The problematic “aura”: Who goes to a demonstration risks having no future?

The Minister of Education, the respect that has (or had) for the teachers, the demonstrations – and the “aura” that is lost.

The word “aura” He entered the news and in announcements last Tuesday. The origin was Fernando Alexandre.

Teachers who manifest themselves on the streets for better conditions, although with reasons for this, lose the aura of the profession – of the authority in the classroom to the respect of generations of students, said the Minister of Education.

“I can’t see how so socially devalued the teachers. Teachers, for many years, have been in demonstrations, with reasons for that; But the teacher is someone who is respected In society for being someone who knows, who has authority, who is respected by generations and generations of students. Someone who walks in demonstrations loses all this aura“Argued Fernando Alexandre.

These words were said in front of more than 200 students from Dr. Joaquim de Carvalho Secondary School, in Figueira da Foz.

Soon after, the minister explained that he was not criticizing the teachers who participated in demonstrations, noting that the teachers “were very mistreated in Portugal for too much time”, in professional and social terms.

“I am not criticizing the teachers who participated in demonstrationsdid so with legitimacy, In fact they had not the appreciation they should have, ”argued Fernando Alexandre.

The “aura” in the Estado Novo

Despite this clarification, the Fenprof He didn’t like that speech.

The next day, Wednesday, the National Teachers Federation sent one to the minister, accusing him of devaluing the right to demonstration, in a school before students “to whom should be transmitted the value of democracy and the rights that support it.”

Fenprof criticized Fernando Alexandre’s statements “before an audience full of children and young people”, noting that the teachers “There has been no reasons for manifesting themselves. ”

Fenprof also recalled that during the Estado Novo, when “it was forbidden and even very dangerous to do so,” many teachers and educators They risked and “never lost their” aura “ or decreased their professional and citizenship condition. ”

FenProf also underlines in the letter that Fernando Alexandre belongs to a government that “has already confirmed its intention to attack other fundamental rights”, such as the exercise of the.

Committed future?

The Minister of Education still tried to correct what he had just said about the “aura”, about the alleged loss of respect for going to a demonstration – but “it was late, that evil was done and the revelation of a Mentality Something Tacanha, Extremely limited in civic terms, I had come very explicitly to the above, ”writes Paulo Guinote no.

Isabel Oliveira warns: “It’s a political message And, I would say, dangerous. What the Minister of Education transmitted to young people was that who protests, who gets involved, who occupies the public space to complain about justice, loses reputation, stains their image, Risk the future”.

Ricardo Araújo Pereira confessed to what I did not know that “those who walk in demonstrations lose an aura of respectabilityEven though it has reasons to speak up, ”recalling Martin Luther King or Mario Soares.

“We all realize what I said. Before students. In a school. This minister thinks that teachers who manifest themselves lose their respect for society and authority before the students. It’s sad. It is the modes that little ”, completes in DN columnist (and teacher) Paulo Guinote.