THE PROJECT

The moment he is born, any human being starts a process of perceiving and appropriating the world around him. It is a process that will take place, with variations, throughout your life.

​

It is the constant collection of information and data , but it is also the construction of an explanation of the world , why things and mechanisms behind phenomena and events.

​

Why does it rain and where does the falling water come from? Immediately, the most diverse theories emerge. Many children will be able to say that it is St. Peter who opens the taps of Heaven. For many human beings, this explanation has remained for a lifetime. Gradually, many children will be able to realize that there are phenomena of water evaporation on the Earth's surface and from there to the water cycle there is a constant movement of perception that consolidates, drop by drop, until the last information that allows a global vision : the water cycle takes place over 150 years.

​

The perception of the world around us is, therefore, a long and constant process, which goes on for a lifetime.

​

To do this, two aspects must be taken into account:

​

1) A first aspect involves the development of human capabilities .

 

A child at birth has legs, arms, feet, hands, eyes and ears and his whole body will begin a process of growth and development.

​

In the passage from the 50s to the 60s, Benjamim Bloom led a team of psychologists that defined three great dimensions of the human being: the cognitive, the emotional and the psycho-motor. The look on the human being multiplies and in the 1980s, Howard Gardner proposed eight forms of intelligence. In any case, in the second decade of the century. XXI, we are aware that there are multiple aspects of the human being that are worth developing, whatever the paradigm to be used. That is, there are skills to develop. For many centuries, it has been understood that it would be beneficial for many of these capabilities to be developed within an organization with a specific mission. An organization that from a certain point in the History of Humanity came to be called “school”, a word of Greek origin, adopted by many European languages.

​

2) But simultaneously there is another problem. The perception of the world can hardly be achieved by every human being alone. In fact, there is a PCAH - Heritage of Knowledge Accrued throughout the History of Humanity.

​

Therefore, especially from the middle of the century. XX, it was considered in Europe and all over the world, that every human being has the right to appropriate this PCAH . More: it is desirable that this appropriation be made universally , by all elements of a human community. If this appropriation is not made, there is a risk of having diffuse and distorted perceptions of what is happening around us. Traditionally, it is the school that is responsible for transmitting this heritage. This does not mean that the family, the media or some self-education cannot contribute to the appropriation of this heritage.

​

Around us, therefore, there is a wind that blows and gives us clues about this heritage of accumulated knowledge of this, at least 4000 years ago, from the peoples of Mesopotamia to the last issue of a scientific journal, published two minutes ago.

​

But this blowing wind also makes us aware of our capabilities, whose knowledge about these capabilities has been accumulating over the last few decades.

​

The project Ouvir o vento intends to blow some wind that can give new information about these human capacities and how to develop them. But also to account for the world around us, that is, the History of our planet and the Humanity that inhabits it.

​

And what is the use of this accumulated knowledge , since erudition is not synonymous with wisdom ?

​

Human beings will have appeared in a specific region of the planet and managed to proliferate a little everywhere, thanks to some very unique abilities. One of these abilities is the tremendous possibility we give ourselves to anticipate , as Pierre Laplace would remind Napoleon.

​

This anticipation is only possible, based on a perception of the mechanisms on which everything that happens around us is based. And anticipating, the human being can adapt.

​

And it is this great goal, our full adaptability, that can lead us to the much desired freedom to which we all seem condemned , in the words of Jean-Paul Sartre.

​

© Eduardo Rui Alves - November 2020.