Teachers and professors, sentenced to a miserable salary and deceitful contracts, complain requesting adequate working conditions. And then they are threatened to be supplanted by improvised characters.
Gustavo Luis Carrera ILLETTERS ON THE MARGIN
In any rationally structured society, teachers and professors are considered at the highest level. They are the present that opens the doors of the future of a country. The level of the collective cultural ascent depends on them, projected in the creative receptivity of the students: children and young people who represent today and the ethical and spiritual tomorrow. That is why it is outrageous to see how this reality is ignored and teachers are attacked, because they request decent salaries and logical hiring rules. And then, the reaction of the guardians of the prevailing system is to insult the teachers and try to replace them with improvised characters. But, they forget that it is a professional capacity that is not artificially replaced.
THE VOCATION. One is a teacher, first of all, by vocation. We already said it recently: “Being a teacher is having the deep conviction that one is in the world not only to instill knowledge, but equally to form minds. It is a commitment of the highest condition. Remembering the words of the eminent teacher Simón Rodríguez, we will say that “teaching is not only educating, it is training for life”. One is a teacher, just as one is a doctor or a priest, because one has a determined spirit of public service, of solidarity with one’s fellow man. And this is not present in anyone. Just as his special condition towards art, towards thought, towards action is manifested in a person; In the same way, his particular nature is evident, apt to deal with the youngest or with the child; his logical patience with the progressively advancing student; his understanding of natural human failings; his absolute respect for the physical and spiritual integrity of the student. There is not the slightest doubt: these capacities are given by themselves, in the specific nature of each one. And whoever doesn’t meet them will never be, properly, a teacher. We reiterate: being a teacher, being a teacher, is a vocational act.
“Joseph Lancaster fooled a lot of people at the time. Even Simón Bolívar, urged by his desire to spread education, fell into the trap ”
THE FORMATION. The legitimate access to the status of teacher results from a determined effort of study and a consistent discipline. It is a pedagogical career, at the level of Normal Schools, Pedagogical Institutes and Universities, with demanding programs and well-known tests and degree projects. Some seem to ignore this. Especially politicians in administrative exercise. Probably because to be a politician and hold a high government position, including that of president, as we see in many countries, it is not necessary to complete special studies or have a high intellectual level. That is to say, that a politician does improvise; and he can suddenly go from having a three percent public acceptance to winning an election of the highest level. But this is not the case in teaching. Teachers and professors require formative knowledge of didactics and pedagogy; essential foundations of psychology; expository training; general culture; basic elements of personal ethics and social conduct. It is not improvised: they result from rigorous studies and proven teaching ability. And this, from the levels of first letters and primary, to the doctorate at the University. It is the demanding training of a particularly beautiful and fruitful profession.
THE IGNORANT AND DESPOTIC LESS DESPICE. Now, it turns out that, suddenly, in the face of the more than justified protests – even with circumstantial strikes – from teachers due to their salary crisis, which already plunges them into absolute poverty, to specific individuals of the prevailing high bureaucracy, which It occurs to them is to threaten to replace teachers with high school graduates, civil servants and even reservists; and they reach the outburst of beginning to put this lawlessness into practice. It is about the diminished idea that any older child can be taught and educated. Ignorance has no limits! (Einstein said that stupidity is the most shared good among humans; I think it is ignorance). Well, it turns out that every educational level is equally demanding; didactic techniques impose ranges and peculiarities in professional capacity. I have always been a university professor, throughout my professional life, and I have maintained my admiration and respect for teachers of first letters and of all primary education. Do not think that it is easier to teach properly and effectively at these levels. It is an innate condition, a special capacity, reserved for select people. On the other hand, the idea of using advanced students to train beginners has already been tried, two centuries ago, ending in great failure. At the beginning of the 19th century, the English Quaker Joseph Lancaster put this formula into practice. He fooled a lot of people at the time. Even Simón Bolívar, urged by his eagerness to spread education, fell into the trap, and asked Congress for money to found a Lancastrian school; but, later he discarded the project, alerted by Simón Rodríguez, who was never fooled. Later it was discovered that in the Lancasterian formula the improvised teachers punished the students, tying them up or locking them in cages. And already Mr. Lancaster became synonymous with fraud and failure. The same will happen in this case that we now have in front of us. So those who believe that they are promoting a great original idea, improvising teachers by decree and demagogy, do nothing more than reveal their supine ignorance. While the teaching profession will continue to hold its privileged position in the social order of every nation governed by the democratic order and cultural elevation. VALVE: “If there is a valid protest, it is the one that demands respect from the teaching establishment. Teachers and professors, sentenced to a miserable salary and deceitful contracts, complain requesting adequate working conditions. And then they are threatened to be supplanted by improvised characters; even passing laws in this regard, in what normal head, other than that of an ignorant and despotic official, does this aberration fit? [email protected]
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