Education for citizenship: OAB in Schools and civic formation in the classroom

In the week of Teachers' Day, it is worth looking at those who sustain, every day, the formation of a generation. A few days ago, I attended, at the OAB Paraná headquarters in Curitiba, the launch of the OAB in Schools project. I left with a long-held conviction reinforced: the classroom is also a space for forming citizens, not only for transmitting content.

Education as preparation for citizenship

The Constitution is clear about the purpose of education. Article 205 states that education, a right of all and a duty of the State and the family, shall be promoted with the collaboration of society, aiming at the full development of the person, their preparation for the exercise of citizenship and their qualification for work. The Child and Adolescent Statute (Law 8.069/1990) follows the same orientation in Article 53, ensuring the right to an education geared toward full development and preparation for citizenship. The Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education (Law 9.394/1996) itself determines, in Article 27, item I, that curricular content disseminate values fundamental to the social interest, to the rights and duties of citizens, and to respect for the common good and the democratic order. The school plays an essential role in transmitting knowledge. Civic formation, the knowledge of one's own rights and duties, is added to that foundation and completes it.

The child as a subject of rights

There is a paradigm shift that does not always reach everyday school life. Children and adolescents are no longer objects of guardianship and are recognized as subjects of rights. Article 227 of the Constitution imposes on the family, society and the State the duty to ensure them, with absolute priority, a set of fundamental rights, and to keep them safe from all forms of negligence, violence and oppression. The Child and Adolescent Statute, in Articles 3, 4 and 15, confirms this status. Internationally, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, enacted by Decree 99.710/1990, ensures, in Article 12, the child's right to freely express their opinion on matters affecting them, an opinion that must be considered according to their age and maturity. Recognizing this at school means opening space for the student's participation in a way compatible with their age, maturity, safety and the pedagogical purpose.

The right to be heard and protection

Listening is no small gesture. Law 13.431/2017 organized the system that guarantees the rights of children and adolescents who are victims or witnesses of violence, ensured integral protection (Article 2) and, among other rights, the right to be heard and to express wishes and opinions (Article 5, item VI). The same law regulates the specialized hearing (escuta especializada, Article 7) and the special testimony (depoimento especial, Article 8), technical and protective procedures that are not to be confused with pedagogical conversation in the classroom. The distinction matters: the project's conversation circle is a space for education and attentive listening, not an investigative procedure. The legal order itself relies on coordinated prevention: Article 70-A of the Child and Adolescent Statute provides for joint action by public entities in educational campaigns, in the training of professionals and in integration with protection bodies, and the Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education, after Law 13.663/2018, included among the school's duties the promotion of measures to prevent and combat violence, including systematic intimidation (bullying), and of actions geared toward a culture of peace (Article 12, items IX and X).

What OAB in Schools is

From what I followed at the launch and from the material released by OAB Paraná, the project brings volunteer lawyers, trained by the Section, to workshops and conversation circles on rights, duties and citizenship, with attention to violence prevention. The initiative is organized into fronts that reach students, education professionals and families, in dialogue with each school's pedagogical project and with the education networks. The logic is direct: when information reaches the student, it often reaches an entire family.

The classroom floor

At the launch, one expression that sums up the challenge was repeated: reaching the classroom floor. It is there, in the daily encounter between teacher and student, that citizenship stops being a concept and becomes experience. I believe the project's potential grows when the lawyer enters as a supporting presence, always under the teacher's supervision and without replacing their role. An independent professional, of ethical posture and collaborative action, who listens, who helps to translate, in accessible language, the rights and duties that organize coexistence, and who adds a layer of civic and constitutional formation to the pedagogical work, respecting the guidelines of the Child and Adolescent Statute and of protective legislation.

The lawyer's role

The lawyer's role in this space is one of service, not of prominence. To listen to doubts, to recognize the student as a subject of rights, to guide on rights and duties, to identify possible situations of violation and to refer them to the competent bodies, within the limits of institutional action and of integral protection. The school takes part in the protection network and must make the appropriate referrals when it identifies situations requiring specialized action, without assuming functions proper to the Guardianship Council, the police authority, the Public Prosecutor's Office or specialized services. It is work that walks alongside the teacher, the pedagogue and the other members of the network, each in their place.

A note on Teachers' Day

For this reason, in this week of Teachers' Day, the note is one of recognition. Those on the classroom floor carry one of the most delicate tasks there is, that of forming people. It is from this perspective that the project can contribute to bringing Law closer to the school and strengthening civic formation, so that the school prepares not only students, but citizens aware of their rights and their duties.

Informative note: content of an informative and educational nature, without client solicitation and without any promise of results, in accordance with Provision 205/2021 of the OAB. Each concrete case requires its own analysis.