ABSTRACT
This study aims to reflect about the following issue: what is the role of the public school in the formation of a democratic society? The research adopts the bibliographic methodology, focusing the study on Anísio Teixeira´s papers. The text presents the author´s contribution to the consolidation of Brazilian public school. The proposed education consists of creating the democratic environment provided by school education. His new school perspective conceives education as a democratic way of life for the reconstruction of the experience around common interests. According to Anísio, the public school is the most efficient institutional instrument for the construction of a democratic society and, hence, must be understood and defended perforce as universal, gratuitous, mandatory, secular and high-grade.
Keywords
Public school; Democratic society; Education; Social participation