{"id":340324,"date":"2011-11-18T09:03:38","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T08:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/stories-of-a-teacher\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:04:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:04:14","slug":"stories-of-a-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/stories-of-a-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories of a teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cI am giving a lesson in my new class, first year elementary, of 26 very lively children. As soon as I have laboriously achieved their attention, I hear a knock at the door: it is the caretaker who notifies me that I have a telephone call. It is the mother of Paul; she is stormily separated from her husband with whom she is in perennial quarrel. In these days, both parents are contesting for the child <\/strong>with questionable actions, and bombard with telephone calls also us, teachers. I had every reason to answer that I cannot go to the telephone, that I am giving a lesson, and that I already imagine what it is about. But in that moment through the legitimate reasoning of a teacher who has been interrupted in her work, a sentence makes its way, from the Word of Life: \u201cMake that I speak always as though this is the last word that I say.\u201d It is an occasion to be vigilant! I smile to the caretaker and entrust the class to her<\/strong> and I go to the telephone with a new heart. I listen to what I had already imagined… but up to the end, without judging, without letting the \u201cdisturbance\u201d that has been created weigh on us. At the end, I succeed in telling Paul\u2019s mother that I understand her, that I comprehend the state of her soul, but that I believe that for the good of Paul, we can put aside the hurt pride and the rancour, and act only for the good of the child. When, a couple of hours later I pass through the corridor, the caretaker comes near to me and tells me: \u201cYou know, that mother has telephoned again… she told me just to tell you Thanks.<\/em>\u201d <\/strong> Some days ago, while I am leaving school in a hurry,<\/strong> with a thousand programmes to carry out and the shopping to do, I am stopped by Flora, a caretaker of Brazilian origin who only recently works at our Institute. She has to make a written application to the school management, and does not know how to go about it, also because of her language difficulties. I ask myself why, from so many teachers, she asks me who is so busy. The Word of Life invites me once again to \u201cstay awake\u201d: it is Jesus who is asking this! Do I want perhaps to answer that I am in a hurry and that he should ask someone else? <\/strong>I sit with Flora and help her to write the application. Then I propose that she types it with a computer because the presentation is better, but Flora does not know how to use it. We go together in the classroom for informatics and I write it for her, without looking at the watch. Two mornings later, while I am entering the staffroom, Flora stops me and gives me a very beautiful light blue scarf. \u201cYou should not have done it, it is not necessary\u201d I tell her. And she answers: \u201cBut also I want to be able to love as you have done with me. \u201c (B.P.-Italia)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the children, with their parents, or the personnel of the school, many are the occasions to be vigilant in love. Facts from ordinary life illuminated by the Gospel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}