Reforming High School for the 21st Century

                   There is a world consensus that the governments, politicians, education systems` employees, parents and students must make an effort to upgrade the quality of education. The fourth industrial revolution is about to begin and we all should be prepared for the technological challenge. The law for the implementation of high school reform in Brazil in 2017 was a good step toward the right direction. Now depend on education system of every state for its effective implementation. We all know that integral high school is difficult to implement in the short-term, because most of high school buildings have classes of middle school in the afternoon, but at least the flexibilization of subjects and the sixth class are perfectly possible to implement next year in all schools in every state. The law demands that next year all high school in all states must work with the new system, and many researches have shown that this new system is better in preparing the students for a job after secondary education or further studies in the university. So, we must not forget to demand the correct  implementation of the high school reform from our governors next year. By the way we are waiting for the plan of its implementation. So far there is not a plan for all schools in the state of MG. We are anxious to know if this new high school will be exactly how it is in the law. We should not wait more, we are wasting precious time. The high school reform approved by Congress in 2017 is the best option to improve the Brazilian education, in the short-term, the sixth class and the flexibilization will deep the students knowledge in their subjects chosen, and in the long-term the integral school will give time for students learn more their weakness.    This post is a summary of two articles. The first was published at   http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/issues/papers/School_to_Work.html. The second with the incomplete title above was published at   http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/mf_PB06_ReformingHS.pdf

                 School to work programs, by definition, link students and schools with the workplace. This is accomplished through school partnerships with employers, unions, and other public and private sector organizations. Together, these organizations help students develop the skills needed for the competitive job market while making their educational experience relevant to the world they will experience as adults. Schools to work programs are becoming increasingly important in school reform movements. They encourage curricular restructuring towards a contextual learning environment. With such a restructuring, the universal complaint of students, "why are we learning this when we won't ever use it" will be laid to rest. Application learning makes formal education relevant to life. The belief is that vocational program are for the low-achieving students, while academic programs are for the higher-achieving students who will probably seek post-secundary education. However, those who attend college are unfamiliar with the variety of career paths. Even these students could have benefited from secundary career exploration. All students need to be prepared to enter the job market, and this should begin long before graduation. The school-to-work movement will encourage the linking of education to preparation for a well-chosen career path. Faced with a fast changing job market through which there seems to be no discernible pathway to economic ssurvival. non-college-bound students often exit high school with no marketable skills. In 1994, President Clinton signed the "School-to-work Initiative Act". Calling for the creation of a national system of school-to-work programs. By connecting the school environment to long-term job goals and earning potential, educators will be providing students with a motivating incentive previously lacking from most realms of secondary education.

          For decades, reading, writing and arithmetic provided the foundation for all subsequent learning. In today's information society, those basic skills, while necessary, are not sufficient. Revitalizing education and making it relevant to 21st century requires supplementing with rigor, relationships, and relevance. In a revamped high school, the concept of rigor is broadened to include mastery not only of core academic subject but of the higher-order cognitive high school program aligns curriculu,. instruction and assessment with high standards. High schools in the process of transforming are often divided into smaller learning communities that provide individual support to each student and take responsibility for decisions related to their own learning. Students work cooperatively on tasks and assignments. Research tell us that students in such contexts have improved attendance, achieve higher levels and graduate in higher numbers. A growing number of students disengage from learning when the course content have not relevanceto real-world applications. Interest is growing in career and technical education, where teachers reengage students by coupling academic preparation with career and technical education. The American public understands that unless students master the skills athat the global economy demands, our nations's economic competitiveness will suffer.

Italian Immigrant National Day

                   Last Friday, 21st of February, all over Brazil was celebrated the Italian emmigration to Brazil. So this post is a tribute to all Italians that came to Brazil, including my great grandmom and my great grandad that came from Tuscany in the last decade of 19th century. This post is a summary of three articles. The first with the title above was published at   https://www.vercalendario.info/en/event/brazil-holidays-21-february-2020.html. The second was published at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Brazilians. The third was published at   linelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.2050-411X.1994.tb00762.x

              National Immigrant Italian Day is commemorated throughout Brazil's national territory as established in a law passed by Brazilian Congress in May 2008. The creation of a specific day to honor immigrants is the official recognition of Brazil for the great contribution of the Italian people.

              Italian Brazilians are the largest number of people with Italian ancestry outside Italy, with São Paulo being the most populous city with Italian ancestry in the world. Nowadays, it is possible to find millions of descendants of Italians, from the southeastern state of MG to the RS, with the majority living in SP state and the highest percentage in the south of ES with 60-75%. Small southern towns, such as Nova Veneza, have as much as 95% of their population of Italian descent. Four Presidents of Brazil were of Italian descent: Pascoal Ranieri Mazzili, Itamar Franco, Emilio Garrastazu Medici and Jair Messias Bolsonaro. The Brazilian government used to prohibit multiple citizenship. However, that changed in 1994 by a new constitutional amendment. After the changes, over half a million Italian-Brazilians have requested recognition of their Italian citizenship. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the newly-united Italy suffered an economic crisis. An agriculture congress in 1878 in Rio discussed the lack of labor and proposed to the government the stimulation of European immigration to Brazil. The first groups of Italians arrived in 1875, but the boom of Italian immigration in Brazil happened between 1880 and 1900, when almost one million Italians arrived. Over half of the Italian immigrants came from Northern Italian regions of Veneto, Lombardy, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. Among all Italians who immigrated to Brazil, 70% went to the State of São Paulo. The rest went mostly to the states of Rio Grande do Sul, and MG. Internal migration made many second and third generations Italians move to other areas. Many rural Italian workers from RS migrated to Santa Catarina and Paraná. Italians migrated to Brazil as families. He had to sign a contract with the farmer to work in the coffee plantation for a minimum period of time. However, the situation was not easy. Many Brazilians farmers were used to slaves and treated the immigrants as indentured servants. In Southern Brazil, the Italian immigrants were living in well-developed colonies, but in southeastern Brazil they were living in semislavery conditions in the coffee plantations. Many denouncements caused great commotion in Italy, forcing the Italian government to issue a decree, which established barries to Italians go to Brazil.

                 Within the framework of the vast Italian diaspora into foreign lands during the course of a century, Italian emigration to Brazil has drawn a fair amount of attention. Yet it has failed to gain the degree of scholarly study that it deserves. The outstanding characteristics of this emigration are the relatively short time span in which it took place, and the sheer numbers of emigrants. Italian migration to Brazil took little time less than 50 years. The migratory flow came predominantly from northern Italy. The composition of the flow was marked by a family component, in contrast to the experience of other South America countries, such as Argentina, and to that of the U.S., where individual emigration by far preceded family groups. Italian emigration was concentrated in the last 25 years of the 19th century, but the greatest numbers arrived after slavery was abolished in 1888. The Italian community quickly turned into the most important foreign ethnic groups in Brazil, exercising a decisive role not only in the economy but also in the cultural and political life of the country. After the difficulties faced by coffee plantations, a second phase of settlement can be observed as emigrants moved into the cities.

Privacy Day 2020

             Last Tuesday, 28th January, in the U.S., Canada and Europe was celebrated one of the most basic and important human right, the right to privacy.  All over the world they understand the importance of privacy to a dignified life, to autonomy, to security, to a life without harm, bullying, unjustified annoying, drag and intrusive situation.   We must all fight for this right, because with its violation many others rights are also violated. If you want to have an idea about its importance, imagine your life without your privacy. All dimensions of a person's life is harmed, his relationships, his employability, his socialization, his entrepreneurship, his health, his anonymity,  there is not one aspect of the person that is not affected. And it is not only the individual that suffers, the democracy, the rule of law, and the trust in the institutions are also damaged.  One more reason we need combat the human rights violations, the violators could think that they are able to do more and more. This is why can not have impunity in so serious violations, like privacy`s violations. Everybody should understand why we all need to fight against violations of human rights. And when they happened, we all must fight for reparation to the victims. If you saw a privacy's violation, record it, and be a witness.  This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at https://staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/about-dpd/. The second was published at https://iapp.org/connect/data-privacy-day/#. The third was published at https://iapp.org/about/what-is-privacy/. The fourth was published at https://www.cisomag.com/data-privacy-day-2020/

             Data Privacy Day began in the U.S. and Canada in January of 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the January 28th, 1981, signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. Data Privacy Day is observed annually on January 28. Data Privacy Day is the signature event in a greater privacy awareness and education effort. Year-round, National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) educates consumers on how they can own their online presence and shows organizations how privacy is good for business. NCSA's privacy awareness campaign is an integral component of Stop. Think. Connect. The globalonline safety, security and privacy campaign. On January 27th, 2014, the U.S. Congress adopted a resolution expressing support for the designation of January 28th as "National Data Privacy Day." Privacy Day is an international effort to empower individuals and encourage businesses to respect privacy. safeguard data and enable trust. Millions of people are unaware of an uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected or shared in our digital society. Privacy Day aims to inspire dialogue and empower individuals and companies to take action. You can get involved at home, at work and in your community. Take action and help create a culture of privacy. NCSA provides free, non proprietary privacy awareness and education resources to help you spread the word about managing your privacy and protecting personal information.
                Data Privacy Day, which annually on January 28, is "an international effort to create awareness about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust". Each year, the IAPP partners with Stay Safe Online to promote Privacy Day, and this year the celebrations are bigger than ever. Typically celebrated for one day only, the IAPP and KnowledgeNet are extending festivities throughout the entire month of January. Across the globe, KnowledgeNet Chapters will host their first gatherings of the year with the opportunity for you to network,  share professional experiences and have some fun, because privacy is worth celebrating. Raise awareness. Spark conversations and talk to others about why privacy and data protection is so important.
               What does privacy mean? Broadly speaking, privacy is the freedom from interference or intrusion. Information privacy is the right to have some control over how your personal information is collected and used. Ask most people these days what they think of when it comes to privacy and you are like to have a conversation about massive data breaches, wearable tech, social networking, targeted advertising miscues, not to mention the Snowden revelations.  With speed-of-light technological innovation, information privacy is becoming more complex by the minute as more data is being collected and exchanged. As the technology gets more sophisticated (indeed, invasive), so do the uses of data. And that leaves organizations facing an incredibly complex risk matrix for ensuring that personal information is protected. As a result, privacy has fast-emerged as perhaps the most significant consumer protection issue, if not citizen protection issue, in the global information economy. Data privacy is focused on the use and governance of personal data, things like putting policies in place to ensure that consumers' personal information is being collected, shared and used in appropriate ways. Security focuses more on protecting data from malicious attacks and the exploitation of stolen data for profit. While security is necessary for protecting data, it is not sufficient for addressing privacy.
                 This Data Privacy Day, we urge individuals and organizations around the world to learn from the fallout of the mega-breaches of the recent past. We provide five positive steps that companies around the world can take to better protect consumers, employees and more. Until recently, data privacy was only considered critical in the digital world. But as the digital and physical worlds intersect, it is now integral not only to secure an individual or a corporation's digital identity but also to avoid the safety of citizens being compromised. Data privacy considerations should underpin all company decisions, whether on the board level or on the shop floor and, this Privacy Day, organizations should encourage their entire workforce to reevaluate how they secure and manage data. It's now well-established that data is the world's most valuable asset and a tempting target for malevolent hackers with varying motivations. Hackers will inevitably be successful from time to time. Addressing this threat, and limiting how far they can infiltrate a network, is imperative in order to safeguard security.