The justifications presented for the reform of Secondary Education are anchored in half-truths about young people's dissatisfaction with the quality and meaning of this level of basic education for their lives. This article, based on documentation referring to the reform and pertinent literature, analyzes these justifications and demonstrates that their intentions define the responses and conclusions that society must reach. Such justifications are intentionally deprived of specialized scientific analysis on the effective materialization of this last stage of basic education. To consolidate the reformist rhetoric, the silencing of divergent thinking and the support of the media were essential. The reformers did not want to listen to the subjects who experience the school, nor to listen to what young people want from their schools or teachers about their conditions to implement a high quality education that is attractive to young students. Its rhetoric, politically structured from half-truths and the contempt of academic production, intends to promote its public acceptance, effecting setbacks in the offer of Secondary Education in Brazilian public schools. The duality is reaffirmed under the discourse of a new educational structure, a new curriculum, a new role that youth starts to play in defining their life projects.
