institute. Based on this belief, they have designed an innovative strategy and led the volleyball to public schools, with classes in contraturno and the involvement of teachers from their own school system. "We wanted the school to be recognized as the cell transformation," says Nando.
Point to them: the plan worked and today the Share operates in several states (Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Norte), it has 41 cores and serves approximately 4000 children and adolescents. Not only are students who gain from this initiative. Over the 11 years of existence of the institute, Nando notes that the practice of volleyball in the format developed by them, infects the classroom teachers, the way schools and families, who are surprised not only with the performance of students on the court, but also with new patterns of behavior that are reflected in other environments. "Our project is much more than playing ball," said Nando. "We use sport as a backdrop to teach win, lose, take risks and make decisions, tasks that are difficult to perform in real life."
Those who live with Michael Jackson Jr., 15, realizes the changes. He was aggressive, problematic in and out of the classroom, without any control. "I knew he lived in a situation of risk," says Luciene Rodrigues Soares, educator and retired deputy director of the Municipal School Monsignor Joaquim Honorius in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, where she met Michael. Two years ago, realizing that he liked sports, Luciene invited the boy to go to the institute. He accepted immediately and was received by Professor Simplício Silva, who, although facing an unruly boy, welcomed him and gave him responsibilities.
Michael realized it was so nervous that came into tears of anger and fought, especially when called by nicknames. "Offended me so much that I did not want to go to school and went to disapproved by faults," says the boy, whose attitude has changed and, as a result, stopped swearing. Today it has self-esteem, helps his grandmother in the affairs, on the side helps your Ernani, who owns a paint store or make supplementary (is entering the 7th grade), dreams of studying letters, because like the American music, and attends the Institute thanks to the dedication of Luciene, who leads weekly classes. Retired educator still oversees Michael studies, advising him and accompanying him in every way. "Helping these kids it is still teaching," he believes.
More than one exhaust valve
In Reaction Institute, association also created in 2003 by the judo medalist Flavio Canto, in the community of Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, it is common for mothers, guardianship schools or agencies to forward teens to the program due to bad behavior. "This kind of thinking shows that parents and educators are aware that the sport helps," explains Joan Steps Miraglia, psychologist and coordinator Executive Institute. To train high performance athletes, many seek the reaction in order to see the children winning in life through sports. Just as with Rafaela Silva, who was born in the City of God, he stepped on the mats Reaction to eight years and, after much struggle, got the title of first female world champion in judo in Brazil.
The figures, however, prove to be champion is not for everyone. Among thousand students enrolled in the institute, seven are part of the Brazilian national judo. For Flávio Canto, however, the ultimate goal is to transform lives and build winners off the mat. Therefore, the institute balances technical and tactical exercises of the sport with human development activities. Joan Miraglia see in judo a privileged instrument to work full education, to have traditional valuation principles, respect and discipline.
Currently, the institute is housed in five needy poles of Rio de Janeiro and meets success stories. The psychologist remembers John Lucas, a boy who had two dreams: to build a room for parents, as he slept in the room with them, and be a lawyer, aspiration which replaced the goal of being a janitor like his father. Today he celebrates the renovation of the house and the entry into law school. Who enters the institute participates in art workshops, science and technology. Students who excel have a chance to scholarships at schools and private universities. "One of our challenges is to promote interaction between social classes through sport," said the coordinator. "That way, we also fight against inequality", he believes.
While that sports can be a powerful tool of integration, sociability and personal development, Felipe Pitaro, pedagogical coordinator of the Gol de Letra, NGO created in 1998 by former football players Rai and Leonardo, alert to the danger of see sports as a lifeline to all problems. "If not used the right way, sport can generate frustration, because not everyone will be a Neymar" he warns. "Physical education and sport are not pleasurable activities in nature. They demand efforts, specific skills and show the body, which is a very private property of each "he says.
The expert explains that the misguided sport can bring physical and emotional problems. In addition, warning that pleasure is an individual element and a taste for sports practice does not reach everyone. "This idea that the sport does well is almost a myth," says Pitaro. Given the complexity surrounding the issue, Gol de Letra of the classes are based on a conversation with the group, during which the functions of each participant are agreed, that is, everyone participates, but in circumstances in which they acknowledge. "We believe that the curriculum is a mentor, but it needs to be discussed, lived, attributed, and not tax. For us, this is integral education ".
Students between 7 and 14 years who enter the program know they are not there simply to "hit a ball". The meetings involve speaking and writing activities, cultural, artistic, and athletic body. So everyone has access to a variety of practices to choose what you really like. That's what happened to Laura Maria Bernardo Araújo, who joined the unit Cashew, in Rio de Janeiro, with 10 years, participated in everything and today, 15 years, is monitoring.
Laura says that is safer and more confident. "I could not expose my opinions, let me lead very easily and was also blown off," he says. "I learned to impose and to deal with situations." Luke Toquer Clementino dos Santos, 16, also reaps the rewards of having attended the NGO. He remembers that was forced by her sister, who saw the Gol de Letra an alternative to not mess around. If, at first, for he was a decoy to leave the street friends to participate in activities, now thinks differently. "This is my second home," defines the boy, who is also monitor and attends the Gol de Letra to study and do school research. Luke and Laura stood out in the foundation and were chosen for an exchange in France. "I look forward, thinking about how it will be," says Lucas, who lives in Rio community Cashew. "I never got out of Rio de Janeiro, now I come to São Paulo and France. My sister're felizona. "
The benefits of sport awaken the dreams even of those born surrounded care, affection and opportunities. Pedro Araújo is 15 years old, studying in a private school in São Paulo, he grew up watching his father, Henry Araujo, playing tennis club and, from 8 years practice mode. As the sport alone does not solve all problems, was in the school tennis Suzana Silva, athlete and coach, which has a methodology for comprehensive education, the teen turned the tables in just six months of training. "Before I thought of being a journalist or lawyer, now I question if I can not be more," says Peter to get the chance to embrace the sport as a profession.
The father notes that he is more outgoing, confident, motivated, have more initiative and are better managing their choices. Suzana Silva, which contributed to the transformation of many teenagers as well as Pedro, operates in two private schools in São Paulo. In one, the lead tennis design students was so successful that the direction entered the classes in the curriculum, rather than offering them only in contraturno. "Sport helps when you go beyond the imposition of rules and can lead to reflection," says Suzana.
Source text: Silvana Azevedo Reporting to the Journal Patio 21 June / 2014
Available in: http://www.grupoa.com.br/revista-patio/artigo/10467/educacao-em-jogo.aspx
