Acerca da democracia e da democratização do ensino

Abstract

This article is about the required conditions for the existence of democracy and consequently, of democracy in education. The article begins with the distinction between traditional world and modern world, the traditional world being characterized by permanence and dichotomy and the modern world being characterized by change and democracy. The transition from a world of permanence and dichotomy to a world of change and democracy was the result of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution is essentially a question of energy. We may speak of three Industrial Revolutions, according to the nature of the energy used. Having substituted muscular force and intelligence of man and having it contributed to the increassing of productivity, the Industrial Revolution delivered man from several servitudes and created the conditions which would make democracy possible and, as an integrant part of democracy, democracy in education.