The time has finally come to demolish the old La Destila school. And with the machines and the satisfaction of seeing the process advance that will lead to the construction of a new, modern and expanded center, the sadness of seeing in rubble the place where I spent so many hours as a child.
In 1978, the year in which the current Spanish Constitution was approved, I began my primary studies in what was then still called the Generalísimo Franco National School.
I will always remember the first day of class. Between excitement and nerves we introduced ourselves in the classroom. Then, being the first day, we could go home or stay. I stayed, excited by curiosity and because that was for all of us, five-year-old children, the first time we saw each other alone, outside the family environment.
I remember as if it were yesterday the names and surnames of almost all the classmates and teachers.
How to forget Santi, Ginés or Miguel Ángel, the first classmates, of whom I will always keep a fond memory.
And the teachers, Doña Pilar, the primary school teacher for five years. And then Don Manuel, Don Eugenio, Don José Miguel, Doña Remedios, Doña Teresita, Doña Irene... I think I remember them all; they will all always be in my memory, with their defects, with their virtues and with that sense of discipline that prevailed then in the relationship between teachers and students.
How many changes since then in the education system. How would we, the parents and mothers, manage with that schedule, from nine to one and from three to five, when the concept of work-life balance had not even been invented.
The change of name was only possible with a councilor for education and a mayor, both socialists. Thanks to the Law of Historical Memory, we finally erased from the doors of the school the name of that short and bad-tempered Generalísimo, of whom the children of that time knew little more.
In the coming months, a new educational center will be built on the site of the La Destila school, where the future generations of boys and girls in the neighborhood will be trained. A new space for a new time and with new and modern ways of instructing in content and raising awareness in values.
I trust that 2015 will bring us the new building, with facilities and services typical of this century. And I also hope, with the same faith, that retrograde and ideologized educational laws such as that of Minister Wert, will end this year being a thing of the past, along with the rubble of the old school and the infamous memory of the dictator.
José Montelongo
