Florida, Nov 11.- A few days ago I heard, by accident, a very interesting and worrying conversation between a young active teacher and another colleague, already retired.
The one with the least experience commented and also complained about the negative attitude of a growing number of parents who are increasingly unconcerned about their children’s schoolwork, and of others who neglect the formation of habits and values such as punctuality. , responsibility and respect, thereby assuming forms of upbringing that distort and endanger the civic behavior of young people.
The new educator also spoke of schools that see very little the face of certain fathers and mothers, forgetting to provide systematic and obligatory monitoring of the intellectual development of the youngest members of the house, and often ignoring the unavoidable exchange with teachers. and teachers to learn about progress, concerns, warning signs or setbacks in the learning process and spiritual and human growth of minors.
The young teacher in this story, a lover of her profession, was also alarmed by the aggressiveness shown by many of these parents towards educators, including offenses and scandals, when they receive complaints about their children’s bad behavior and negative results at school. , which, he assured, has influenced the exodus of many teachers.
And, without a doubt, she is very right when we observe children and adolescents who come to the classroom with their uniforms sloppy, repeating absurd justifications and criteria used at home for not attending classes, such as the lack of electricity. ; or reproducing violent behaviors and cultural patterns foreign to the principles of solidarity, camaraderie, industriousness and patriotism sown in previous generations.
And I ask: Who are we causing the most harm to? Are boys and girls guilty of the economic difficulties and challenges of the country and their home? Are they responsible for finding a solution? Should they pay for the frustration of certain people and families or transfer them to the school setting?
It is time to reflect and firmly confront each of these phenomena, in a country where education stands out among the most precious and inclusive social achievements, and despite material and other deficiencies, it is maintained and sustained here as a right with full support. of the State, the Constitution and the laws.
It is up to dad, mom, or the guardians of the infants to play their role and fulfill the role of supporting the work of the most important institution in the community: the school; that which according to Martí’s verb «is the forge of the spirit and the workshop of life.»
Whatever the future life project in each home, the instruction and training in values of infants must serve, both to contribute to individual and collective development in socialism, and to overcome the individualistic challenges and fierce competition of capitalism, if Perhaps the family’s purpose was to migrate to settle in any other country in the world.
A child whose parents opt for rudeness and carelessness, attacking school projects and agreements, and justify their children’s absence from classes with banal, and even infamous, pretexts, commit a very serious mistake.
Parents who denigrate the teacher, diminish their authority in front of their children and support or promote indiscipline by ranting about actions and pedagogical assignments, walk on the edge of a knife and become craftsmen of a very dangerous boomerang.
The father and mother who encourage in the children, adolescents and young people under their tutelage material interest or others above ethics, morality, virtue and spiritual well-being, believe me that, without fear of being wrong, they are opening for them the path to frustration, inadaptability and, in the worst case, crime.
Let us never forget that the custody, protection and training of children is, above all, a right of parents, but such prerogative entails obligations outlined and approved by the majority of Cubans in the Family Code and in many other legal norms. in force, without discounting the evaluation and social and community appreciation in each case.
