Walter de Oliveira Alves

Author: Arlete Laenzlinger
*05.12.1952 (Araras, SP) – + 11.04.2018 (Araras, SP, Brasil)

Walter Oliveira Alves was born on December 5, 1952 in Araras, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. He married in 1985 and fathered a couple of children. He died at the age of 66 in Araras on April 11, 2018 due to complications from colon cancer.

He graduated in Civil Engineering, but it wasn’t what he really liked, so he decided to follow his inner voice and fulfill his desire to be a teacher. He went back to school and graduated as a Pedagogue, a professor of Educational Psychology, Didactics, Philosophy, and History of Education, with a master’s degree in psychoanalysis and a specialization in neuropsychoanalysis.

A Spiritist since 1973, in 1974 he joined the board of the IDE – Instituto de Difusão Espírita in Araras, where he took on the role of youth director and then head of the children and youth department. A student of Spiritist Pedagogy, he developed what he called “Education of the Spirit” through practical experiences with youth, a methodology he recorded in his books “Education of the Spirit” and “Pedagogical Practices of Evangelization”, volumes 1, 2 and 3.

His dedication to education gave birth to the well-known Annual Evangelization Meeting, the dynamic pedagogy websites and the Spiritist Pedagogical Magazine.

In 1985, the First Course for Spiritist Educators of Araras began, an annual event held at the IDE’s headquarters during the Carnival period, including theoretical and practical spiritist pedagogy, as well as artistic and literary workshops. This event, which initially catered for the local public, became increasingly well-known over the years, receiving participants from Brazil and abroad.

He considered art in its various expressions to be a precious resource for the education of the spirit, having been one of the pioneers in the use of dance in Spiritist pedagogical practice, and stimulated the creation of the Evolução Spiritist Dance Group.

“Art enhances feelings, directing the soul’s impulses towards the higher channels of
life. In the ennobled and elevated soul, art lives and vibrates intensely. In this sense,
there can be no education of the Spirit outside of superior and noble art.” (Education
of the Spirit, Walter Oliveira Alves

Walter is one of the coordinators of the International Evangelization Support Group (evangelizacaoglobal.net) and the pedagogical coordinator of CED – Centro Educacional à Distância. He taught free online courses in the field of education via the Internet, involving theory, practice, art in education and neuroscience.

In 2008 he launched the Revista Pedagógica Espírita. He gave lectures in various parts of Brazil, including seminars in the United States and some European countries.

He has written the following books

• God, Our Father
• Education of the Spirit
• Introduction to the Study of Spiritist Pedagogy
• Pestalozzi, a Pedagogical Novel
• Pedagogical Practice of Evangelization, vol. 1
• Pedagogical Practice of Evangelization, vol. 2
• Pedagogical Practice of Evangelization, vol. 3
• Theater in the Education of the Spirit
• The Construction of the Mind
• Mental Disorders
  

Walter, a dedicated worker in the work of Master Jesus, is undoubtedly a great figure in the history of Spiritism. We dedicate our sincere tribute to him. Thank you!