Centro Educação Infantil (CEI),
Sao Paulo, Brazil
By Didi Ananda Jaya
About Our Project:
Our Neohumanist Education project in Sao Paulo, Brazil has 450 children and teenagers. Our Units are located in 4 vulnerable communities in the North and South of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. We have a large group of 80 of collaborators, including pedagogues, cooks and administrative staff who are all engaged in NHE.
The method and the applied philosophy is marvelous and our main goal is to develop healthy children, emotionally stable, who have a longing for knowledge, and who understand their active and transformative role in society.
Our curriculum includes yoga, meditation, shantala (infant massage), practical life (based on methods of Maria Montessori and Reggio Emilia), theater, storytelling, cooking, psychomotricity, and other activities. We supply a lacto-vegetarian diet and we encourage the practice of healthy meals. Our menu includes vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, soya and milk protein.
We strive to develop all levels of human existence and guide the child gradually and happily to the goal of infinity. This is true education, a holistic education, because it doesn’t neglect any expression of human consciousness.
NHE Training for Neohumanist Administrators
Facilitator: Tattvika Soma devi (Pedagogue)
General Program Coordinator: Didi Ananda Jaya
In September we had a program for our Neohumanist Administrators for three of our units in Sao Paulo – Peri Alto, Guarani and Guarapiranga – attended by the Directors of each of the units Carmen, Valesca, Shirley, Monica, Solange and Dayane. The program included topics in NHE philosophy, Humanism to Neohumanism, Circle of Love curriculum, the child centered classroom, and kiirtan and focused meditation.
Methodology
The method utilized in these meetings was a reading followed by discussion and analysis of the daily practices, seeking to make adjustments with the Neohumanist Curriculum. Also a parallel was made with the BNCC (National Common Curricular Base), Brazilian legislation that directs the education mainly in the Competencies 8, which refers to self-knowledge.
Observations
The administrators have shown more interest in Neohumanist philosophy at each meeting and also the wish to know more about Shrii P. R. Sarkar. They suggested the creation of materials to explain the subjects mentioned above. They were very touched, and in the closing program they said that they are totally dedicated to the project with their whole being and that their administration will bring change.
Management Team Report
By Maria do Carmo Queiroz da Silva, Director of the Jardim Peri Alto Unit
In September 2016, I started working at the CEI Children’s Home as a teacher. After a few months, I began to work as a pedagogical coordinator. I had a brief introduction to the work done in this Neohumanist Education school. The method and the philosophy is marvelous, but we have to go deeper to understand the reasons for the Circle of Love, for yoga, Shantala, and for the vegetarian diet.
Today, having a deeper training in Neohumanist Education we can understand the real importance of work in our schools. At this moment, having a better understanding about NHE and studying about Shrii P. R. Sarkar, we can appreciate the importance of the work in our schools and we can bring this philosophy to our personal lives.
What I liked the most was to know that we can educate and nurture people to be more human, thoughtful and to have the courage to transform the world into a better place.
Now, I am the director of the Jardim Peri Alto Unit, North Zone of Sao Paulo where children are socially vulnerable. I believe that NHE can be applied to the whole school team, recognizing the importance of the learning process based on respect and love, motivating our children, families, teachers, administrators and collaborators in regards to the welfare of all and the universe.
Management Team Report
By Shirley Bernardo de Oliveira, Director of the Guarapiranga Unit
Weekly studies by the management team have been bringing great understanding of the pedagogical practices developed in the educational units of the Amurt / Amurtel Beneficent Association in the city of São Paulo. The Neohumanist Education curriculum brings love and respect to all of creation as a central basis for human development.
The school environment created in the CEI educational units takes a holistic view of a human being, where the child is a protagonist, awakening to learning. It is very important that the teacher is a loving educator, with a light temperament, virtuous character, and community spirit, and is ethical and creative. The teacher is a model to be followed, creating and facilitating challenging and creative activities where the child understands this universal love for all of creation and for everything that surrounds them. From this the child will be able to acquire a concept of the other and of us all having a developed mind and a conscious brain. This also lines up with the common national curriculum base (BNCC).
Studies provided to us by our manager, Didi Ananda Jaya, strengthen the practices and the understanding of the fundamental approaches of Neohumanist Education that lead to having a creative mind. The practices of yoga, shantala, meditation, and healthy eating allow the child to relate to the world and everything in it in a way that actively develops a sense of responsibility, high ethical standards, aesthetic sense, creativity, ecological awareness, cooperation, solidarity, autonomy, self-confidence, and rational and critical thinking.
Today through these studies I have been able to reflect on the years of my life and I am happy to have the opportunity to be part of this education that fills us with human warmth. I truly feel that I belong to the practices and educational activities that are developed in our work here at CEI Jardim Ecologico Guarapiranga.
In our always welcoming rapport with our children, families, our community, and the world, love and respect are deeply fundamental bonds for human life. I say for sure these feelings are lived in each experience, be it with a child, with a family, or with my co-workers.
I am deeply grateful to have the opportunity to be a teacher, teaching with immense Love for all the children who are in the school, those who have passed through, and all who will become part of the school in the future.