Projeto Âncora is a private NGO that offers education to children from Kindergarten until 14 years old. In 2016 the school will also offer higher secondary education (‘ensino medio’) from age 14 to 18 with the aim to become a subsidized public school. The pupils are mainly from the surroundings and are representing all social backgrounds.
Founding story
Before becoming a school, Projeto Âncora was a meeting point, an open learning space where children and their families were invited to practice citizenship through educational, cultural and artistic activities. The founder of this Anchor project, Walter Steurer, even dreamt of an open learning city. After his death, the existing community wanted to keep the Anchor project alive by creating a school with a similar philosophy. The ‘Escola da Ponte’ in Portugal, created by José Pacheco, with its democratic educational approach seemed to be the perfect match and soon José Pacheco was asked to build up the school.
Teaching methodology & curriculum
Values
Projeto Âncora strives to build up a sustainable community and invites children to be social, critical, autonomous and responsible citizens. The school embodies five main values:
- Respect
- Honesty
- Solidarity
- Empathy
- Responsibility
Children are evaluated according to the level in which they incorporate these values in their behavior. The same values are reflected in the way learning is conceptualized.
Self-study, planning and practice
In this school teachers don´t really teach. They coach. Pupils do follow a fixed national curriculum but they study and plan their learning by themselves on their own rhythm. Every child has his own tutor. Each day the child plans his activities with his tutor and at the end of the day he reports what he has and hasn´t done and reflects on this. Besides the curriculum learners can spend an amount of time on the realization of their dream project and on any activity they want. The tutor keeps a personal file with the progression of the child and with the evaluations of his attitudes and skills. His role is to understand the context of the child, to build up relationships with the parents paying home visits, to comprehend the child`s behaviour. On the other hand several workshops are organized to promote learning through practice.
No hierarchy
Every child is a unique human being and has the opportunity to discover his own potential. Pupils aren´t told what to do or where to go. There is no hierarchy between teachers and pupils. Because learning is seen as an exchange of ideas and experiences, different ages are mixed to allow intergenerational collaborative relationships. In this setting teachers are learners and learners are teachers.
Learning from the great pedagogues
The school combines the relevant aspects of the most influential pedagogues we know. In the school description here above one can easily recognize the expertise of Freinet (self-study, democratic self-government, cooperative learning), Ivan Illich (deschooling society, conviviality, individual freedom in personal interdependence), Paulo Freire (political engagement, democratic and transformative relationship between teachers & students), Vygotsky (learning is a social construction), Montessori (mixed age classrooms, freedom of movement and of activity within a range of options, no direct instruction) and many others. Even Krishnamurti´s holistic love for nature and his goal to uncondition yourself to be an autonomous thinker, are reflected in this open learning space.
Organizational & structural aspects
In Projecto Âncora all the rooms and green spaces are open. The school looks like a small village around a square with a circus. The buildings offer a library, rooms with computers and books, a dance studio, a studio with instruments, a skate park, a kitchen and a cafeteria. Student assemblies democratically vote about decisions concerning the organization of the school. The ‘Projeto Âncora parents and friends association’ creates a social network to extend the educational activities to the surrounding community. Examples of these activities are projects in eco-construction and permaculture.
Funding
Children don´t pay a tuition fee. Projeto Âncora is funded through donations, grants, contributions from visitors, sales of homemade products, investments from companies, and collaborations with universities for teacher training. The school also works with volunteers participating in the school activities.
Personal experience
As a former teacher of philosophy and ethics, of course I am very fond of the embodiment of the five moral values. The school emphasizes these values openly, while the evaluations of curriculum subjects are a personal affair of the pupil himself. By consequence pupils are much less subject to competition with other pupils and this is rather revolutionary, if you ask me!
Just like all great pedagogues did, freedom is understood as a motivator in the learning process and as a necessary ingredient to create responsible, autonomous citizens. There is no freedom without responsibility and there is no responsibility without freedom!
Projeto Âncora takes play, artistic expression and personal dreams seriously and as a result the children give the impression to be self-confident, socially skilled and emotionally balanced. Isn´t this what we all want our children to be? We were even guided through the school by 4 teenager girls themselves (see the pictures below)!
I don`t know what the consequences will be of becoming a public, subsidized school in Brazil but I certainly hope it won´t destroy the independency of Projeto Âncora. Personally I have never felt so good in a school.
Contact details
Address: Est. Municipal Walter Steurer 1239,Cotia, SP | (11) 4612-9966
Tel: +55 (11) 4612-9966
Site: www.projetoancora.org.br