Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Global Social Justice Project, in May 2012 undergraduate student Charlotte Markson interviewed Paola Giménez, a teacher at Don Bosco School (Obra Social y Educativa Don Bosco) in Montevideo, Uruguay, a school affiliated with Fe y Alegría Uruguay. In this interview Giménez discusses the role of technology in improving education, the challenges and rewards of being a teacher in a sometimes difficult environment, and realizing social justice through education and work.

Can you tell me about yourself?

I am one of the people who always knew she wanted to be a teacher. I am 38 years old, and have been living in this neighborhood for 25 years. I am therefore a part of this poor population. I grew up here, studied to become a primary school teacher, and stayed in this neighborhood.

I am a teacher because I believe there are many things to be achieved by teachers, and we are able to effect change, even though it may not be a huge change. But it is the small and diligent work (trabajo de hormiga) which I have always preferred, the work that can make a change in people’s lives even though sometimes it seems insignificant. I can’t change the world—that is something I learned when I was 10 years old—because the world doesn’t change from one day to the next; but, if we all work a little bit, we can achieve positive things.

Can you tell me about your work at this school?

I am a teacher but have also worked as Ceibal Support, which spans across different classrooms. As Ceibal Support I assist teachers in using the new XO computers [a durable laptop created for diverse educational settings] we have received due to the government’s Plan Ceibal [which aims to provide one laptop per child].

When the XO computers were introduced, no one had experience in how to use them because they have a different operating system than regular computers. So in the beginning there was a lot of work to do, and a lot of resistance from teachers. But everyone has evolved a lot. The XO computer is an advance, because everyone can work with it. The problem lies in its implementation, because not all children are in a situation where they can take care of such an item. In addition, children have to learn how to use the computer also when they are at home. In my opinion the implementation by the government was not very good. The computers arrived; everyone received one. No one knew how to use them, and so they broke. Now things are better. They are sending people to come fix computers and do the regular maintenance work.

When was the Plan Ceibal implemented?

In 2008 a pilot project was launched, and the next year the program was implemented across the country. The beginning was rather difficult, and we are only recently receiving the tools to maintain the machines in their necessary state of functioning.

Personally I think not only the XO computer, but everything that has to do with technology is a huge help. It makes different types of knowledge accessible which otherwise would be impossible to bring into a classroom, especially not in a school like this one where we do not have much. So it is a new scope of knowledge which you can offer the students in their work—it’s fantastic.

Tell me about a teacher’s work.

I think we as teachers play a fundamental role, because learning how to read, investigate, and accumulate knowledge opens many doors. Nowadays a child can look up something in the internet and can see many things. But there are things only teachers and family, as people, can transmit and generate in children: the joy of learning and dignity.

In this neighborhood I think it is very important to work on dignity and to help people value their work. You can’t simply say, “They live this way and will continue to live like that. And I live like this and have no other future.” I think this is a very negative attitude, both as a society and a person. I can’t get up every morning believing that everything is lost. I have to believe that something can change, something can get better, and I can teach them something. Maybe they will only learn very simple things, but if they find joy in being here and learning everyday, then that’s something.

I love teaching first grade and seeing children’s development starting from the first day of classes when they don’t know a single letter. I have always found it spectacular to watch a child who didn’t know how to read and didn’t even want to come into the classroom because it felt completely overwhelmed, and at the end of the year it knows how to write.

Sometimes students come to visit who dropped out of school, and they tell me they are now back in classes. This is a great success, because it means they have been able to build relationships and navigate their path in society. Many students also come to visit once they are in secondary school in order to show me their notebooks and crafts. All of this means we are able to achieve something; we can create networks so that children don’t feel alone.

As a teacher you also have to deal with frustration. It is still hard for me to witness a student who is going through a difficult time or isn’t able to integrate herself into society. You always ask yourself why you weren’t able to help. But these things happen, and you have to learn to live with it—you always have to see the glass as half full.

All in all, I love being a teacher. That doesn’t mean there aren’t days when I am exhausted, furious, or feel terrible—there are many days like that. But there are also days when I can say, “That’s why I am a teacher. Because of what that child just said, that’s why I teach.”

How does social justice fit into your work?

Sometimes we sit in meetings and talk about how difficult today’s youth are, and how it is impossible to work with them. But, aside from punishing, marginalizing, and moving them from school to school in order to avoid them influencing the “good students,” we aren’t doing anything.

What we need to strive for is for everyone to feel accomplished because they are able to work, they are able to gain things through their work, and are able to learn and make progress in their lives. In my opinion that is how we achieve social justice—by being able to do things. It is not about giving out everything for free without teaching children to value, take care of, and achieve things on their own. Because we all have to work in order to achieve things—we need to tolerate and make sacrifices. This doesn’t mean sacrifices such as not eating; those are needs that need to be met from the start. But if I know a child doesn’t get to eat every day I can’t simply pity her and tell her not to study and not to work. And that is what happens sometimes. We don’t do it with bad intentions; we do it because we think we are doing the right thing. There are things that can’t be fixed, at least not by the teacher. Of course you have to treat children differently in some instances. I cannot demand the same of a child who does not bring his notebook to school because his family used it to make fire and stay warm, as I do from a child that has everything it needs. But I will aim to make them both learn the same things. I work for those children, the ones who are the most needy and poor.

What does Fe y Alegría mean to you?

I started working with this network two years ago, and honestly I find the name quite genius. The fact that something is called joy, and I associate faith with the confidence that change can be achieved, means to me that the name is already stating what we are working towards. Whether or not we are religious, we are not accepting failure or loss. We are putting our stakes on education, on improving, and on being happy. And being happy doesn’t mean having a lot of material things, but it means feeling good about the things you can achieve.