Brazil

** Kaitlin Newth **
 * BRAZIL **


 * INTRODUCTION **
 * Brazil is the largest country in South America, both geographically and by population. As of 2008, there were over 190 million people living in Brazil, making it the fifth most populated country. It is the only Portuguese speaking country in both North America and South America. Brazil has a large coastline, spanning over 4,600 miles; the country itself is over 3 million square miles.The country borders ten other South American countries, including Colombia and Venezuela. Brazil is made of of rain forests and jungles, clusters of islands, mountains, and rivers. Scientists estimate that there is over 4 million species in Brazil. Brazil is comprised of 28 states and more than 5,500 individual municipalities. They have a democratic government, which like the United States has an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. Residents that are literate and between the ages of 18 to 69 are required to vote; those who are 16 or 17, over 69, or illiterate are not obligated to vote but may if they wish to. **


 * EDUCATION IN BRAZIL **
 * Schools in Brazil are regulated by the federal government through the Ministry of Education. The educational system in Brazil is comprised of elementary school, high school, and higher education. School prior to elementary school is entirely optional. Elementary school is for children ages 6 to 14 and high school is for students ages 15 to 17. There are public school systems in Brazil which are free of charge, although typically the private schools are much better. It is common for public schools not to have plumbing or heat, and oftentimes the buildings are old and not taken care of. This has contributed to high illiteracy rates along with high unemployment. Only 1/3 of students make it to the 6th grade. There is a mix of publicly and privately funded universities in Brazil, with those that are funded by the government being of much higher quality. **




 * ARTS IN EDUCATION **
 * Brazilian law mandates arts education in both elementary and high schools. Visual arts, music, dance, and drama are considered to be arts education, although many schools teach dance as a physical education. Poetry is taught as a subject of Portuguese and drama is too sometimes. Art classes run from about 50 minutes to an hour and a half per week. Oftentimes teachers only have a high school education and are responsible for all subjects, this is especially true in the more rural areas of Brazil. Arts education is not taught to prepare students for careers in the arts, but to get students to value the arts. There is a major influence from North American ideals on the Brazilian arts education model; Teachers often teach other subjects through art. **
 * I think that the level of arts education in Brazilian schools is very reflective of their culture and where they are as a country. I think that we are seeing arts in the schools, even though to a small degree, because policy makers in Brazil are looking to more successful countries like the United States and trying to make their educational systems more like those countries. I think that the arts are not given as much of a priority in the schools because teachers simply are not given the tools or abilities to be able to teach them to a great degree. Teachers themselves usually only have a high school education, and are also responsible for teaching math, science, history, and language arts. The public education system in Brazil has been declining in quality over the last decade, with most middle and upper class families sending their children to the much more reputable private schools. **

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 * BRAZILIAN ARTIST- CARMEN MIRANDA **


 * Carmen Miranda was born in Portugal in 1909 and moved to Brazil with her father when she was only 10 months old. Carmen was raised in Rio de Janeiro, in an area called Lapa. It was there in Lapa where she was exposed to a melting pot of all kinds of people. She became Brazil's first multi-media icon; she was an accomplished singer, actress, and dancer. She recorded her first album in 1929 and worked for ten years pursuing a career as a samba singer, before she was invited to New York to perform on Broadway. During the 1930's Miranda starred in several Brazilian films such as Alo, Alo Brasil and Estudiantes. Carmen signed a movie contract with Hollywood in 1939 and became famous very quick in the United States. She was used in President Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy, in hopes of strengthening ties with Latin America and Europe. Between 1940 and 1953 Miranda made 14 Hollywood films, such as Doll Face and The Gangs All Here. She died in 1955, at the age of 46. **


 * BRAZILIAN ARTS ORGANIZATION- SESC **
 * Social Service of Commerce (SESC) is the most active arts organization in Brazil and was founded in 1946. According to Director of the organization, Danilo Miranda, “Our fundamental guiding principle is to use culture as a tool for education and transformation, to improve people’s lives." SESC is always growing and expanding, with its budget doubling every few years; right now their annual budget is equivalent to $600 million. SESC operates in all 27 states; they not only finance art programs, but also recreational activities and educational courses. In Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous state, 25% of the state budget goes to expansion and renovation of its arts and recreational centers, and another 20% goes to directly to cultural activities. SESC opened a school in Rio de Janeiro in 2008. This program offered students ages 13-16 from across the country the opportunity to receive a top quality full-time residential education. SESC along with the National Commerce Confederation for Goods, Services, and Tourism goal for this school was the "building of an educational community as an opportunity to educate children within a diversified environment, preparing them for both the job market and the exercise of leadership and citizenship." **




 * CONCLUSION **
 * I think that my educational experience is quite different from that of people my age living in Brazil. I never had to worry about whether or not my school had plumbing or heat, that is something that those of us living in the United States never have to worry about. In Brazil 2/3 of students do not make it to the 6th grade, whereas in the United States until you are 16 you are required by law to go to school, and attendance of students is heavily monitored and enforced. I think another big difference is that in the United States, literacy rates are not a major concern, we all can read and write and maybe that's almost something that is taken for granted. In Brazil their illiteracy rates are very high, and a lot of that has to do with students not making it very far in school, in addition to high unemployment. Teachers in Brazil typically only have a high school education, and are responsible for teaching all subjects to students. In my experience, all teachers are required to have at least a Bachelor's degree in the United States, and a lot of teachers have more advanced degrees. Only elementary school teachers in the United States teach all subjects to students. I think that my experience is similar to that of students in Brazil in that both involve teachers trying to bring the arts into other subjects. A lot of the similarity of their practice to ours is that their arts integration programs were designed to emulate that of the United States. **
 * I think that what surprised me the most in my research about Brazil was their extremely high drop out rates and low literacy levels. Brazil has the sixth largest economy in the world, and I just never would have thought that those were problems that they were still dealing with. When I see statistics that bad, I would expect them to be associated to very poor/developing countries. What I learned though is that much of Brazil is very rural, and the people living in those areas are very poor. Even though Brazil's economy is doing better than so many other countries, they have a long way to go to get their educational system to where it needs to be. **

[] [] [] [] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/arts/brazils-leading-arts-financing-group-shares-the-wealth.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all http://www.escolasesc.com.br/paginas/5#
 * SOURCES **