There is Actually a General Education/Liberal Arts Degree in Brazil! (Who Knew??)

After spending a day playing tourist in the countryside of Bahia on Saturday, and shopping and chilling poolside on Sunday, Monday we returned to our scholary quest of visting the universities and NGOs of Brazil.

Our first visit Monday morning was with Livio Sansone, the author of "Blackness without Ethnicity."  It was really nice to hear from someone who is removed from the universities/administration, but rather than go too much into what he said, I am going to list a few quick bullet points that I found interesting:

• In Brazil you are not born black, you become black.
• There is no Brazil without the United States, and vice versa - we live off each other's mistakes.
• In a way, segregation in the U.S. and S. Africa allowed blacks to ascend within society, at least within their own groups.  For example, having an all black university allows for a black person to be dean.  Segregation of shops or doctors offices, means you have black shop owners and black doctors.  (This is a really interesting point - I have never thought of segregation in this way.  This does not mean that segregation was by any means a good thing, but compared to Brazil, where there was no segregation, and where even in Salvador the population is 85% black and they've never had a black mayor, it makes you wonder...)
• In Brazil, only 50% of the population have access to credit cards, whereas in the U.S. everyone has access (maybe too much, as we have seen in the last two years...)
• Brazilians now want to become citizens, and as the U.S. has taught us, in order to be a citizen you need to be a consumer.
• There is a law in Brazil requiring all schools to include Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian education as part of there curriculum (I believe I mentioned this in another post), but due to the tremendous lack of resources in the public school systems, the wealthy, mostly white, student population of the south receives more Afro/Indigenous education than in the north where it is prdominately black.

And finally,

• The way Sao Paulo is handing issues of affirmative action is anachronistic because while the rest of the country is focusing on race, they are only focusing on "public school" quotas.

Ok, that wasn't exactly quick, but hopefully you can see how some of Sansone's ideas are very radical compared to what we've heard so far.

Later that afternoon we visited UFBA - the Federal University of Bahia.  This was the first school in Brazil to initiate quotas and is the fastest growing university in Brazil.  We had the amazing opportunity to meet with the president of the University Naomar Almeida-Filho (well until today anyway - immediately after our visit the school was inaugarating a new president!)  You could tell how big of a deal this was because as we were walking around, I swear all the students were looking at us like we were celebrities.  One student came up to me as we were walking into the classroom to ask who we were - I think he was slightly jealous that we were getting face time with the president, but he'll get his chance soon enough - President Almeida is returning to the faculty, and I am sure the students will be flocking to his classes.

NYU Students Chatting with the President of UFBA

After hearing from this man, I can see why he is such a hot commodity.  He has some extremely radical ideas, and is changing the way university education has taken place in Brazil since the 1930's.  Keep these points in mind:

• One of the arguments against racial quotas was that the quality of education would decrease.
• One of the arguments of increasing the size of universities to keep up with demand would, again, decrease the quality of education.
• In Brazil, you decide what you want your career to be prior to taking the vestibular.  Kids are making a life changing decision that is extremely difficult to change once you start (to change your major, you would need to drop out and take the vestibular all over again.)

As I believe I have mentioned previously - the first argument has been disproved by data showing that many of the students who have been admitted to university through an affirmative action program actually perform better than those who have not because they work harder.  UFBA has implemented a quota system that includes both social and racial factors - 50% of the students admitted must come from public schools, and within that 50%, the quota is broken down even further to include race.  Becuase of this system, 70% of the students at UFBA are now black/pardo/indigenous.  Walking around the campus we were clearly able to see the demographic difference compared to USP and UNICAMP.Naomar also mentioned that a solely racial quota would not work in Bahia.  Becuase the population of Bahia is 85% black, this also means they have a larger black middle class, so a solely racial quota wouldonly increase the number of wealthy people at the school.

In terms of increasing the size of the school, Naomar believes the exact opposite of the argument above - if you want to increase quality, you need to grow.  You should open doors for more people, which allows for more/different ideas.  In 2002, UFBA had 3,700 openings for new students and in 2010 they have 8,000.

Now here comes the really radical part.  UFBA has a general education program!  This is unheard of!  Who knew!  In the traditional way of doing things, if you entered into a medical program, you would have a very strict schedule of what you had to take, and when, and you would ONLY have medical classes. Now there is an option the enter a general program, where there are only two required classes, and then the rest of the classes are electives. (These electives can be profession specific if you want.)

There are for general themes within the new program that you can "major" in if you want to call it that.  These are Arts, Sciences, Humanities, and Health.  Each major has there own application process in a way.  You still have to take an entrance exam, but if you want to a music program within the art major for example, you would need to audition as well.  Or if you wanted to enter for art, you would submit a portfolio.

Similar to the U.S., even if you are in the arts program, you are required to take some gen. ed. classes in language and contemporary science.  Also similar to the U.S., many of these students complain about taking, say, a Biology class, but then they actually end up enjoying them, and maybe even decide to change their focus of studies.  They still have the traditional program in place, so it's not completely off the charts radical, but its there.

I can go on and on about this new program.  I think it is absolutely amazing, and it has nothing to do with the fact that it is more "American."  I think it is ridiculous to ask a 17 year old to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives.  How can you know?  I went into undergrad thinking I wanted to be an accountant and then changed my major in the middle of MY JUNIOR YEAR to ENGLISH of all things.  Then I ended up working in the accounting/banking/human resources world anyway, and now at the age of 30 I am in a grad program to become a high school guidance counselor.

Here is another interesting point of view: Without any of us asking, Simone - our guide while in Salvador, also said something really interesting.  She said that she wished there was something like this when she was in school becuase she tried university twice and dropped out both times.  The first time she did 3 years of psychology, then dropped out, and tested and applied all over again for business administration.  Again after 3 years, she dropped out.  She feels it was a waste of 6 years of her life, and if she had a program like this, she would probably have a university education.

I would love to get the faculty of UFBA in a room with UNICAMP and USP.  They all have such different thought and ideas, and are kind of on a scale with UFBA on the left, UNICAMP in the middle, and USP definitely on the far right.  It would be great to hear a debate between all of them.  Maybe it's my own leftist point of view, but right now I am definitely siding with UFBA. (I don't really think this is a competition, but I'm allowed to have my opinion right?)

I can't wait to see what other POVs we get to hear from in Brazil.  I was not expecting such a range of differences!