A dor da vida escolar: o aluno que encarna o fracasso exibe à escola e ao professor sua inaptidão para ensinar

Antes de tornar-se um romancista internacionalmente reconhecido, Daniel Pennac foi professor de francês no ensino fundamental e médio de escolas públicas francesas. E antes de tornar-se professor, Pennac havia sido o que os franceses, pejorativamente, chamavam de “cancre”: um aluno lerdo, com dificuldades de aprendizagem e cujo desempenho sempre beira o sofrível. Foi da dor da memória desse tempo de aluno estigmatizado como incapaz e sem futuro e da esperança de suas lutas como professor de jovens tão estigmatizados como ele que brotou sua decisão de escrever Chagrin d’école (no Brasil publicado com o título Diário de escola, que omite um elemento central da obra: a “dor” ou “tristeza” que costuma marcar a experiência escolar desses jovens). Ao narrar as dificuldades pelas quais passou e ao refletir sobre seu trabalho junto a alunos das periferias de Paris, Pennac toma o ponto de vista daqueles que, por não aprenderem no mesmo ritmo de seus colegas, já não mais se reconhecem no direito de aprender e tornam-se cativos desse lugar social: o do aluno que encarna o fracasso escolar e, ao assim fazer, exibe à escola e ao professor sua inaptidão para ensinar. Uma inaptidão cujo potencial efeito mobilizador tem sido neutralizado pelas certezas das explicações sociológicas que nos asseguram que seu fracasso é fruto da baixa escolaridade dos pais e de suas condições de vida. Explicações que, ao lado das lamúrias moralizantes e dos diagnósticos psicológicos, asseguram à escola e ao professor que eles estão isentos da responsabilidade por esses destinos.

Reproductive biology and species geographical distribution in the Melastomataceae: a survey based on New World taxa

Apomictic plants are less dependent on pollinator services and able to occupy more diverse habitats than sexual species. However, such assumptions are based on temperate species, and comparable evaluation for species-rich Neotropical taxa is lacking. In this context, the Melastomataceae is a predominantly Neotropical angiosperm family with many apomictic species, which is common in the Campos Rupestres, endemism-rich vegetation on rocky outcrops in central Brazil. In this study, the breeding system of some Campo Rupestre Melastomataceae was evaluated, and breeding system studies for New World species were surveyed to test the hypothesis that apomixis is associated with wide distributions, whilst sexual species have more restricted areas. The breeding systems of 20 Campo Rupestre Melastomataceae were studied using hand pollinations and pollen-tube growth analysis. In addition, breeding system information was compiled for 124 New World species of Melastomataceae with either wide (1000 km) or restricted distributions. Most (80 ) of the Campo Rupestre species studied were self-compatible. Self-incompatibility in Microlicia viminalis was associated with pollen-tube arrest in the style, as described for other Melastomataceae, but most self-incompatible species analysed showed pollen-tube growth to the ovary irrespective of pollination treatment. Apomictic species showed lower pollen viability and were less frequent among the Campo Rupestre plants. Among the New World species compiled, 43 were apomictic and 77 sexual (24 self-incompatible and 53 self-compatible). Most apomictic (86 ) and self-incompatible species (71 ) presented wide distributions, whilst restricted distributions predominate only among the self-compatible ones (53 ). Self-compatibility and dependence on biotic pollination were characteristic of Campo Rupestre and narrowly distributed New World Melastomataceae species, whilst apomictics are widely distributed. This is, to a certain extent, similar to the geographical parthenogenesis pattern of temperate apomictics.

Anorexia: a failure in the work of melancholia

The self-reproach against their own bodies seen in patients with eating disorders has led us to posit the existence of failures in the work of melancholia. Defined by Freud in 1915, this process of melancholia is aimed at repairing a loss felt as unbearable by the ego and that triggers off a violent struggle with ambivalent feelings toward the lost object. The resulting hatred is aimed at the shadow of the object that falls on the ego. Especially in anorexia nervosa, there seems to be a regressive movement that goes beyond this.