MY EDUCATIONAL BIOGRAPHY

I spent my thirteen years of primary and secondary education in different parts of Colombia; included Huila, Caquetá, and Putumayo. This was due to the fact that my father used to enjoy being a globetrotter. However and unfortunately, this brought some negative educational consequences such as having to spend more than seventeen years to get graduated from high school and having to study in dangerous places where violence was the bread and butter.  

I began my educational career in Susana’s preschool in Pitalito Huila. Actually, It was not a preschool whatsoever. The first day I was taken there; I was so terrified that I clung to my mother’s legs while I was crying and screaming like a dying pig. Nonetheless, I stood there and after some minutes I escaped and went back home to my father’s protection. However, the next day I was taken there again and I did my best so as for me not to cry again and to stay there and I did so. Finally, I became accustomed to being there and having a good time with my new friends.

After having spent one year in Susana’s; my father took me to a rural area in Pitalito to study my first year in a primary school. Nevertheless and while I was studying my first year, my father had economic problems and decided to take us to Florencia Caqueta.  So, I had to start studying again in a big school for primary and secondary students called Antonio Ricaurte. To some extent, I was happy because for the first time my two brothers joined me to go to school. But a terrible fate was waiting for us in Florencia. At that time in the year two thousand, the people’s army ( FARC) was in its splendour and best time. The war between the Colombia government and the guerrilla fighters seemed not to reach an end. Every day bombs, detonations, machine guns, bullets, mutilated bodies and the deafening sound of Black Howl helicopters terrorised the city. Owing to this fact, our teachers constantly teach us how to protect ourselves from the bullets especially to these children who lived near to the mountains.
 But our education was about to collapse because of the war. Every day I and my brother had to walk several miles to get to school. Some days there was some money to pay for the bus other days did not.  So, one day when there was no money for the bus I and my brothers walked to school without knowing that the guerrilla had set a huge bomb next to a police station which stood next to the road where we used to walk. Fortunately and thanks to Jehovah, the bomb exploded 2 minutes after we had passed by the exact place where the bomb remained.  This occurrence led my father to take us back to Pitalito.

Again my first year of primary education had not been completed and my mother had to register me again for my first year again in Pitalito in a rural school called El Danubio. In this school happened something that would change my view of learning and teaching experience. One day while I was playing in the classroom with my cousin and some other friends, my cousin’s cousin urinated another friend. This was a funny moment for us but not a funny one for our teacher when she was told what my cousin’s had done.  She told him off severely and banned him from getting the morning break. I still remember his melancholy face looking at us while we were playing so happily outside. The next day he didn’t show up in the classroom and it was the last time I saw his innocence childhood. That day, I asked the teacher ( who used to be a merciless and arrogant teacher) the reasons why the boy did not come and she said arrogantly   “ he won’t come back again”.  And in fact, the boy didn’t come again. His father was told what the boy had done and beat him and decided to not send him to the school again. Instead of studying, the boy was forced to work. I hoped that the teacher went to the boy’s house and he would talk to his father and his father would let the boy come back the school again but she did nothing. Her ego and arrogance didn’t let her. Sadly, the boy grew up being a thief, drug addict, and beggar. He ended up living in the Pitalito streets.

 Sometimes, I wondered myself if the teacher knew that the boy had a terrible and heart-breaking infancy; I asked myself if she was told that the boy was a motherless and, to some extent, a fatherless because his mother poisoned herself and his father was a miserable drunker. Every time I remember this, great sadness mixed with hatred comes to my mind because something on the part of my teacher could have been done to deliver this poor creature.

Things went on in my school but again and laughingly my first year had to stop because my mother decided to move to Teruel Huila and take us there. Once there, I started studying in a rural school called  La Castilla. Our teacher taught to several grades at the same time; he would assign us work to do for later to assign work to the others. But again the fate was against us and I could not finish my first grade and I was taken to Palermo. 
There, I was registered in a school called Misael Pastrana Borrero but because of my advanced age to start the first year of primary school, the school made me take a placement level. I did so and I was placed in fourth grade; a big reward for me after having passed through many obstacles.  Quickly, I reached some basic knowledge useful for future procedures. A nice teacher was assigned to our special course because we were separated from the normal fourth grade owing to our advanced age. Finally and after long years of having us moved from one place to another; I finished my primary school with some honours.

Immediately, I was registered in Promoción Social School in Palermo. In the beginning, I had a tough start because I realised that I didn´t know anything about English and Maths. My English teacher was a traditional one and he never would smile. I remember trembling every time he entered the classroom. The same happened to me when the math teacher entered. Also, students had to stand up every time teachers came into the classroom as a sign of respect. All in all, the school was very strict, students were very respectful and the teachers were the ones who kept the order.

I got to finish my sixth grade In Promoción Social. Then, I was taken to Rivera Huila and I was registered there for seventh grade. In this new school was great because I got on with new friends. Happily, I finished my seventh grade successfully and things started to go on very well. However, the shadows of the past were waiting for me. My father had traveled to Putumayo and told me to accompany him to live with him for some time. I agreed and went to Putumayo without knowing that I was going to a terrible place. 

When I got there things looked nice and I thought to keep on studying. But days later war and cruelty appeared again. I was in the middle of the war again and many terrible childhood memories came to my mind. So, I decided to not study in that place because of the war. This bad decision retard my studies for three years. After having retarded my studies for three years I registered myself again to study in an adult programme owing to my advanced age. So, I studied eighth and ninth grades in just one year and tenth and eleventh in another year. The quality of education was not very good; however, there were some skillful teachers who did their best to transmit us their knowledge.

 In the beginning, our group was formed of thirty students. But as time went by, they were murdered by criminal groups until we were just fourteen out of thirty. This event marked my life and I thought of quitting of studying forever. Anyway, I managed to finish my secondary education, but when I went to get my secondary diploma; the institution gave me nothing because according to them I didn’t finish a subject called ethics. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. Again the war in Putumayo was in its peak and my father took the decision to get out of that terrible place. At that time, I was 20 years old and haven’t finished secondary education. 

So, I went to Palermo Huila and registered myself for tenth grade. I finished it successfully and applied for the Universidad Surcolombiana. I decided to study foreign languages because I wanted to become a teacher. All those heartrending experiences that I had had with the war and cruel teachers motivated me to study English language teacher education programme. 

Once into the university in my first semester, my past shadows seemed to come back because I had a despot professor named Ximena that reminded me what a vicious teacher can do to their students. Some students dropped out because of her vicious attitude and because they didn’t have the English level necessary to go on and also there was nobody to motivate them to go on. So, they went away and no one cared about them. With this new teacher, I went back to the past where that merciless teacher punished my cousin’s cousin and,(to some extent, were the disgrace of his life) and  I thought of dropping out as well, but I decided to continue. I thought that I could make the difference being a teacher and maybe I could help and motivate students to study for their future so as for them not to repeat my cousin’s cousin history.

During my university process, I have met wonderful professor as well bad ones. But, it has been those great professors who have been my inspiration and engine to keep on ahead. I have learnt many key educational aspects such as the students’ learning styles and the Piaget´s stages of development among others. This has helped me to understand that teaching is not just to fill students’ heads with knowledge but to discover that every student is unique in his way of learning. Something that never was applied to me when I was a child. 

Now I am a pre-service teacher and  I am doing my first practicum at a school. It has been a wonderful experience to be a teacher after many years of being a passive student. Nonetheless, I have tried to remember all the negative aspects of my learning experience in order for me not to repeat them with my students. On the other side, all the positive learning experience that I have accumulated through my University process, I have tried to put them into practice with my students. Now I have a new insight into the educational paradigm. Every time I am teaching I try to be patient with my students for I know they are people who might have familiar,  economic, and health problems. Sometimes, they behave badly and I threaten them with negative points but then, I go next to them and have a little reflective conversation with them. 

In short, being a teacher requires many skills. No just professional skills but also, human skills. Because unlike other professions, teachers work with human beings. One good action from a teacher towards a student could be decisive for her/ his prosperous future but, on the contrary, one bad action towards a student could mean the total failure of a student; not just educative but for his entire life. I strongly recommend those who work as teachers and just do it for money to quit the job because they could be doing and irremediable harm to students.  Finally, I encourage teachers to learn from their good past experiences to teach students and also to learn from their bad learning experiences to avoid making them with their students.