Elisabet Jané: "Society has turned teachers into scumbags and schools into free parking lots"

BarcelonaI like being in contact with teenagers because they are vital, curious and critical, because they have questions, because they have to face new challenges and have their whole lives ahead of them. I like to share with these teenagers my passion for reading and literature. I like to think that the voices and stories they discover can help them to understand themselves, to better explain themselves and the world around them.

Has having your child in second year of ESO made you discover something about teaching?

— My son's difficulties in certain subjects have reaffirmed for me, on the one hand, the importance of reading and reading comprehension – skilled readers are much more competent students – and, on the other, the fact that teachers must guide them and help them in completing tasks with clear and concrete guidelines. I am totally against the use of only digital teaching materials in the classroom.

Because?

— It has already been proven that screens distract less skilled students and that misuse promotes distraction and dispersion. We must use computers, yes, but we cannot abandon physical books, nor stop writing by hand.

Screens make you drunk.

— Parents must insist, without being annoying, that their children must learn to organize themselves and study. There are many children who do not know how to do this. Do we read a screen and that's it? No, it is not enough. It is necessary to write, ask questions, make diagrams...

In one of the stories, a mother forces her daughter to write.

— She is forced to write a fortnightly essay, by hand, about a series they watch together. It is a way of making her reflect on what she watches, from an analytical perspective that helps her daughter become aware of how things are done and why. I think it is a good way to work on written expression and critical thinking. I have not yet put it into practice, however, with my son.

What mistakes can you make when trying to help your child with his/her studies?

— He doesn't like it when we pester him when he doesn't want to be helped. He doesn't like it when we insist, when we get annoying. If he doesn't ask for help, we must trust that he can get out of it on his own. If he crashes later, he will ask us for help. I have discovered that it is more difficult to educate a child than thirty students in a classroom.

What else worries you?

— The management of conflicts that he encounters at school, both in his relationships with his classmates and with the teaching staff. When faced with criticism, complaints, and discomfort that may arise, we try to reflect on how he feels and how he can improve the situation. What does he do? How does he express it? Who does he say it to? Who does he address it to? Can he do something to reverse the situation? What can he change and what can he not change? But we see that he is not lazy about going to school, so we are doing well and it is not a big deal.

Thirteen years is not easy.

— I am concerned about the ideology of the people they follow on social media and the impact it can have on their way of thinking and acting. It is difficult to counteract the values they transmit. influencers, youtubers and gamers through seemingly harmless formats.

There's a lot of talking to do, I guess.

— Our task as parents is to make him reflect on the competitiveness, individualism, narcissism, and linguistic prejudices of many of these stimuli that he receives daily. Perhaps we cannot stop the rise of fascism and ultraconservative thinking, but we must ensure that our children are critical of right-wing narratives and the mechanisms they use to recruit them.

In a beautiful story you portray a teacher about to retire.

— Dolors represents a way of doing things and being that no longer has a place in a society that has turned teachers into scumbags and schools into free parking lots.

It's combative, what you say.

— There are times when I have felt like Dolors. Since the moment that the training and academic level of teachers has declined; since the Department of Education has stopped protecting equity, rigor and language; since trivialization, superficiality and "having a good time" have ruled the day to day, teachers like Dolors can do nothing but fold or burn everything.