Monday, October 30, 2006
The Passion for Football
Grade 11 students were given their first major essay assignment which was to tell a story from their lives, and then reflect on what they learned in order to give the essay a thesis. The resulting assignments were varied in subject matter and what they learned from the experience. Here is one example from Ajit Singh:
The Passion For Football
I live in Sao Paulo Brazil. Since I was about eleven years old, I loved to play football. My friends and I went to play every day after school. It was always the high point of the day. When everyone would come in the field and make a team to play, they would forget about race, social class, almost every difference. The only thing that mattered was how well you played football.
There is one guy in our neighborhood called Welinton Silva. He was the oldest kid playing and most experienced too. Not to say that he was the only one. There were lots. But he was the best! He was the fastest, and more skilled than any other guy that I knew. He had a chance of becoming a real professional player, with a team like Corinthians that won the national championships of Brazil six times. This is the dream of most Brazilian teenagers, though not for me so much. I play only for fun with my friends.
One day of the summer of 1997, after school, I was going to the football field to meet my friends. My friend Welinton Silva was going with me. We were glad that school was over, and started walking towards the field. Getting there we heard a weird noise. It seemed too loud to be our friends playing. It didn’t even seem like people! It was more like a motor from a machine, like a tractor or bulldozer. When we got in view of what it was, we were astonished to find our football field like it was. The grass was taken out. The goals were in a pickup truck. My friend and I went to ask one of the workers in sight what they were doing to our football field. He told us that it was being moved to some other place due to the construction of a building. He did not tell us where it would be built. He only knew when. Or at least he had an idea. He told us that a new football field would be made one month after the completion of the building. I knew that even for the building it would take at least one year, knowing that the people building it had lots of money. It was a big firm that built shops around my city. But my and my friend’s main task was to be certain that the football field was going to be replaced soon as possible.
After a few days, I set up a meeting with my friends to discuss what we would do. After some time, we agreed that the best thing to do was to get as many parents involved as possible, so that the firm would actually do something about it. This was a hard thing, because most of the people I knew that played football in the field were lower class, and the parents worked most part of the day! This is if they had a job. And in the free time the parents had to go to school meetings and other important things.
Not like football! because for most parents, football wasn’t a good thing, because the only way of getting money with it, is if you are on the national team, and it’s really hard to get on one! There are so many good players and people that have potential. So for most, football was not a job. It was more like a dream, and for the normal kids that didn’t make it, they would start working early in life.
One of the guys that played on the football field was Rodrigo Debault, who was really rich. His father, Mr. Stefano Debault was a well educated lawyer of the city of Sao Paulo, and his mom, Joana Debault was business consultant for a very important multinational company of Brazil. I didn’t know if his dad would be walling to help us, because he didn’t even have much time with his family, even though his only child was Rodrigo. Rodrigo’s mom was very busy most of the time, and he passed most of the time in his big house or mansion, or playing football with us and the guys. For him and most people it was there that most talent comes from, not from the football clubs for the spoiled kids of my neighborhood. When we talk to Rodrigo about the field he was very open, and said that he would try to talk to his parents about it.
The next day, I received a phone call from Mr. Debault. He told me that he would see what he could do about it. But it was going to have to be on his free time. After that call I felt like soon we would get the field back. Even with him working on his free time it would make the time less. Mr. Debault worked usually for people who had money, but sometimes for the public he put some dangerous guys behind bars or at least helped, so I had high hopes for it, and also with the help of other families, it was promising.
In about one week and a half, Mr. Debault was going to have a break from his work, and go to a meeting about the football field replacement with the people in charge of that construction! Rodrigo called me to tell me that his dad was working on it, and to give this good news to every one else! It seemed also that the relationship in his family was getting better by his voice in the way he was referring to his dad. Maybe this situation helped somebody in the process. About two days after the meeting they were finally starting to build the new football field! I felt happy for the Debaults.
This gave me a push to think about doing good and helping around others. Doing seva and things like that brings you good karma. Also, my friend Welinton Silva got the chance to have a place where he could practice and play, so maybe in the future he can become a real player for Corinthians. In a country like Brazil, democracy does work, but for that you need lots of people involved, or a really highly recognized lawyer like Mr. Stefano Debault in the picture. And then you can win.
Grade 11 students were given their first major essay assignment which was to tell a story from their lives, and then reflect on what they learned in order to give the essay a thesis. The resulting assignments were varied in subject matter and what they learned from the experience. Here is one example from Ajit Singh:
The Passion For Football
I live in Sao Paulo Brazil. Since I was about eleven years old, I loved to play football. My friends and I went to play every day after school. It was always the high point of the day. When everyone would come in the field and make a team to play, they would forget about race, social class, almost every difference. The only thing that mattered was how well you played football.
There is one guy in our neighborhood called Welinton Silva. He was the oldest kid playing and most experienced too. Not to say that he was the only one. There were lots. But he was the best! He was the fastest, and more skilled than any other guy that I knew. He had a chance of becoming a real professional player, with a team like Corinthians that won the national championships of Brazil six times. This is the dream of most Brazilian teenagers, though not for me so much. I play only for fun with my friends.
One day of the summer of 1997, after school, I was going to the football field to meet my friends. My friend Welinton Silva was going with me. We were glad that school was over, and started walking towards the field. Getting there we heard a weird noise. It seemed too loud to be our friends playing. It didn’t even seem like people! It was more like a motor from a machine, like a tractor or bulldozer. When we got in view of what it was, we were astonished to find our football field like it was. The grass was taken out. The goals were in a pickup truck. My friend and I went to ask one of the workers in sight what they were doing to our football field. He told us that it was being moved to some other place due to the construction of a building. He did not tell us where it would be built. He only knew when. Or at least he had an idea. He told us that a new football field would be made one month after the completion of the building. I knew that even for the building it would take at least one year, knowing that the people building it had lots of money. It was a big firm that built shops around my city. But my and my friend’s main task was to be certain that the football field was going to be replaced soon as possible.
After a few days, I set up a meeting with my friends to discuss what we would do. After some time, we agreed that the best thing to do was to get as many parents involved as possible, so that the firm would actually do something about it. This was a hard thing, because most of the people I knew that played football in the field were lower class, and the parents worked most part of the day! This is if they had a job. And in the free time the parents had to go to school meetings and other important things.
Not like football! because for most parents, football wasn’t a good thing, because the only way of getting money with it, is if you are on the national team, and it’s really hard to get on one! There are so many good players and people that have potential. So for most, football was not a job. It was more like a dream, and for the normal kids that didn’t make it, they would start working early in life.
One of the guys that played on the football field was Rodrigo Debault, who was really rich. His father, Mr. Stefano Debault was a well educated lawyer of the city of Sao Paulo, and his mom, Joana Debault was business consultant for a very important multinational company of Brazil. I didn’t know if his dad would be walling to help us, because he didn’t even have much time with his family, even though his only child was Rodrigo. Rodrigo’s mom was very busy most of the time, and he passed most of the time in his big house or mansion, or playing football with us and the guys. For him and most people it was there that most talent comes from, not from the football clubs for the spoiled kids of my neighborhood. When we talk to Rodrigo about the field he was very open, and said that he would try to talk to his parents about it.
The next day, I received a phone call from Mr. Debault. He told me that he would see what he could do about it. But it was going to have to be on his free time. After that call I felt like soon we would get the field back. Even with him working on his free time it would make the time less. Mr. Debault worked usually for people who had money, but sometimes for the public he put some dangerous guys behind bars or at least helped, so I had high hopes for it, and also with the help of other families, it was promising.
In about one week and a half, Mr. Debault was going to have a break from his work, and go to a meeting about the football field replacement with the people in charge of that construction! Rodrigo called me to tell me that his dad was working on it, and to give this good news to every one else! It seemed also that the relationship in his family was getting better by his voice in the way he was referring to his dad. Maybe this situation helped somebody in the process. About two days after the meeting they were finally starting to build the new football field! I felt happy for the Debaults.
This gave me a push to think about doing good and helping around others. Doing seva and things like that brings you good karma. Also, my friend Welinton Silva got the chance to have a place where he could practice and play, so maybe in the future he can become a real player for Corinthians. In a country like Brazil, democracy does work, but for that you need lots of people involved, or a really highly recognized lawyer like Mr. Stefano Debault in the picture. And then you can win.
# posted by MPA Student Work @ 7:28 AM 
