77-year-old student completes course at SENAI-PE
This could have been the story of yet another distance learning course during the pandemic, but the presence of a single student changed everything. On the first day of the Work Organization and Management course, Francisca Bonifácio de Souza surprised SENAI Pernambuco lecturer Marcos André by laughingly joking that “she was probably the youngest in the class”. At the age of 77, the student overcame the challenges, learned to use the new technologies present in smartphones and carried out all the proposed activities, showing all her classmates that age is no obstacle for those who want to learn.
The course, run through a partnership between SENAI Paulista and Itamaracá Town Hall, was offered free of charge to the town's residents at the end of August. When she heard about the project, Mrs. Francisca decided to enroll as a way of encouraging her two grandchildren and some friends to study. “I've always been very active and, because of the pandemic, I was feeling distressed and isolated. This course encouraged me. I joined a group of teenagers and woke everyone up at 7:30 every day. On the first day, the teacher motivated me a lot and that made me want to continue. I followed the lessons on my cell phone, alongside my classmates, and when the teacher asked for an activity, they helped me and I scolded them,” she said.
The routine was repeated throughout the four-day course. Marcos André, the teacher responsible for teaching the classes remotely, was surprised to learn the age of the student - the average age of the class was between 16 and 20. “She said she didn't know what she was doing there, but she always answered questions and took part in the lessons. One day, I asked them to send me the answers to an activity via a messaging app and I made an exception for her, saying she could answer by hand and send me a photo. But she made a point of learning and did the activity in the same way as the others,” he said.
Perhaps Mrs. Francisca's current commitment is a reflection of a lifetime dedicated to studying and teaching. Now a retired teacher, Mrs. Francisca finished teaching at the age of 42, completed her Pedagogy course at 59 and, at 65, a postgraduate course. “God gave me life to carry on. To be old is to not open your eyes to life,” she summed up. Even at a distance, the student's excitement has had a positive impact on teacher Marcos André. “She's certainly the oldest student I've ever taught and she's been an example to the other students. It's moments like this that make me proud to be a teacher,” he said.
