Many realities
can be observed on a school campus
.
When entering a classroom as a teacher, I always ask myself: What am I going to leave here? What do the students expect of me? What do I have to accomplish to be part of the system and be able to form a healthy team? What do they expect of me? the other teachers?, and what do I have to comply with for the authorities?
In the course of my career and for many years I worried about achievements, the formulation of projects, leaving something that the student uses as evidence and belief to see what they can achieve with continuous work and with their peers, I I cared about the results and carrying out the training process to obtain
collective achievements.
Thus, many times fairs, models, magazines emerged... efficient projects and results that demonstrate what has been worked and that in my individual projection remain in posterity.
However, this was not enough, it was not enough, because the results obtained were good, but not entirely because one expects recognition, both for the working teachers and for the participating students, and at times I found that these results went unnoticed. .
That gave me a lot of pain and helplessness.
But beyond the criticism and self-criticism, the questioning and the work in general, I had to make this introduction to delve into what I have come to propose.
As part of a system in constant operation and transformation, we must comply with standards, establish guidelines and be committed to constant growth and evolution, but
without moving away from realities with which we live and share permanently.
The reality is that as teachers we have a more than privileged situation, we earn a salary, we had the opportunity to train in various institutions, and that thanks to the fact that our history behind it was surely not so unfavorable, constant effort was instilled in us,
discipline and Attitude is what allows us to maintain and prepare ourselves for work.
And sometimes we expect our students to also be responsible, disciplined and to comply and carry out what we propose as an activity, project, to be approved or disapproved in the curricular space that is taken into account.
And the fact of the matter is that many times it escapes us, and I must say it escaped me, it disappeared, I did not have enough lucidity to see it.
Working in a school that I do not want to name because it is not necessary, I realized that many of the students
only came to get out, get rid of their problems, addictions and they were simply waiting for someone to give them a little relief.
It's like a thirsty person waiting for a little bit of water, or a hungry person waiting for at least a roll of bread... and how ugly and absurd it is that waiting for a drop of water they offer us vinegar.
Remember
that each head is a world and that world is often collapsing.
Well, that is what happens when a teacher enters a classroom and pretends to have everything perfect to carry out the planned activities, and demands, represses and with the eyes of an observer tries to evaluate his students.
“Let's stay away from him because his behavior in this or that way is bad,” “let's get together with whoever I say because he has exemplary behavior,” are the instructions that we sometimes try to give.
What if the only thing I want is for them to only look at me because I have never felt watched by anyone?
Or do they just say “hello” to me and ask me how I am because many have ignored me?
Or just stay by my side because most people feel far away?
Without intending to lower the quality of education and demands, I must consider that many times
we distance ourselves from realities that hurt and hurt.
But we can face them in a better way and visualize them to achieve greater understanding.
Don't detach yourself from them and turn a blind eye.
I believe that this will make us more human and beyond the processes and results, let us provide understanding, love, advice, let us shelter those who expect not much from us.
Jorge Petersen Cruceño /
petersenjorgeariel@gmail.com
THE EDITOR'S COMMENT
By César Dossi
A refuge before returning to the ordeal
“Is there any hope to change the reality of these children?
Yes, go back to classes
: “What you can do, what I can do, is defend presence with all the strength of my possibilities.
We can all do that.
And that those who can educate themselves, work so that those who cannot, do not suffer anymore.
For them to change something.
The future, for example
. ”
Monica said it in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic.
She is a Special Education teacher who works with children with deeply serious realities.
She experiences firsthand the drama that thousands of children suffer in Argentina and she tries to accompany them so that they can get ahead in some way.
She told it in the note “The heartbreaking story of P., the boy who lost the only opportunity to escape the hell that lives in his house.”
He was abused by family members.
The Justice Department did not respond to the complaints and, without in-person classes,
“He was not safe 4 hours a day at school,”
Monica retorted.
Many girls and boys give up on educational institutions just to
seek refuge from the problems of their homes
.
Most of them, teenagers, argued with their parents.
Leaving means going out to ask for help.
And for them the school is a refuge
, only for a few hours, until they return to the ordeal within four walls or they run away.
But there is a fine line for these children, who are victims, to become victimizers and, some of them, overloaded with problems at home, explode against another classmate.
“Remember that each head is a world and that world is often collapsing,”
says reader Cruceño, not with the figure of the alert but with the urgent demand for help for those children who cannot find a way out.
Then, he urgently needs to identify his concerns and problems, guide him professionally so that, finally, as Professor Monica said, he
can change his future.