Eugênia Maria Pinheiro Ramires: 

“The education we provide our children with can not be the same we have inherited from our parents and grandparents”

 This Educator is the author of the book Crianças Esquecidas (Forgotten Children). She talks about hyperactive children or with disturbance of attention. Eugênia talks about how this topic should be dealt with by parents and educators 
 

Eugênia Maria Pinheiro Ramires, our interviewee of the week, is an educator and journalist. She was born in Fortaleza (Ceara, Brazil), and lives in Jales (São Paulo, Brazil). Eugênia has three books published and is also working on a new book. She is a spiritist since childhood, and works with Grupo de Estudos Espíritas in Jales. She also coordinates spiritist study groups, speaks about Spiritism in different places and is mother to a hyperactive daughter, who lead her to investigate about education. This interview gives us an impressive testimony from a mother who looked for answers and now helps other mothers.

O Consolador: Where did this interest for hyperactive children come from?

This interest came across when I realised my younger daughter did not have a neuro-typical behaviour. I had to study a lot in order to be able to cohabit with her. I had to get to know her behaviour and who she really was. It was a challenged for me. I know deep down this was a spirit I cared for a lot, that was coming back to my life. 

O Consolador: How was this discovery? Was it hard to realise this was happening with your own daughter? 

Some specialists were saying she was autistic and hyperactive. Some others would argue she had a low level of autism, and others were not able to give a diagnostic.  

This lead me to look for study groups formed by Health and Educational workers. I also looked for parents in the USA, England and Spain, where there were advanced studies about this topic. I decided to look for information on the book Authism, a spiritual view, from Hermínio Miranda. 

O Consolador: How did the development of educational methods happend for your child? 

The process came from the fact that traditional schools couldn’t deal with her. She was only able to speak by the time she was three. Soon later she started to read alone, compulsively and without any adult orientation.  

She was always very independent. She used to talk about spiritual life, reincarnation and had a very accurate sense of justice. She was very unattached to the material world, and made her relationships at school difficult since she used to argue a lot with her class. She had a need to learn, but school was not the place for her to be. I looked for Pestalozzi’s ideas in order to educate her at home. I also searched for methodological information on the internet to be able to keep myself up to date.  

O Consolador: Why did you decide to describe your experiences on books and speeches? 

Information came from different sources, but all with reliable credibility. They lead me to a serious reflection on the need to share my experience with desperate parents who were not sure about what to do with their children; children who had similar learning development. That’s when I decided to create the project FloreSer. Hermínio Miranda supported my project massively. He said the biggest conquest of my life was to help my daughter, and encouraged me to keep on working. This lead me to talk about this topic publicly. I have been requested to give courses and seminars about it. Due to an increase demand for information, I decided to write the book Crianças Esquecidas (Forgotten Children). It has pedagogical references for those who would like to learn more about it.  

O Consolador: What books have you published?  

My first book was Acordes do Coração, Edithor Sirius, 1998. It is an autobiography where I talk about my seeach for selfdevelopment. It has reflections and exercises on it. The book Diário da Meditação, Edithor Sirius, 1999, came straight after. It was inspired by my menthor who took me to a series of spiritual trips. I also wrote Crianças Esquecidas, Edithor Sirius, 2007, which is part of the project FloreSer. This book will help us to live with differences and accept them. On this book, I have tried to summarise the most advanced research that exists in terms of children’s mind. I have also included information on teachings about ways of behaving with children at home or at school. It is set of studies based on Kardec, Pestalozzi and other Educations who have a spiritual point of view. 

O Consolador: Are you planning to publish a new book? 

My next book is called Pedagogia das Diferenças (Pedagogy of Differences). It should be launched soon, by Edithor Mythos. I detail my experience as a mother who needs to deal with a highly gifted child. The results of this experience have changed my life and I talk about it on this new book. I try to show that, those who focus on real education can achieve wonderful results. What I mean by real education is a way of working without prejudices or following old traditions.  

O Consolador: Have you had testimonials from other mothers in your talks? 

Oh, yes! The feedback has been imensel from mothers and teachers. I receive daily feedback via email or through the talks I host. I feel there is a lot of parents and grandparents who are crying for help. I see everyone who gave their testimonials opening up and feeling more comforted. They realise there are options available in terms of education. I do believe most parents knew that before, but were not aware of the educational solutions available.   

O Consolador: How does the Spiritist Doctrine orientates the educational process? 

We are living through a transformation process in the world. Kardec called is new generation. We need to understand that children who seem to be different are those who Kardec used to write about, 150 years ago. They came to make the world change. We need to develop a learning system that is concerned about the quality of life of these children. The spiritist doctrine is fundamental in this process, as well as study and dedication which would involve the entire family. We need to do what Hermínio Miranda used to say: take information to those who can not still perceive these syndromes. We will than be collaborating for the change of the materialist science that is out there.  

O Consolador: Are your ideas based on research? Can you please tell us from which authors? 

I have been studying for almost 15 questions involving learning difficulties, authism, asperger, hyperactivity, lack of attention and special needs. This work requires a lot of research and information comparison. It also adds up to get testimonials from mothers and professors who learned how to deal with these types of difficulties. That’s what we do at the project FloreSer. This is recognised by Professor Russell Barkley, who is a researcher from the Psychiatry Department at Suny Upstate Medical University from New York. Russell A. Barkley, Ph.D. is an Internationally Recognized ADHD Authority. He is the author of several books on ADHD and considered to be the most important international speaker on this field. Our project has been mentioned by Barkley at this book ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivitv Disorder: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment.’ We recently had our work mentioned at the newspaper from the The National Autistic Society, the UK's foremost charity for people with autistic spectrum disorders. This institute was founded by Lorna Wing, who is an English psychiatrist and physician. 

O Consolador: How should we deal at the spiritist centres with behaviour differences amongst children at Spiritist Education classes? 

As we have said, the education we provide our children with can not be the same we have inherited from our parents and grandparents. The spiritist doctrine teaches that to educate involves much more than teaching good pratices. We need to work on existing differences between different types of children. If the Spiritist Doctrine tells us that, we need to take this new view to the Spiritist Education classes. It is on this stage that children start to realise life’s values. They are learning from the start that people are not equal and need to have its individuality respected. When children learn to live with these differences, they are getting prepared to live in this world in transformation.  

O Consolador: Can you please give us your final words?