As it sounds, although at first glance it seems contradictory. We already know, as documented by the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts, that the rhetorical device consisting of combining two words or expressions of opposite meaning is called an oxymoron.
Many teachers find that we want to start our classes and there is no human way to achieve it, either because the students are talking, not paying attention, or someone jumps out with an extravagance that another comments on because of the grace it has made them, and so fifteen thousand more stories. Normally what we usually do is tell them to shut up and try to capture their attention. Sometimes we are lucky and supposedly everything goes smoothly. But very often, more than desired, they interrupt again because some student, usually outstanding and brilliant, has to communicate to the classmate next to him something of utmost importance and greater urgency than what the teacher says, something like that yesterday he did not see so-and-so on the beach or what are you going to buy the sandwich at recess?
It is in vain to try to explain to the student that this action is not only an interruption of the normal development of the class, well loaded, of course, with bad education, but that it is, at the same time, an insult to the teacher's work and an evident contempt for the interest of the rest of the classmates.
There are teachers who like to arrive at the Institute just in time, but some arrive with some time in advance to do things more calmly, have a coffee and enjoy a little time with their colleagues. This is the case of Juanita Delgado Morín; a person who has given most of her life to teaching, with a great vocation for teaching and absolutely not stingy with her time to help those who need it, to cooperate where she can contribute something; always with a word of encouragement for the colleague and always willing to praise the progress of the students.
Well, it was precisely in one of those little moments before starting our work where I heard that expression for the first time; she commented that from time to time she told the students that that day they were not going to give Spanish Language, that they should close the books because they had to talk. And it turns out that, believe it or not, there are quite a few children who do not have the healthy habit of using "please" or "thank you", and quite a few less, thank God, who resort more frequently than humanly desirable to violent, arrogant, aggressive and humiliating language.
From here, from Tías, about three hundred meters above sea level and about three hundred meters below the highest point of Montaña Blanca, I would like these humble letters to serve as a small tribute, first, to all those who enthusiastically dedicate themselves to teaching and, especially, to that dear teacher who this year retires to enjoy her well-deserved rest, who has left such a mark on many of those she has taught and on all those who have been lucky enough to have her as a colleague. We will miss you very much, Juanita, the coffee moments will not be the same without your presence.
"True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes."
Lord Halifax
José Francisco Tejera Trejo
Professor
