4Y2 Bilingual School
By Jessica Eufracio
As we visited the 4you2 school, I automatically noticed many differences between this educational space versus the private school we visited just before. 4YOU2 is a social business that gives transformative experiences of learning and culture to its stakeholders through the teaching of languages, specifically English. They are aware that a quality education is not accessible to the majority of the population in Brazil. To try to mitigate the educational disparities, they provide affordable language courses to those who need it the most. The courses can even be free for many. Their mission includes finding those who may be a part of an underserved community, especially those who have tried to learn English in the past. They especially seek people who wouldn't be able to afford it on their own. Our very friendly tour guide, who is an English teacher himself at 4You2, explained to us that knowing English as a Brazilian makes you more valuable. He also explained that by just knowing basic English, your salary can double or even triple, despite your occupation. The English teachers come from over 30 countries around the globe and some do not need a teaching degree to be eligible to teach English at 4You2. The 4You2 school is looking to grow and hire more teachers in order to hold more language classes for students.
Unlike the fancy private school we visited right before, 4You2 is in a small building with older furniture and unique art inside and out that has about 4-8 small classrooms upstairs. Many of the classrooms were empty and some had only a handful of students. As we toured the building and classrooms, we saw the old worn out student desks, small white boards, a small classroom television and one small fan per classroom. As we walked to the top of the building, we were able to see the colorful view of the favelas in the outskirts.
The name 4Y2 refers to the English words "for you too". They wanted to incorporate the ideas of inclusion and multiculturalism with their name to represent education and culture through an inclusive model that benefits everyone involved: students, foreign teachers, NGOs, schools and the entire community. Overall our visit to the 4You2 educational space was very intriguing. I believe their mission highlights the importance of inclusivity in education. They truly value spreading knowledge to allow underserved communities to thrive and obtain the same opportunities to succeed as those who are already born with privilege; they seek to give opportunities to those who would have the difficulty to obtain success based on numerous factors such as race, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, neurology, citizenship, religion, physical ability, health, level of education. I wish the best for the 4YOU2 school and their future endeavors and hope to visit them again in the near future.
