2023-10-30 02:16:00
Even though we know all the beauty and good that the exercise of teaching entails, it is a profession to which we owe more admiration and respect. I also believe that this lack of recognition, together with other economic and social causes, justify that, each school year, we face the threat of not having the necessary teaching coverage in our children’s classrooms.
The fact, recently stated by the Minister of Education, Dr. C Naima Ariatne Trujillo Barreto, may seem trivial in the face of the many and tremendous difficulties of daily life; However, despite good or bad times, always: “a town without teachers and without schools will be a dead town.”
Therefore, when I discover stories of “living gospels” that, against any prophecy, take up the sword to create hope, ignite the imagination and inspire love for learning, that promise of happiness that invites me to believe in a better world comes back to visit me. .
Rafael Millo Leal is one of those beings whose presence can transform a boring classroom into a hive of restless minds. Although he does not fail to recognize that many times the insight of a student also pushed him towards sleeplessness and research.
“Every day, perhaps we sometimes wonder how one or another phenomenon is named or why it occurs. This is what happened to Alejandrito in the middle of that sixth grade class on the classification of triangles when he asked me: ‘Teacher, what is the point? ʼ”
“Equipped with mouse, computer and keyboard I began a trip to remote Greece. Within minutes he was in ancient Alexandria reading The elements, by the philosopher and mathematician Euclid, where he stated that the geometric point was not a physical body and lacked thickness, area and length; but that he recognized it as the smallest unit.
“Amazed, I remembered Alejandrito’s curious look while he analyzed the points represented on the blackboard and, in truth, it seemed hardly credible to tell him that the point had no dimension. So I came up with a Creole form and I explained to him that for Cubans the geometric point is a sign whose dimensions were at the ends of the objects that represented it: pencils, chalk or pens.”
Very similar to this story, the teacher treasures others that show his vocation for teaching and respect for his students. Self-preparation could define his time in the classroom for so many years. Although it is not a minor fact for someone who has a degree in Spanish-Literature, he took on the challenge of joining the Comprehensive General Teachers Improvement Program (PGI) of Basic Secondary School and had to quickly master the Mathematics subject.
Likewise, his professional history highlights how he has been able to move through the different levels of education: primary, secondary and Technical and Professional Education. Right from the Felipe Herrera Acea Polytechnic Institute, Professor Millo is presented to us as an example of a comprehensive teacher who teaches different related subjects.
He is also not alien to general culture topics, so through dialogue it is easy to evaluate his level of intelligence and knowledge, tools from which he draws to make the content more attractive and awaken the interest of his pupils, so that they leave also a pleasant imprint on him, as Alexandrito did one day.
Will the geometric point be a dimensional or dimensionless structure? Why are there other professors who differ from the “father of geometry” and investigate the topic? Would a professor from Alquizar be capable of proposing a different concept? Between these questions every night he reinvents himself, who in addition to being a great pedagogue, believes in the commitment to be better every day.
#literature #science #passionate #research