An education for democracy

Testimonial Literature in the teaching of History

Abstract

The teaching of the humanities is a constant target of attacks that question its usefulness and practical value. These attacks disregard the fact that the school space and teaching itself should not serve only as spaces for technical learning, with the training of labor to meet the demands of capital. Both formal education and teaching should be focused on the integral formation of the subjects. And this implies forming complete citizens and educating them for Democracy. In this article, we will give an overview of the attacks on the teaching of humanities, followed by a discussion on the importance of the humanities for the consolidation of Democracy. Then, possibilities of intersection between Testimony Literature and History Teaching will be discussed, from the perspective of the concept of Great Time proposed by Bakhtin, for an integral formation of students and for the strengthening of democratic values.