Wanderlino
Arruda
It
all
started
with
an
analogy
done
by
Rubem
Alves,
in
his
book
“TALK
TO
WHO
WANTS
TO
TEACH”,
making
a
comparison
between
Jequitibás
and
Eucalyptus
trees,
for
confrontation
or
synchronization
between
educators
and
professors.
What
differences
exist
between
an
educator
and
a
professor?
What
is
the
difference
between
a
jequitibá
and
a
eucalyptus
tree?
Well,
first
it’s
good
to
remember
the
differences
between
an
old
pharmacist
and
a
modern
druggist;
between
an
old,
mule
drawn
trader
and
a
modern
cargo
transporter.
The
old
pharmacist
was
a
complete
professional,
used
to
performing
every
procedure
in
the
pharmacy:
He
would
measure,
mix
and
manipulate
the
substances,
transforming
them
into
medicine,
carefully
package
them
and
then,
tenderly
entrust
them
to
his
clients,
delivering
them
to
the
very
sickbed
when
necessary.
The
pharmacist
always
had
a
little
conversation
for
each
person
that
came
into
his
pharmacy.
He
was
the
main
spring
of
his
commercial
establishment.
A
pillar
of
local
culture,
distributor
of
wise
advice
and
local
news,
and
a
sort
of
social
fraternity
director,
a
passer-on
of
wise
old
sayings
and
life
directives.
The
mule
drawn
trader
was
a
man
who
raised
his
team
of
animals,
fed
them
every
day,
cleaned
them,
put
on
the
saddle,
took
care
of
the
cargo,
put
up
camp
and
even
told
stories
to
his
companions
at
night,
around
a
warm
campfire.
No
one
hears
about
the
pharmacist
and
the
mule
drawn
trader
anymore.
What
we
have
are
busy,
impersonal
pharmacies,
void
of
consideration
for
people’s
feelings.
Exceptions,
of
course,
are
rare.
Freight
drivers
don’t
even
exist
in
the
place
of
the
mule
drawn
traders.
What
you
have
are
companies
directed
by
offices
that
communicate
by
telephone,
controlled
by
computers,
smelling
of
sterility,
distant,
as
distant
as
the
destiny
of
the
cargo
they
carry.
And
what
about
the
educators?
They
were
men
and
women
dedicated
to
their
choice
for
a
lifetime,
sharing
and
mixing
their
lives
with
the
lives
of
their
students.
They
were
the
transmitters
of
universal
knowledge,
teaching
everything,
from
hygiene
to
world
history.
From
the
mother
tongue
to
the
most
complex
arithmetic.
From
geography
to
religion,
from
drawing
to
natural
science.
From
home
economics
to
etiquette.
It
was
a
time
that
forged
competent
and
educated
young
men
and
women,
a
refined
nobility,
in
an
environment
with
an
eternal
perfume
of
spring.
The
professors
of
today,
or
at
least
those
who
are
not
educators,
poor
things,
are
disposable,
a
perfectly
substitutable
work
force.
They
remain
on
strike
for
months
at
a
time,
go
off
on
recess,
go
off
on
vacation,
are
laid
off
or
fired…and
all
this
time
wasted
away
from
school
goes
on
continuously
with
absolutely
no
effect
whatsoever
on
governmental,
national
or
public
concern
or
consideration
toward
their
situation,
they
are
just
replaceable
employees,
competence
or
degree
making
little
difference
in
their
passing.
An
even
better
comparison
can
be
found
between
the
jequitibá
and
eucalyptus
trees.
The
jequitibá
is
a
long
living
tree,
getting
up
to
fifty,
one
hundred,
two
hundred
years
old
and
more,
passing
from
generation
to
generation,
useful
and
precious.
Now,
to
the
contrary,
the
eucalyptus
tree
is
ripe
for
the
taking
in
four
or
five
years,
a
green
desert,
good
for
little
except
its
wooden
face
value,
a
silent
den,
home
to
no
warm
blooded
animal
or
bird.
And
is
all
this
the
truth?
It
is
no
use
for
modern
professionals
in
teaching,
or
educational
employees,
as
they
like
to
be
called,
in
reference
to
union
matters,
to
deny
it.
It’s
the
world
itself
that
is
dissolving
the
office
of
the
educator,
the
same
way
that
it
also
almost
finished
off
the
jequitibá,
the
braúna,
the
candeio,
the
jacarandá,
the
cedro,
the
peroba
and
the
sucupira.
The
jequitibá,
strong
and
eternal,
symbolizes
the
educator.
It
transmits
a
soothing
presence
of
permanence.
It
remains
as
the
world
passes,
useful
in
all
directions.
The
eucalyptus,
-
disposable
by
nature,
is
the
professor,
that
no
longer
accompanies
the
student.
He
has
no
time
to
spend
on
his
charges,
no
longer
following
the
individual
drama
of
his
pupils,
doesn’t
feel
or
live
anything
professionally,
desperately
racing
from
school
to
school,
from
class
to
class,
to
earn
his
paltry
daily
wages,
or
somewhat
more
when
well
placed.
The
professor
no
longer
remembers
his
students’
names
and
the
students
aren’t
interested
in
their
professors’,
either.
Wireless
teaching
machines,
they
are,
and
little
else!
The
in
success
of
much
in
the
world
today
has
its
causes
firmly
rooted
in
disloyalty
and
lack
of
interest,
motivation
and
incentive,
along
with
the
incapacity
to
dream.
The
growing
disinterest
of
world
governments
in
relation
to
education
is
what
is
really
behind
the
failure
of
the
profession
of
the
educator,
relegating
it
to
last
place
in
the
list
of
national
priorities,
getting
rid
of
it,
principally
because
education
in
itself
gives
additional
advantages
to
those
interested…political
campaigns.
How
to
weasel
out
percentages,
the
famous
one-third,
of
the
payment
checks?
Unfortunately,
many
educators
holding
the
vocation
of
educators
end
up
transforming
themselves
into
simple
professors.
Like
simple
eucalyptuses.
Without
loyalty,
without
a
total,
living
conviction
of
purpose.
Without
developing
the
capacity
of
tenderness,
of
refinement,
of
personal
interest
in
what
they
do.
Happy
and
content
is
the
educator
who
still
maintains
his
loyalty
to
their
profession,
like
the
mule
drawn
trader
and
old
pharmacist.
These
-
I’m
sure
-
are
worth
their
place
in
heaven.
