I learned by chance today that a few days ago Mrs. Alicia (de Tordera), this teacher who taught the first letters to so many children, including me, left us.
None of his former students misses combing their hair or seeing gray hair, so for many Toledonians he may be an unknown figure, which is a great injustice, because Ms. Alicialike so many great masters, should be remembered for generations.
I have always thought that the greatest difficulty in teaching is teaching those who start from scratch and Ms. Alicia (for me always Madam, because I will never dare to withdraw from my mention the respect which is due to teachers) was responsible for teaching reading and writing without us falling into the boredom of mechanical repetition. He knew how to transform teaching into a game, into a healthy intellectual competition that brought out the best in each of us.
He used a method created by his uncle, also a teacher, which they called “onomatopoeia”, such that each letter (and its sound) was linked to another in daily life, which in turn was reinforced by gestures or hand signs. .and the face: the m was the little cow, because she mooed; the r was the motorcycle, which was reinforced with a gesture of acceleration on the handlebars,…
Like everywhere, there were already those who applauded and those who renounced such a method. I can only say that many of us have learned extraordinarily quickly using this system, in my case after a previous resounding failure with the traditional system. Doña Alicia knew how to unblock the mud that cluttered my intellect and managed to accelerate my learning until (also in collaboration with my dear Doña María Eugenia) I joined the course that corresponded to my age, because before reaching his hands I lost one for myself inability to learn to write and read at the times set for each age.
It is said that all students fall in love with their first teachers. This was not the case. Ms. Alicia She was above all a mother, understanding but strict who, although she was such, never aroused the admiration of her students; only, neither more nor less, than respect and affection. In my case, a lot of both. And I’m not the only one, I know.
Just as there is no harvest without sowing, Doña Alicia was responsible for the seedbed for many generations from Toledo who distributed their jobs according to their respective abilities, many with enormous success. But none of them left a reading deficit on their hands. I assure you that the worst kindergartners in San Servando, and then in San Fernando, ended up reading much better than the current average of 8-year-olds.
Today, in a sort of poor tribute to my teacher, I will stop in what was once a kindergarten classroom, at the Provincial Council. I will have to imagine this huge blackboard built into the wall, where she was able to make wonderful drawings in grids, which allowed us to copy what she had done into our notebooks, always giving us the final surprise that these lines, first without In a sense, they ended up becoming designs that we could never imagine being capable of executing. Years later, I thought about the time and dedication that Ms. Alicia had to devote during his private life to obtain this enormous collection of drawings with which he managed, always while having fun, to acquire skills in handling pencils, something absolutely substantial at a time when the Handwriting still had enormous importance in daily life.
I don’t know if Ms. Alicia He was the subject of tributes and public recognition. Just in case, although belatedly and posthumously, mine leaves, to which, I am sure, will be joined by the thousands of students who, like me, have passed through the exit door by his hand of ignorance.
A very strong kiss, miss.
Signed: Antonio Conde Bajén
