A Family Conversation
HAVANA TIMES – My mother has been a junior high school teacher for most of her life. She taught History. She retired recently and told us at home that she wanted to go back to work.
Her decision is not unusual. Today, it is the teachers who return to the workforce after retirement who are keeping the schools functioning. Because there are hardly any teachers left. The reasons are poor working conditions, salaries that don’t last through the month, and the particular demands of the profession, which make teaching a difficult job.
When my aunt heard her, she replied that she should go back to teach mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry… anything but History. Because who, right now, would dare talk about the injustices of the Batista dictatorship, for example? Or the importance of the Agrarian Reform Law of 1959? Or the achievements of the 1959 Revolution?
I thought about the sad role that our teachers, especially History teachers, have to play in our schools. Because having to defend a government with which there is widespread dissatisfaction must be truly disheartening. Although, of course, there are still those who defend that government for many reasons.
My mother hasn’t brought up the subject again.
Read more from the diary of Lien Estrada here on Havana Times.