“Liceu” welcomes 600 new students with the enthusiasm of Paulo Freire’s poetry
The Principal's office promoted today a welcome session for new students beginning year 10. There are a total of 600 new students, with dreams and expectations, at a reference school and with a quality pedagogical project. Calm but curious, inhibited but eager for knowledge and attentive to a forest of educational opportunities that, in time, they will seize, each with their own life project. This is how the new students are now starting a new and decisive cycle of studies, like countless generations that have marked the centenary history of the “Liceu”.
The welcome session was filled with messages of optimism and enthusiasm from the Principal Ana Isabel Freitas, who took the opportunity to outline the institution's values, its Educational Project and the various extracurricular projects that could broaden horizons of the student in so-called informal education. In an intimate and empathetic atmosphere, there was also space for a remarkable moment of poetry, with the president reciting the words of the historic Paulo Freire about the school's mission, precisely to remember that the students are faced with a house that cultivates the culture of work but also about meeting, sharing and happiness.
The year 10 class head teachers, from the various courses, accompanied the students to the classroom for the individual presentation and gave a guided tour of all the facilities, familiarizing them with a different universe that will be their second home.
Ana Isabel Freitas explained, in welcoming words addressed to students and some parents, that ESJM is committed to the values of Democracy, intending to enhance everyone's capabilities, whether in pursuing studies or in the job market.
Values are also a pillar of the “DNA” of the “Liceu”, as mentioned by the Principal: “We want students to develop the values of respect, proactivity, excellence and demand and citizenship and participation to face current challenges of society. We are a reference and prestigious school based on quality educational practices, seeking to provide its students with cognitive, personal and social skills that allow them to deal with a future marked by unpredictability”.
On September 12th, this Thursday, the alarm clock will wake up students to the new world of secondary education at the “Liceu”. Classes begin! It's time to face a new challenge, manage disparate situations and gain the opportunities of a train that can take each student very far.
Paulo Freire's poem, quoted by Ana Isabel Freitas:
Escola é
… o lugar que se faz amigos.
Não se trata só de prédios, salas, quadros, Programas, horários, conceitos…
Escola é sobretudo, gente Gente que trabalha, que estuda
Que alegra, se conhece, se estima.
O Diretor é gente,
O coordenador é gente, O professor é gente,
O aluno é gente,
Cada funcionário é gente.
E a escola será cada vez melhor
Na medida em que cada um se comporte
Como colega, amigo, irmão.
Nada de “ilha cercada de gente por todos os lados”
Nada de conviver com as pessoas e depois,
Descobrir que não tem amizade a ninguém.
Nada de ser como tijolo que forma a parede,
Indiferente, frio, só.
Importante na escola não é só estudar, não é só trabalhar,
É também criar laços de amizade,
É criar ambiente de camaradagem,
É conviver, é se “amarrar nela”!
Ora é lógico…
Numa escola assim vai ser fácil!
Estudar, trabalhar, crescer,
Fazer amigos, educar-se, ser feliz.
É por aqui que podemos começar a melhorar o mundo.
(Paulo Freire)
