In the middle of the discussion about the Education reform, a Romanian moved to Great Britain remembers the unforgettable lessons of a teacher
Class of students. Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
“These days, I hear from here from my distance, education programs are being made in Romania, they are being modernized for the future, the past is being optimized. So, instead of an opinion, I also have a memory of a man”, writes Şerban Anghene, who works in British pre-university education, in an opinion published in Contributors. He then recalls how a teacher managed to mark his life, with a subject that is usually ignored.
“This man was my teacher for a single year, in the eighth grade,” writes Şerban Anghene, who paints his teacher's portrait.
“He had a thick, deep voice, which, together with his mustache and stature, made him look like a medieval ruler from a book of illustrated historical stories. Just as well, since he was teaching history. But today's history is not about history, but about a subject considered less important, which he also taught us that year – civic culture.”
Şerban Anghene, who is based in the UK, remembers that civics classes were usually turned into history or other subjects. “It was one of the Cinderellas of the final year, along with music, painting, sometimes sports,” he writes.
“Someone was suddenly translating my news”
His teacher, whose name he has not forgotten – Cristian Grădinaru – changed this custom.
“When the new teacher entered the first lesson of civic culture, we took out, as was natural, our history notebooks. Only then it was an exam subject (Capacity). His reaction was one of surprise and disappointment. What do you mean we don't do civic culture? So in the first lesson we all wrote on pages torn from the history notebooks,” the story continues.
What came next? “So I proceeded to learn about the Romanian constitution and its importance, about the separation of powers in the state and the role of each one, about the control and reporting systems. It was as if someone suddenly translated the news for me on TV. I was at least beginning to understand why big people argue on talk shows. I understood what should have been from what was. Entrepreneurial education followed. The notions of costs, profit, investment, interest or wear and tear I learned them then, at the age of 14, and I never forgot them. We were made to make business plans and present them to the class. When I did economics in the 12th grade, I didn't learn anything new. If I understand much of what is happening around me today, I owe it to him first of all.”
The full opinion, on Contributors.ro.
