Student: Sílvio de Souza Lôbo Júnior.
This is a work submitted by the academic to the IES and corrected; plagiarism may result in immediate failure in the discipline. This student does not sell assignments and is not complicit in this illegal situation. Available for reading and inspiration.
Introduction
In a world that is becoming increasingly smaller, and with ever more apparent diversity. Knowing how to put oneself in another's shoes is a basic skill for well-being in coexistence among people. And seeking a standardization of the learning base, the BNCC was created, which among its ten competencies clearly indicates the encouragement of empathy as a way to know others, knowing and valuing the plurality of society.
Development
The Religious Education teacher at Colégio Santa Maria, Pedro Moisés, carries out a very valuable project. He takes his classes, from a private school with students from the noble region of the city, to visit CEMEIs (Early Childhood Education Centers), whose children come from poor families. The class, which began as an isolated experience, was so successful that by 2018, it had already been in continuous action for 07 (seven) years, according to a report. The students interact with children from different financial realities.
Activities outside of school, in contact with people from different social classes, are particularly successful in teaching children empathy towards others, promoting dialogue, acceptance, and valuing diversity, in line with the General Competencies of Basic Education, as stated in the excerpt:
9. Exercise empathy, dialogue, conflict resolution, and cooperation, respecting oneself and promoting respect for others and human rights, with acceptance and valuing the diversity of individuals and social groups, their knowledge, identities, cultures, and potential, without prejudice of any kind. (Brazil, 2018, p. 10)
When speaking about empathy, GALVÃO, 2010, the word empathy is just over a hundred years old, and it is an ability that allows one to understand the situations, needs, and interests of others, and more than that, to share the feelings of others; in relation to sympathy.
The project began with an off-campus class. Taking children from middle-class and upper-class families to visit institutions that care for children in vulnerable, poor, and even destitute families. This action provided the children with an experience that expanded their universe of understanding, opening their eyes to a greater comprehension of the reality they live in.
The school can offer children the possibility to interact in a supervised environment with people and places that, in their daily family life, they might not otherwise encounter, and when they did, perhaps the individual would not have the same serenity and openness to deal with it as young people do today.
Final Considerations
School activities, such as visits to other institutions, expand students' understanding of the environment they live in, serving as an important tool for confronting a prejudiced society. The dimension of plurality in society can be better assimilated if it goes beyond regular teaching methodology and moves towards practice and the experience of seeing, hearing, and conversing.
Experiences outside the classroom are sources of inexhaustible learning, and the activity carried out by Professor Pedro serves as an example of success that should be replicated more often in our schools.
Note: The project discussed here can be learned about through the video: Children from private schools visit students from needy communities - Jornal da Vida 09/11/18 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbMYdiXS0uM
References
JORNAL DA VIDA. REDE VIDA DE TV. Children from private schools visit students from needy communities - Jornal da Vida 09/11/18. YouTube, 09/13/2018. 02:13. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbMYdiXS0uM. Accessed on: May 24, 2025.
BRAZIL. Ministry of Education. National Common Curricular Base. Brasília, 2018. Available at: http://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br/images/BNCC_EI_EF_110518_versaofinal_site.pdf. Accessed on: May 24, 2025.
GALVÃO, Lilian Kelly de Sousa. Moral Development and Empathy: Correlated Measures and Educational Interventions. Postgraduate Thesis in Social Psychology, as part of the requirements for a Doctorate. Department of Psychology, Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, pp. 72 – 84, 2010.
