It's almost predetermined that if the teacher has no resources and is not valued as a professional, she feels like a cog in the machinery. Without intervention, the pattern of children dropping out of school will continue, especially in a region as poor as ours. The gold and diamond veins for which the region became famous ran dry a century ago. The land is still scattered with lovely Baroque churches and tranquil colonial villages, and tourism is an expanding source of income, but families in the region suffer from high unemployment. The United Nations Development Program points out that Brazil spends 3.8 percent of its gross national product on public schools, compared to 7.7 percent in Sweden or 6.6 percent in Canada.
Illiteracy is another of Brazil's weak points.
Because of Brazil's reputation for poor schooling, the CPCD team was heavily conscious of the challenges that loomed before them. When Rocha resolved to spin conventional educational concepts like a top, however, he reached far back into his personal history to assure himself and his team that kids would love this plan as much as he did. There are no queens in Brazil. No one listened to me on the playground, so I had to keep my regal lineage a secret. Continuing his studies, he seized upon anthropology and concentrated on Brazilian popular culture and folklore.