Professor, playwright, Carnival lover and great admirer of Machado de Assis, Clarice Lispector and Guimarães Rosa, Welington Andrade is often the first contact of high school students with Cásper Líbero’s teaching staff. After years in classrooms, he became the principal of the college, with many plans to its improvement and a proposal of greater contact between students and direction. Beyond the hierarchies, he wants to get closer to the students.
Who is Welington Andrade?
Welington was born in Rio de Janeiro, as his accent indicates. He had always wanted to be a professor and affirms that “a teacher in old days was a communication theoretical that reflected about the education. They gave classes, but had a critical and philosophical plan of what’s to be a teacher.” But, during the school, he started to study theater. Finishing the high school, he did the exams to Performing Arts in UniRio, was approved and left the Languages graduation for later. After, Welington moved to São Paulo and finally started Languages in USP (University of São Paulo). It was there that he met one of his best inspirations: the Literature professor João Roberto Faria. With his help, Andrade concluded Master and Doctorate in Brazilian Literature, which called attention of Cásper Líbero College.
Image Source: Cult Magazine’s archive
The new principal started giving classes in 1982, as a theater teacher. He had awesome experiences in schools of different levels and attended students of different social classes. Friend of Juliana Jardim (current partner in a microenterprise of art and communication) and Sérgio Rizzo, Welington was called to work in Cásper Líbero College in 1997. In the very beginning, he was apprehensive. “In the first week, I had stomachache, I sweated, I got nervous at home”, says Andrade. Although the nervousness didn’t last too much. He passed through the coordination and vice-direction until reach the post of Cásper Líbero’s principal. “It was a mix of chance and planning”, he confesses.
In the classrooms, professor Welington appreciates the transposition of Literature classicals to the contemporary world. “Homero, Shakeaspeare, Cervantes, Machado, Clarice, Guimarães: it’s important to study all of them, but it’s most important to know what the students have to do to study them in a course of Communication in 2019”. When explaining the books that are subjects of the entrance exam in the events Cásper’s Literature (the welcome door to high school students), the principal worries in transmit good contents, however with adaptations in the language and vocabulary.
“I deeply appreciate that the student understands our serious proposal, with qualified professionals, good content and that all this serves as attractive”, he affirms. The connection of Welington with teaching is strong, but he affirms that is now in a time he also wants to be in the management. “I don’t want to lose the bond with the classroom. I think the principal gains more when he continues actively as a teacher. I want to know the demand of the students, the fellow teachers. I will try to put the two together.”
What are the plans of the new principal to the college?
In what refers to the management, Welington has many plans. He wants to work in the internationalization of the academic formation with an agency partnership, the NM Exchanges; in the creation of an integrated communication agency between all the courses with professors, supervisors and students working for the Foundation and for external clients; in an improvement of the curricular grade attending the technological demands; and in the advance of Cásper Líbero visibility with cultural projects for the around public (as cultural happy hours, for instance). “In relation to what we want to maintain: the quality, of course, and the competitiveness of the selection process as well as the rigidity of the teacher selection process”, the principal completes.
Image Source: Cásper Líbero College’s archive
When asked about Academic Center Vladimir Herzog’s claims that includes from cultural and academic projects to scholarship expansion and quotas programs, the principal seemed extremely mind-opened. “We want a partnership and a relationship with CAVH. We are thinking about doing common events management. As for the democratization of college access, I fully agree. There must be ethnic-social inclusion, but we have the maintainer who also has perspectives before the college and we have to respect. Nevertheless, universal education is a very important demand. We have to work to make this dream a workable project.”
Welington Andrade outside of the “Cásper’s big head’s” room
As for the Performing Arts graduation, he is still active in parallel with Cásper Líbero. He is theater critic in Cult magazine and playwright (the theorist who discusses the issues related to the creation of the show with principals and actors). He worked in the play “Leite Derramado”, which is based on Chico Buarque’s romance and is also in the process to premier a Clarice Lispector’s play with a great São Paulo’s actress.
Always connected with the theater and literature, Welington is fan of Machado de Assis, Clarice Lispector and João Antônio Cândido. “They are my headboard authors”. On the other side, affirms not to like the “self help” literature headed by Paulo Coelho. “It’s cheap mysticism”, criticizes.
And last but not least, it’s impossible not to ask about his passion for Carnival. For those who have heard of him, it’s common to mention that the principal has already participated of Vila Isabel and Acadêmicos do Tucuruvi parades. Even so nowadays, the popular is to go to street “bloquinhos”. Did the “bloquinhos” win his heart as much as it won the adolescents ones’?. Between laughs, he answers: “Speaking of Carnival, I’m suspicious, I have samba in the foot! This year I went to the Augusta street Carnival, but I was scared of being seen with the serpentine on my head and a beer can in my hand. As a principal, I behaved the most. But it was awesome, of course!”