Among her teachers were Barral, others who had taught her father as a child, and even Pedro II, who gave lessons in Latin, geometry, and astronomy. The education provided to Isabel was lacking, however. All she assimilated were abstract ideas which did not teach her "how to integrate" them "with practical application". Her tutors and parents did not prepare her to rule Brazil, nor to understand its political and social issues. A way of preparing her for a role as future Empress "would have been to give her from an early age personal experience of the tasks she would face and to relate it to what she learned in the classroom." That did not happen. Pedro II "showed her no state papers. He did not discuss politics with her. He did not take her with him on his constant visits to government offices. He did not include her in the "despacho", the weekly meetings with the cabinet members, nor did he allow her to attend the public audiences that took place twice a week." She might have been officially heiress to the throne, "but by his treatment of her Pedro II deprived the honor of any meaning."