Editorial

If it is to have a small dream, I do not sleep.

Unknown author

These words were spoken in an interview by Marco Antônio Villa, former professor of the Federal University of Ouro Preto. Coincidence or not, Rubens Alves, in his book entitled "Entre a Ciência e a Sapiência" ("Between Science and Wisdom"), Saint Augustine stated: "a people is a set of persons united by the same dream".

I believe that the Emperor D. Pedro II and Prof. Henrique Gorceix had great dreams for the School of Mines of Ouro Preto when they established it 140 years ago.

Prof. Gorceix dreamed of improving the deplorable situation in which the graded and high school education was encountered and wrote: without graded school education, there is no high school education and without the former two, there is no university education, whereby Brazil will not have engineers or men that are of use to the country. And dreaming of improvement, he proposed to teach chemistry, physics and mathematics to the graded and high school teachers, who in turn, rejected his offer. Now, it is disappointing to see that after 140 years, the situation has not changed.

Furthermore, the founder of the School of Mines of Ouro Preto sought financial support for the first students, in the form of a scholarship, and in requesting the same, proposed to pay part of the scholarships with his own salary, explaining: Educated in the École Normale Supérieure of Paris in analogous (he was also a scholarship student), I adquired a debt with my country, which I would be happy to repay here in Brazil, where I have the honor to be at service, and that my teachers taught me to love, independent of the country in which I would be serving. Once more, we have to admit that the students today desire scholarships, free transportation, etc., and do not think as Prof. Gorceix did, in repaying their debt with those that directly or indirectly paid for their studies.

As an animal that defends its family from attacks, Prof. Gorceix fought for the graduated students; even more so when they were rejected in exams that would enable them to teach in the Escola Politécnica do Rio de Janeiro, and were not accepted on the basis that their engineering diploma was not sufficient for their admission to take the exam, and he wrote: I regret and lament these facts. Since the beginning, there seems to be a desire to treat the Escola de Minas de Ouro Preto (School of Mines of Ouro Preto) as an outcast! Doctor titles given in absentia by foreign faculties are enough to obtain nominations for applied science professors... and completed by directing to the Minister of the Empire: under the actual conditions of this country, I do not believe there is a better professional to fulfill these functions; in every case, the petitioner only desires to demonstrate in public, the proofs of his capacity in front of judges whose competence I myself could discuss.

I could continue to demonstrate the greatness of the dreams of Prof. Gorceix, whose mark, after all of these years, has created as affirmed by Saint Augustine, a set of persons united under the same dream; that is, to maintain the high level of teaching in the School of Mines of Ouro Preto.

Prof. Jório Coelho
Editor-in-Chef
Doctor Engineer by Polytecnique Institute of Lorraine-France
Retired professor of Federal University of Ouro Preto - School of Mines-Department of Geology
E-mail: [e-mail]
35400-000 - Ouro Preto - BR

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Jul-Sep 2016