The other day a friend sent me an email. I thought it would be the usual sadness, joke or curiosity, but the title caught my attention from the beginning: the teacher and educator said it.
I thought the two terms would be synonymous but I was wrong. I’m not going to say anything new when I say that the figure of the teacher has lost importance in our society. A few decades ago he was a teacher who spread science and knowledge, thanks to him – or his work – he prepared the child and the young man to face the world. Reading, writing, learning about other realities of the world in schools. And the teacher, the teacher, the teacher, had weight, importance, prestige in the village.

We don’t see this among us now, and an example of this is the well-known anecdote about teacher-student complaints. When a student did something wrong a few years ago the teacher complained and the parents took action with the child, now the parents take action with the teacher.

In our society, we have delegated many responsibilities and duties to teachers. “No, no, I’m not going to give him a bath at home, let him learn to eat well at school. He’s only with me for two days and I’m not going to start arguing about two meals” (heard from a parent) or, “I once told a three-year-old not to do that. The boy looked at me in amazement; I think it was the first time he heard the word NO” (narrated by a teacher). What to do at home, what the TV has to show, social responsibilities... they are all in the hands of the school (sexual information, how to walk on the roads, attitude towards peace, mutual respect...) and I have in mind my grandparents, who did not go to school, they were educated, they had a solid human formation. How could they have succeeded? What would they do between us?

The family must do more to educate children, including the public authorities, and the media. And those of us who are dedicated to the training of teachers are also responsible for us, because, as was commented in the email received, despite the fact that in an Andalusian institute the teacher often told the students not to paint the mirror through the kisses given, the cleaning lady had to come and show the students how much it cost her to clean the mirror... using the water of the toilet. What a good educator! The students who learned it once showed up... will we achieve this with our teachers!