In the last century, I completed the last year of my high school in the United States and returned to Brazil, full of dreams… My mother told me: “Go teach.” But, of course, I didn’t! So instead, I arrived in Rio de Janeiro, the city where I was born, and proceeded through the Hotel business, studying History and Tourism all at once.

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I’ve kept going steadily in the profession and, in a few years, I was already part of the Public Relations team of some hotels in the Copacabana-Leblon-Ipanema axis. 

 

When Brazil won its fourth Cup, my mother proposed that I live again in Sampa, study German, and prepare my way to follow through with my master's degree in Neuchâtel. 

 

With bag and baggage, there I went to revisit the land of the drizzle. But… the winds blew in another direction and, as soon as I arrived in town, I accepted the invitation to teach English to children – I was hooked! Right there, I was charmed by the space that is built between the teacher and students.  My mother's advice seemed to make sense now!

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In the Spring of that year, some good surprises in life allowed me to know the work of a bilingual children’s school, a pioneer at the time, in this sector. Many children of all age groups and diverse challenges. Whew! I agreed to work in this new environment, and my best decision was to go back to school. I returned to the university benches, and I never stopped. 

 

My research career started with the project “Autonomy – a journey to your future” when I was still working with children under 6 years old in an international school in São Paulo. In addition to a promotion, with the research on autonomy, I got an invitation to be a student of the eternal master Alicia Fernández, from whom I learned, throughout the years, that the clinic of psychopedagogy is in our vision, not in the attendance room, as she used to tell us, always smiling.

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I entered a new world and with new doubts. New doors – and windows – opened when I started working with people who didn’t learn or couldn’t teach at some point or for some reason. Students, parents, and teachers, all frustrated for not matching the expectations of school life. To work better, I had to look for creative ways to transform obstacles and difficulties into opportunities. So I went back to studying!

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It was necessary to look at everything I had done so far from a new and still unknown perspective. It was necessary, again, to start over. And there went almost 30 years! Since then, I have continued searching for the creation of spaces where children and young people can practice, daily, the exercise of building and seeing themselves as capable in the eyes of others, possible and real authors of their projects, going beyond the difficulties and asking for help.