I cross Barcelona's Gran Vía amidst the flood of teachers. A teacher asks me if it's clear that they haven't taken to the streets solely because of salaries. I think so, that it's been clear for some time now (especially since this week of nationwide mobilizations) that they can't take it anymore, that they lack manpower and resources, that they suffer from a host of grievances, including financial ones, just like the doctors, with whom, incidentally, they've shared for years the sentiment that they're fed up with bureaucracy without anything changing.
It's not about coddling them: precisely because the diversity and needs of students have multiplied, the level of academic rigor for future teachers should be higher than what has allowed them to enter the profession until now. Even more so considering the crucial role of education in the future of any society.
A country's excellence is built on the self-discipline of its people, but it's almost impossible to achieve without political power. And in this regard, this week we witnessed a humiliating case: Parliament cannot require its drivers to demonstrate an intermediate level of Catalan, but at most an elementary level, according to the court's response to a lawsuit filed by this Spanish nationalist pressure group ironically calling itself Catalan Civic Coexistence. Catalan is also affected by a legal inferiority that is condemning it. With this level of protection, if the non-government dedicates significantly more resources and the political parties much more interest, we will have to ask them to go to schools and explain to students why they should learn our language.
