How does a teacher come to write the book Bidean?

By chance. “You should write something,” a school parent told me. At first I ignored him, but inside I began to move something, “maybe yes... What? How?” And there comes an unexpected pandemic, and they get us home, and I thought, "Now is the time."

Make the chronicle of your way...

I was once told that what happens is always better. I have repeated that phrase many times and, with exceptions, I have believed that what happens is always better, even if it is sometimes very hard. In the book I mention a lot of the colors and they are also seen in the illustrations, and I would say that in the students it was very gray: a student who went unnoticed, who did not distinguish either for good or for bad... But what's always going on is better, and it may now serve me to empathize with those grayy students, to see the grayy students.

Among my objectives, I was not studying Magisterium. I had another choice I liked, but I didn't get into college, and this was the second choice. I've had a lot of crossroads, and when I had to think of a crossroads for my life, what work to do -- I've come to this and thank you, because right now I don't imagine myself anywhere else, not even that first opportunity to learn that I had in my head. Once again, what happens is always better.

In my career, I've been marked by many professors. Writing the prologue of the book by Elena Laiz has great meaning to me. It is precisely he who told me that what happens is always better. But to name someone, in my career, I've been marked by a number of students. With some facts, because I've empathized a lot with others, or because they've made a very big qualitative leap when we didn't expect ... These students have been the ones who have laid the foundation of this book for me.

In twenty years of career I have also done everything, always with the best intention, but now I realize that I have not always been right. In the book I touch positively, but there is also from self-criticism and in some passages a request for forgiveness, which I explain in certain facts, but which is a general request for forgiveness.

Time is a powerful word in his book. Teachers are often heard to say “we don’t have time”.

This is a widely used phrase among teachers and in the presentations we put the parents very well glued on the screen: “The rhythms of the students will be respected.” But where's that left? It's not critical, it's self-criticism. If we talk about keeping the pace of students, time is an important factor. If you're all doing the same work at once, textbooks -- I think this way it's really hard to keep up with rhythms. For me, it is essential to dedicate your time to each student.

Over time, I don’t make any cries of “will and will”. We teachers are for something. The student must be given time, but it is necessary to plan well that time, to know the student, to treat the student, and the professor asks what he will do as a professor so that all the students take a step forward.

We teachers are commuters. I am not the one who teaches and the one who learns: we will both learn at the same time. Every day I learn something from the students. We propose works, but I am not currently proposing works and works; “what do you want to do? Well, we're going to do that," I like to pose. That has little to do with “do whatever you want.” More “What would you like? What would we do?” and there is talk in plural, because the teacher is included.

How do you make a school that responds to diversity, if there are valued competences and others do not appear in the evaluation pamphlets?

In Education, the number of hours to be devoted to each of the areas is very defined, and with that I am very critical, since the areas are by themselves an excuse to advance in the development of the student. But we have everything very defined, also the least the student should know! How far should the student go? Well, as far as possible. But I do not agree to set limits until this is determined.

This also has to do with time. We have seen many times to the students that when we are 6-8 years old we associate them with the words "difficulty" and "reinforcement measure", with all the emotional burdens that the word "difficulty" entails... and suddenly, in 5 and 6, there has been a certain click, and we think "Ah! What's happened here?" Of course, every student has their own development. In this development, our objective must be to make the best possible interventions to strengthen this click.

Today, I'm convinced that every student gives the school their color and that we have to put it out there, also the gray one. But if the competencies have to appear depending on the number of hours given to each area, some will never appear and others will appear permanently. And they're kids, but they're not stupid. And that's where comparisons, judgments come in, and children are usually very self-critical.

Reading the book breathes a respectful relationship with children. What are the elements of respect?

Many times we ask the students to “Benga, you have to write a poem right now and in half an hour, and it’s very easy.” I've done a courageous exercise in the book: I've put myself to write poems and I know what it's cost me. In an attitude of respect, we should put more in place, empathize.

Even when I have given seminars, I have seen that none of the teachers who are receiving the seminar want to answer questions raised in large groups. But we don't accept the students and put them in front of the microphone -- and all right, orality has to be the goal, but the pursuit of balance is important to me. I know that everything we do every teacher is done with the best intention to get the best out of the students. The other thing is if we get it.

A respectful attitude leads to the understanding of the child. If I understand the relationship as "donor and recipient," I know the topic I'm explaining. And the child is an ignorant in this matter, so the teacher plays with advantage. “I will explain this, you have to understand it...”, we say many times, but the professor understands it, so he thinks it is very easy to understand also for the child. Especially in the field of mathematics, it is essential to try to understand the student, listen to the student, make a path with him... Fernandez Bravo says many times: “The student does not intend to fascinate you,” at least in the child stage. Instead, sometimes, I think our responses are tough. The lack of respectful attitude conditions both the intervention of the child (who will remain silent) and that of the teacher, as if the students are silent, the intervention of the teacher is also different. It is a spiral that leads to a difficult situation.

You're very critical of the notes that are evaluated with numbers and commas. What kind of evaluation do you carry out?

A number can hardly replace a child's work, the student's effort. There are no numbers or tests.

Today we are talking about competences, as we were talking about content before. But we continue to analyse the content, and in some cases we have included the competition analyses, which have not been replaced.

We also have inconsistencies in our school, because we have to draw up evaluation reports and reports. And I think we write things very easily, and the writing is there.

When we talk about the competencies and evaluate the place where each student is located, we say that we place the student at the initial, middle or advanced level. But the Decree establishes that these competencies should have been acquired at the end of Compulsory Education, that is, at the age of sixteen. And by the age of 6-7-8, we’re already saying whether it’s at “initial”, “middle” or “advanced” levels. I do not find it meaningful if it is not the reference from which it is, in the case of our school, to observe “what it does”. I suspect, however, that “this, this and the other, we place it at one level or another according to what it has to do”, that is, that we are based on what is pending.

It is clear to me that the evaluation must benefit the child, so we should evaluate it in the light of this basic premise.

What is our job as a teacher? Take this student as far as possible and do it with him. And we have time until we're 16 years old. In our school, we tried to collect the evidence of this progress of the student and demonstrate it to the parents to confirm that this student really advances. Where he was and where he is today, both in the field of reading and writing, in the field of mathematics, or in the field of artistic... that is, we observe "what he does", for what he is capable of and not "what he has to do".

What is the purpose of the school?

If my goal was to prepare students for High School, it wouldn't make sense. We seem to have to train for what's coming. Are there parents who ask “and the tests? Because then in the ESO will come that...”. If we had known that the pandemic was coming, would we put the masks two or three months before to get used to the students? Or would we say, “Take it now that it’s coming”? In that later training there is also a fear variable, “beware, the wolf comes!”. I think that has nothing to do with school being a place to really learn. The school cannot have a place to train. The school must have life.

And the goal of the school is not to prepare for life or for proper work ... Who knows what the right job will be in twenty years’ time? Can it be youtuber? If we were to prepare ourselves for life, we should be trained as soon as possible on social networks, it seems that it is the world that comes, while studies show that we have to limit technological devices and screens, which is not healthy...

But I think the goal of the school is to come up with strategies to perform well in life. In the book, he reports in several passages that even those who have not distinguished themselves in the studies have had a very rich life, because they have been able to adapt, because they have social strategies... but not all of them are taken into account in education.

I believe that the student will come to the place where he has to arrive. As Francesco Tonucci says, "children learn even if they go to school." Another thing is how that path is going to be. Let this road be as welcoming as possible. For me, the goal of school is happiness. Happiness is not “do whatever you want.” You will be happy if you find a place for yourself in your school and you are fulfilling your desires and abilities. It's also the other way around, in a school where we can't fulfill our desires and capabilities... They spend many hours in school and being happy should be one of the basic principles.

The book shows the approaches employed by the most advanced pedagogies, but does not explain a concrete methodology.

Now it has become very fashionable the wood, the glass, casting walls... In our school, we have no choice but to do it, but we manage very well. The walls that need to be demolished are the ones that we have in our heads. Destroy them, remove fears and take another step. First you have to demolish the interior walls and then demolish the walls of the building. Because if we have to throw the walls and work in the same way, removing chips from twenty years ago and making a filling -- very pompous, but it doesn't help at all.

I won't expose any methodology, but I have my favorite methodologies. I refer to a constructive or constructivist vision, I think that the student learns himself, that he is the master of his learning process, that I will not teach him empirically, but will take some steps in his development and pace of learning, and I will be with him.

As many authors cite, the method is the student. The method used with one is not valid with the other. We have to share some basic principles, but each teacher decides with what methodology he or she will carry out, choosing what best adapts to the situation. In our school, we're working in a different way. I will not confirm that we will continue to do so in a few years’ time: perhaps the profile and characteristics of the students change and the teachers have to know how to act flexibly and adjust the methodology to each student.

Looking at the path of teaching in the Basque Country: Where?

We need our own system, even though I'm critical of the system. But we need our own educational framework. Otherwise, every two years since the Spanish State we are undertaking educational reforms. Now we'll come to the LOMLOE, we'll all get robotics ...

I think that the authorities and those who design education do everything with the best intention, but I demand greater autonomy for teachers.

More money needs to be invested in education. But not in digitization plans. That's what's going to come to us now: one plan and then another, more computers for classrooms and interactive screens -- but what we really need is personal resources. Education needs the person, the relationships. The school is a place where students live together, where social interactions occur, and that will not be replaced by the screen. In addition, students are much more digitally competent than teachers, and that's not because we've designed a plan.

I would like to receive one more teacher at our school.

The book makes it feel that each teacher has the possibility to make changes.

This book is an invitation: start. Do small things, but start. We cannot always be in training, in training, in theorization... Knowledge of training and theories is very good, but practice should lead us to theorization. We have to run tests, even if they're small, and see if they're valid or not. And if it's not worth it, we're going to make another small change. Let's start making little changes, all of them. And yes, we have few students, because our school is small, but in big schools the resources are more proportionate. We don't need excuses if we really want to.

If someone reflects and comes to the conclusion that everything is OK, phenomenon. There is nothing better than a convinced teacher. But I think the education system and schools need a change. And yes, as I was once told, the teachers will be a nail in the lifeboat of a transatlantic vessel. All right, but I moved my nail a little bit. If each one moves their nail in one direction, we may be able to turn the transatlántico.En otherwise, it will go ahead. I'm going to be 42 years old, and I don't think education has changed so much since I was a student. And I think it's been 20 years since time.

TALK ON THE ROAD IN YOUR TOWN OR AT SCHOOL

Would you like Koldo Rabadam to give a talk to parents or teachers? From respect to the rhythms of the students, from the education based on workshops, from the beginning of this decalogue...

Write to azoka@argia.eus.