Choosing the course that will lead to a likely career is crucial for young people, especially for those who are about to take the entrance exam at a university. In addition to expectations regarding his professional future, he needs to deal with a network of relationships whose epicenter is his family. This topic, often troubled, generated a book that deals with the difficult challenge of dialogue.
Seen through the lens of a teacher who has worked in pre-university courses for around 20 years, the book – entitled To Parents, With Love: Entrance Exam and Career, published by Editora Akron – brings together reports from students, parents, course coordinators and course directors. Its author is the historian Marcus Vinícius de Morais, a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH) at Unicamp, who also had as collaborators the psychologists Roberto and Fernanda Guimarães, nutritionists and physical education professionals.
"This is not a book of tips, a manual or a self-help work. It is a reflection tool whose title references the film To the master, with love, Sidney Poitier. We paraphrase it to show that the book is sensitive to parents and does not have a provocative nature”, explains the author.
The book will be launched on June 5th, at 20 pm, at Livraria Cultura do Conjunto Nacional, Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo. It is already being sold for R$29,90 on the website Pandora Publisher. IFCH professor Leandro Karnal wrote the back cover and professor José Alves, coordinator of the Permanent Commission for Unicamp Entrance Exams (Comvest), wrote the "ear".
According to professor José Alves, Marcus Vinícius's doctoral advisor, the author shares experiences and suggests a way for parents not to further amplify college students' crises, but to have an open and frank dialogue regarding this preparation, in a world where professional choices are relevant, but not necessarily decisive for everything people are. Listen to audio by professor José Alves below.
Complaints
Marcus comments that he hears complaints from children about pressure to choose the course their parents want and fruitless comparisons with their siblings, friends and their own parents. The comparison, he highlights, comes at an inopportune time, in the heat of studying.
This social pressure has increased since the 20th century, due to a historical context of demands for young people to be successful, a kind of dictatorship of happiness. "It's as if children were a project and that their success validated the parents' choices", he highlights.
To take the burden off the shoulders of college students, the historian sought to discuss in the book points that can help parents and children to have a peaceful coexistence during the period of an academic year. He talked about the beginning of classes, choosing a course and career, studying, preparation, test day, happiness and frustration. The chapters were written to be read independently, like the chronicles. In many passages he cited authors such as Zygmunt Bauman, Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens, Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Dickens to talk about university entrance exams and social life, bullying in the classroom, food and sleep, among other topics.
By highlighting the bullying, Marcus reveals that racism and homophobia lead this ranking, following bullying against obesity and against women. And this behavior can be between young people, teachers against students and students against teachers. "But the bullying is not located. It is within a historical, family and group context. Otherwise, it would be enough to eliminate one person from that relationship, and the bullying it would be resolved.”
He also explains that the entrance exam is not a stage to be naturalized. It's an atypical year. That's why the book suggests that parents think seriously about their children, even if the reflection is painful. "Country They worry about whether their children will pass the entrance exam, whether they will leave home, whether they will stay and start a new cycle of studies. These reflections destabilize them", he reveals.
Myths below
The book points out some myths about food, common in the 1970s-1990s, that you can't eat properly, you drink coffee all the time and you consume a lot of energy. In Marcus' opinion, these myths are indeed myths, because students who eat poorly get sick. "Many recommend that young people eat chocolate. But which one? Milk chocolate has fat and then the student gets sick. So is it correct to say chocolate or cocoa?", he characterizes.
Marcus gives the reader several pieces of advice. “Students need to eat well and sleep well because the next day they will always have other activities. When he sees it, he's in a snowball situation: he sleeps poorly, eats poorly, gains weight. And, when he least realizes it, he is taking anxiolytics (to reduce anxiety and tension). The World Health Organization recommends eight hours of sleep per day on average, because of the sedimentation of the information obtained. “Thanks to restful sleep, information is rearranged in the brain for memorization.”
Dodging the crisis
Regarding studies, the author emphasizes that each student must be self-critical, know their strengths and analyze their history at school. “It is not possible to compare a student who studied at a not so good school, and spent years working, with one who is in a more systematic study process. Once you know who he is as a student, you will know where to focus your actions.”
Another tip from the teacher for the student is to read the entrance exam manuals, because some exams do not require studying Egypt and Eastern Antiquity or Prehistory. They charge from Greece and Rome. The ideal is to map out what will be requested, so as not to waste time.
The professor remembers that, not infrequently, classic courses such as Medicine are still the best choice, as it is believed that they will lead to success. Young people comment that they want to be victorious, not losers, failed. The average today to enter a medical course is four years. “I have a student who is already in the seventh year of the course. I think it’s time to think about a plan B. Stubbornness isn’t always healthy.”
Recalling the variables that can interfere in a choice that involves competition, he cites the book The Great Cat Massacre, by Robert Darnton, set in France in the 18th century. Workers at a printing press began beating cats and killing them with pieces of clubs. Why did they beat cats and find it funny on top of that? "This reflection is still very current because society continues to be entertained by other people's misfortunes on television programs such as MasterChef e The Voice Apprentice. People are humiliated, there is only one winner and only one prize for the best. The others are left out. The worse a person cooks, the worse he sings and the worse he is as a professional, the more people find it interesting. So now I clearly understand why parents worry so much about college entrance exams. They are afraid that their children will be eliminated”, he concludes.
Regarding the Unicamp Entrance Exam, the reader can consult the content for studying the commented tests of all entrance exams and the new ways of entering Unicamp, starting with this next entrance exam. Watch the video below.
