The Spark That Moves the Classroom

When it comes to teaching others, educating them, one must have courage and a deep sense of purpose. Facing a classroom with the charisma of youth in one's gaze, as part of the Educating for Love task, multiplies that responsibility which so ennobles and leaves a mark.

Can anyone educate? It is a question that does not admit simple or clichéd answers. Transmitting ideas can perhaps be done by anyone with a certain level of knowledge. But to educate, in the integral sense of the word—which involves shaping critical, ethical, and virtuous citizens—is a task of such human depth that it is far from being simple or inherent to all.

In the current Cuban context, amid a period of profound economic difficulties and complex tensions, the educational sector, a historic pillar of the Revolution, feels the weight of these realities like others: Scarcity of resources, strained infrastructure, overloaded teachers, and a brain drain are particularly painful.

True dignity lies, then, in finding alternatives to overcome the logic of discouragement and the surrounding trends. With this premise, since 2013, the University Student Federation (FEU) has undertaken the Educando por amor (Educating for Love) task, in which around a thousand university students have decided to devote themselves today to combining—over time—their daily studies with the hours, energy, and creativity to educate others.

Will in Action
Daiyor Castro Ramírez is one of those young people who took on the challenge of teaching with love. While in his second year of a Journalism degree, he accepted the challenge of teaching Spanish-Literature to two 11th-grade groups at the Tomás David Royo Valdés pre-university school in Havana.

"The first time I stood in front of a classroom," he confesses, "it wasn't so shocking, because I had already been a tutor in pre-university. But the fear was there because you are no longer just another student; now you are the teacher."

This transition from student to teacher forced him to face new questions. How to get teenagers interested in literature? How to project confidence when the task is daunting? He admits the most challenging part was assuming the role of teacher before a group that always expected the maximum knowledge from him.

Hence, another champion of the task, Enmanuel Oliva Court, a second-year student at the Raúl Roa García Higher Institute of International Relations, states that "to stand in front of a classroom and be an educator, you have to have courage."

As part of the Educando por amor task, he recalls, "I wanted to transmit the knowledge I acquired at the Guantánamo José Maceo Grajales Vocational Pre-University Institute of Exact Sciences to my new students in Havana." But the challenge was not easy, he confesses.

In that experience, he points out, he encountered young people who "lack study habits and professional goals. Some even attended classes as something secondary, 'just to attend.' However, we have achieved far more progress than I expected," he acknowledges optimistically, speaking of his didactic methods to make the class period more engaging.

Despite this, dealing with teenagers with strong-willed and divergent personalities, he says, helps strengthen an educator's skills.

Along these lines, one of the marked differences Yasmín Fagundo Alonso felt as a challenge during her own experience in the Task as a Spanish-Literature teacher for an 11th-grade group was the generational gap.

"The teenagers tested my confidence, knowledge, and even my humanity," she states. "Seeing me so young, the first thing they assumed was that the class wouldn't be serious. And I had to work hard to earn their respect and trust."

There were sleepless nights seeking initiatives to motivate them, convinced that wasted potential hurts more than anything else. Little by little, she assures, she achieved her goal and felt the responsibility to transmit, using the subject as an excuse, "knowledge about Cuba, to cultivate in them a love for the Homeland."

She also sought to debate diverse topics like the influence of the world's constant changes on literature, as well as economic, political, and social aspects her adolescent audience did not fully understand, intentionally fostering in them a well-rounded general culture.

She admits that facing the indiscipline typical of an immature age and demotivation is a whole challenge.

To that, we must add that balancing university life with the commitment of being a teacher is not easy at all. Yasmín notes that the journey as a teacher "has required double the effort: sacrificing early mornings and weekends, because it's not just about teaching classes, but being available for the students at all times."

As she herself recognizes, establishing a balance between both processes of equal importance has not always been possible.

Empathy as the Answer
For almost five months, Ichel Carballal Sánchez took on the challenge of teaching two 9th-grade groups at the Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías basic secondary school in the Boyeros municipality of Havana.

She recounts that the project experience became one of the most rewarding of her life. Years later, they still greet her on the street with a "teacher," gestures that have turned into pride. "Despite being there for a short time, I learned a great deal. The true reward was the satisfaction of accompanying and leaving a mark on others."

For Ichel, the word that best defines the experience is, precisely, love. From the beginning, she presented herself as someone her students could trust, beyond the teacher's authority, and her decision to get to know the students without prejudice was key.

"I told them I wanted to form my own opinion of each of them; that gave them confidence because new teachers always arrived predisposed by others' descriptions," she recalls.

During that stage, she discovered the importance of addressing the personal concerns of adolescents, not always with strictness, but by listening and accompanying. Mastering both aspects is crucial to achieving an authentic bond that favors both learning and human growth.

Innovation was her tool to connect with the students. "I always tried to bring PowerPoint presentations, videos, visual materials to make the classes more dynamic." Her perception is that today's teenagers grow up in a different technological world, and the teacher's challenge lies in presenting them with something new, a transformative proposal that surprises them in the classroom.

The teachers of these times, she asserts, seem destined for constant improvement, for greater demands. And she says this because today students have access to new technologies, to social networks, so they continually subject their teachers' opinions to judgment and contrast.

One of Ichel's most memorable classes was about the consequences of drug use, she recalls. "I decided to approach it with a poem that had marked my own adolescence. It begins like a love story and later you perceive it's talking about drugs. The students were captivated by the text and later wrote on the topic from different perspectives, away from repetitive discourses."

Courage, love, and experience. Patience, perseverance, authority. Legitimacy forged in the fire of daily life. All are necessary to educate, beyond vocation. But also example. Educando por amor, for these young people, has also meant paying homage to the educators who shaped their own training.

Now they focus their will on multiplying a little of what they learned, to warmly claim a space in the memory of their new students, and, with a bit of luck, for them to follow in their footsteps. To educate is a titanic, austere labor, but when it arrives with true love, it ennobles and conquers.