Oiço passos de cavalo... será ele, o ditador?

Formatar o curriculum (nacional) nem que seja a poder de cascatas e exames (nacionais). Reduzir o curriculum (artes fora, ciências e tecnologia minguantes, inovação para quê...). Consagrar separações estanques entre disciplinas, dificultando trabalhos interdisciplinares ou de integração (projetos, etc). Limitar professores a metas, programas e mesmo manuais escritos "por quem sabe", em papel ou pela via digital. Reforçar um curriculum oculto que valorize a obediência, a autoridade "de quem sabe/manda", o conformismo, e despreze a inovação e o pensamento crítico. E ainda mais: mobilizar para o exame, o teste, a nota, ignorando os esforços para descoberta, a criação, a solidariedade e acção transformadora.

Tudo isto é para abrir caminho a quê? A quem?
Clarence fisher, professor com mais de 20 anos de experiência, promove os Guias Para uma Ditadura, usando a ironia no combate democrático. Este é dedicado à educação. Ao ler o texto, não podemos deixar de reconhecer muitas práticas políticas em aplicação em Portugal. Brrr...

1.) As much as possible, have a common curriculum throughout your nation. Leave little opportunity for communities or districts to customize what the students in their area learn. This will give you solid control over everything and does not allow specific populations of people or communities to emphasize things that may be important to them or meaningful for their students.

2.) Have solid boundaries in place between subject areas. Make sure that the students in your schools study each subject separately. Emphasizing each subject as a stand alone silo of knowledge will ensure that students find it more difficult to see the relationships that exist between things. This will also ensure that basic knowledge will form the majority of material that is covered in classrooms instead of the in depth study of more complicated topics.

3.) Be very wary about changing the subjects that students are able to study in your schools. Keep it basic. Reading, writing, math and science should form the cornerstones of what your students learn. New advancements in technology, science and math shouldn't find their way into your schools very quickly.

4.) Arts programs should be eliminated from your schools whenever possible. The study of art only allows people's thoughts to move towards freedom, beauty, and the condition of their lives.

5.) As much as possible provide the teachers in your classrooms with scripted programs for them to follow. This will ensure that you can have almost total control over not only what is studied, but what is said in your classrooms, the examples used and the problems that are solved. Make administrators or school inspectors responsible for strictly enforcing that these things are followed.

Advancing a certain kind of hidden curriculum in your schools is a more delicate balancing act. For your nondemocratic nation, the hidden curriculum should emphasize the power and unquestioning authority of your government. Teachers need to emphasize lessons which do not encourage innovative or creative thinking. Large amounts of content should simply be given out to students. 

Notes and worksheets should be used whenever possible. As much as possible, teachers need to control the work that is handed out to students. Students should, over time, acquire the habit of material being given out to them by people in positions of authority and power. They should have few opportunities to be creative or to investigate personally meaningful projects that revolve around their own interests and passions. Teachers should discourage entrepreneurial or social justice initiatives from taking hold in classrooms and schools.

Clarence Fisher

in The-Dictators-Practical-Guide-to-Education
www.evenfromhere.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/The-Dictators-Practical-Guide-to-Education.pdf