Educator Carlos Rodrigues Brandão: death or life?

Abstract

This text celebrates the ideas and legacy of educator Carlos Rodrigues Brandão, who unfortunately died on July 12, 2023. To honor Brandão, we chose to take as a basis the work entitled O educador: vida e morte (The Educator: Life and Death), which completed 42 years and served as inspiration for the title of this text. Indeed, the distance of time does not erase the educator’s spirit of a loving and libertarian vocation. Brandão ruthlessly criticized social injustices while indicating daily outlets for emancipatory educational work. Brandão’s thought has not withered; poetic and amusing, it remains alive and flourishing among us. As in the reflection of Rubem Alves (1983, p. 17): “And the educator,did he die? Educators are like old trees. They have a face, a name, a story to be told.”