25 December 2012 · Sara Marugan
When teaching is always a vocation
This article was machine-translated from Sara's Catalan original. The writing is hers; the translation has not been reviewed by a person. Read the Catalan original →
Christmas has arrived and, happily, one more pause in the busy lives we all lead. A hard term for everyone, students and teachers alike. Teaching is rewarding when people show you that it is. These days it feels as though the only thing valued in a teacher is the mark they give — or at least that is how it seems to me. Teaching is far more than a mark.
I am content with little. It is enough to know that someone values my work, even if that someone has nothing to do with it. Luckily there are many such people, outside and anonymous, who tell me so: they help me believe in myself, grow day by day, become a better person, respect myself, learn to be wrong.
It has been a hard term, emotionally hard, but not for nothing do I still want to grow and to keep fighting. My passion for writing is growing alongside, so it is possible that one day this blog will see the birth of a book now taking shape. I hope my inspiration does not run out — it swings at the moment between bad and good existential moments.
And to finish, let me recommend reading a classic author: not one of his works, but his biography. Last year I worked a great deal on Ausiàs March in class, and this year on Ramon Llull. What strikes me most is the thought that what March and Llull lived through — love, lost love, infatuation, passion, irrational fear, lucidity, self-regard, loneliness, anguish — is present in my own life. What a joy to read these two great classics and relive their feelings while making them my own. Is there anything better in life than realising that centuries have passed and the human being is, in essence, the same? Anything better than being able to connect with an author from the 12th or the 15th century?
I suppose that is why I am a teacher, among many other reasons. Being able to bring Llull back to life in my classes is a pleasure granted to very few. I am grateful for the education I received, and grateful for having steered my life towards teaching — above all because it makes me more of a person, more human, and larger.
Anyone suffering a crisis of values should read March or Llull. The world would surely be a better place if everyone stopped to think about them for five minutes a day.
I take my leave of 2012 with many feelings, but one of them hopeful: 2013 will be better!
