The day to day in a school is unique, it never repeats. At the beginning of each school year students, teachers and assistants know their timetable, fit to it and start to get used to the routine of another year. This is the only aspect that remains throughout the year, since everything else changes from day to day. It may seem contradictory as, at first sight, all students are grouped into classes, in classrooms, with teachers who promote teaching materials and learning situations. Nevertheless each school has an identity, an ethos that involves and sustains the people’s actions. The identity of a school has to do with the dynamics that are implemented, with the management of spaces, the relationships that are established - relationships between students and teachers, between students and operational assistants and among the students; the identity of a school has to do with the way the problems are faced, with errors committed and corrected, with the responsibility that is adopted. Each school is unique because people are unique: no one is equal to anyone. Every human being has its peculiarities. Certainly, if standardization was possible, the relationship between people would be easier, but also poorer, because wealth comes from diversity. It is because of his ability to understand the differences between people that the prominence of a good leader is recognized. The leader is someone who recognizes the differences and peculiarities to attain the best results. The leader is not the one who wants to change the other, but the one who spends the energy to understand the other. This attitude will increase the other´s self-esteem and at the same time realize the importance to accept other ways of doing things. People do not change when they want to or because they have to, but when they commit to the changes; this requires the desire for transformation and, the most important is, the commitment to change that will have to reflect the mutual purposes of the leader and of his followers. In one of the cases that I will narrate, I followed this assumption. I invested in creating the desire for transformation and in the commitment to change. I tried to understand the person, the entity, with whom I would have to establish a relationship, I tried to establish a loving relationship to influence, guide and direct what I needed to do. Another significant event of my career will be also recorded in this work, because of the emotional reward on me and because of the relationship among those involved. This has to do with the follow up to a student with Asperger's Syndrome. The relationship began with the student frankly weak, with very low self-esteem, with a very negative perspective about his life. Gradually, I tried to convince him that to achieve goals he needed determination and inner strength, that he had to fix all the attention on the objectives and overcome obstacles. It takes dedication and commitment to a goal, it takes discipline, it requires the ability to follow a method and, the best method is the one which gives the best result. The other case that I will narrate is the result of a feeling of well-being because I was able to provide happiness. I was the English teacher of a rebellious teenager who sometimes made a point of calling attention to herself in any teacher. In class she tried to be almost invisible, but sometimes with her attitudes, often inadequate, called the teachers’ attention, who understood it as a cry for help. I tried to understand this teenager, I became interested in her case, initially out of curiosity, but then for sympathy, for friendship, for love. In this relationship I tried to be on the other side, being in the “other´s shoes”, besides this peculiarity of being, the person with whom I am in relationship, I call her, I do not just think she is, I talk to her. The prevailing emotion is love. Love is the “I” pleased by the you, picking up in the other the reason of his being. The cases that I have selected to analyze, reflect and share were not the most striking of all my professional career, but they were, for sure, variants of many others that I had to manage and that also left their mark. In all, certainly, it didn’t stay unnoticed to the outside observer, I printed my personal touch, i.e., all were treated in the view of providing a service of quality, of promoting the welfare, especially of the student, trying that each one had his training path as enriched as possible by creating the conditions, so that everyone has the chance of fulfilling dreams challenging the status quo…
| Date of Award | 2012 |
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| Original language | Portuguese |
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| Awarding Institution | - Universidade Católica Portuguesa
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| Supervisor | José Matias Alves (Supervisor) |
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