Twenty-three Teachers, Truly

-A Quantum Leap In Education-

Author: Carlos González Pérez

Chapter II
First Meeting

Feeling his heart beating, the teacher walked towards the classroom of first-
year secondary, where he was about to meet people from sixteen to seventeen. He
was supposed to teach them maths and physics. José Luis expected more from
himself.He knew that this year was to be different. His dreams were to be embodied in
everyday reality. During years,he had searched deep inside of himfor the master that
would be able to arouse the wisdom in his students, making them feel unique, putting
them in touch with the dreams that they were afraid of, creating enough self-
confidence in themselves, so that they would not be any longer slaves of their own
social masks. In this inner journey he had been conquering the qualities that he wanted
to uncover in hispupils.Each step he took towards the classroom reminded him of the
long road walked—he imagined himself as a conductor who knew that true harmony
would be achieved only when capable of feeling each musician as unique, when
capable of appreciating the qualities of each and everyone of them, and when capable
of integrating those qualities into a single score. The goal would be achieved when the
orchestra would continue without his conductor…His mind brought back the images of
the wonderful film As It Is In Heaven,in which a genuine teacher had to start teaching
making his students recognize, first of all, their own voice.

The loud gibberish from the classroom traveled down the hall to meet his ears.
Then he questioned himself whether he would be able to teach them without
destroying a bit of theirhappiness. He wantedthe classroom to be a place of
enjoyment, literally,where everybody could enjoy the fruits that knowledge and,above
all, recognition bring.

From the bag of magical memories he brought out one of his favorites:
GérardDepardieu’s girlfriend said in an interview that when Gérard enters the room in
which sheis, she feels that Life itself enters.What a way to express the one person’s joy
of life! José Luis fed his body with this memory, giving it the energy he wantedfor his
students. His steps became lighter, his feet made walking a dance…

His hand touched the handle, he felt the door he was about to open gave way
to a greatadventure,and he knew that the essence of this latter word is unable to
secure any results at all. A new stage in his career had begun, the values that had been
brewing inside him had to be brought out to daylight. Many of these will not be
understood or accepted, but being loyal to himselfcould not wait any longer. For the
first time in more than twenty years, he would entera roomwithoutamask.

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 ‘Good morning to all of you’,said while his face was illuminated by the morning
light that came in through the windows. Just a few heard his greeting, and some of
them answered back. He walked through a corridor of desks towards the teacher's
table. The distance seemed to become longer and the temptation to wear the mask
once again appeared. Finally, he placed himself behind the table, looking at the people
in front of him. They went to their seats, scanning the face and figure of the new
teacher, trying to put him in a stereotype. José Luis, facing all the education he
received, tried to do the opposite. He did not want to see hisstudents as people he
already knew, but as a universe to explore with them. Each one of them hid a
marvelous and distinct treasure. To teach them was to make them explore their own
territory, and thus enjoy their own wealth. This plenty without effort, as fruitscome
from flowers, would make grow the virtues that had always been in the seeds of their
hearts. Beautiful thoughts! But—how to make them real in the everyday routine?

‘My name is José Luis and I’m your maths and physics teacher’, said he, being
aware of the fear that both subjects often produce.‘Welcome to the magicalworld
ofmathematics’.

The faces were asking each other what stupid welcome this teacher had just
said.

‘We’re going to talk about an universe different than the physical one, but that
our consciences can visit. We live in different realities. A few minutes ago we were
inhabiting the country ofour dreams. In it we can do incredible things; when we enter
its domain, we leave ourlimitations outside. The sound of the alarm clock dresses us up
with our heavy duties suit, and wewant to continue with the nakedness of our dreams.
Well—now that I look at you, Ithink some of you are still with his or her mind in that
dream dimension!

A soft laughter was heard, while the teacher went to the blackboard and draw
what it seemed to be a circle.

‘What’s your name?’,he asked,addressing a boy close to him.

‘Alberto’, answered the boy, shyly.

‘The name of a person must be pronounced as if it were a palace in which one

inhabits; since one must be the king of his own life. Dear monarch, could you tell us
once again who you are?’, he requested, trying to get in the difficult situation that he
hadput his student into, remembering his own timidity, but at the same time, firmly
convinced of the need forprovoking his pupil.

‘Alberto’, pronouncedhe, totally confused ashis face went as red as a sunset.

‘You need practice, but we have a whole year ahead. I was myself a very shy
student and—now look at me’,said he, opening his arms wide as if he was to introduce
his own show.
 The rest of the class wondered whether they would also have to become kings.
One thing was clear—they already had a new court jester: their new teacher.

‘Tell me, Alberto, what have I just drawn?’

‘A circle’.

‘Are you sure? How would you define a circle?’

The studenthesitated for a moment, but finally, smelling a rat,he answered

haltingly.

‘A plain figure bounded by a single curved line every point of which is equally
distant from the centre’.

‘Very academic! That's right. Now look at the blackboard once more and tell me
if I havedrawn acircumference’.

Alberto was totally confused, ‘where was the trick?’, he wondered, ‘what have I
overlooked?’,and finally he answered a hesitant yes.

‘Imagine that the chalk I hold has become a magnifying glass’,said the teacher
while tracing the allegedcircumference. ‘Now, the line is wider and thicker and it is easy
to see that it’s got several points closer to the centre than others. Actually I have drawn
what it’s called an outer ring, that is, the area between two concentric circles. If I made
a finer stroke it would be enough for me to get a more powerful magnifying glass and
again, it would be thick and the equidistance would disappear. We can’t draw a circle in
a threedimensional physical world, because geometric figures don’t belong to that
world. It is a part of a mental universe—that of mathematics—to which we can have
access with our minds. Any traveler who enters an unknown universe needs a good
ship and an excellent training to conduct that ship. In our case the ship is our brain, and
the training is our knowledge of the potential of our minds, our emotions, our
intuition, and ultimately of all our consciousness. I invite you to learn to be pilots of
your brain and explore the magical world of maths’.

A great silence was made and all eyes seemed to watch a yet invisible horizon.
In their minds was discovered a new space, free of cultural biases and limitations.

‘Do you accept my invitation?’, the voice made the silence vanished with five
words.

Nobody dared to answer, so José Luisaddressed Alberto gently, almost

seductively, ‘do you accept it?’.

Like all shy people who have a great deal of stored value, the student answered
clearly in a positive way.

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 ‘What about the rest of you? What’s your answer?’,asked he opening his arms
wide as if he was to give a huge hug to the entire class.

Timidly they started answering yes and as the waves getting closer to thebeach,
those answers grew stronger and louder. Smiles were to be seen announcing that joy
had come into that classroom.

‘Thank you, I feel we're going to have great adventures’, said he savoring every
word and looking, one by one, to all his students.

‘This is very good—marvelous—but Mathematics will remain difficult

andobscure to me.An absolute load, until I finish high school’, said one the students
with great disappointment.

‘You are so powerful that what you say will be fulfilled’, stopped José Luis
remarking the words powerful and fulfilled.

The student’s face gave way to a look of confusion. He didn’t know whether the
teacher was pulling his leg or that teacher was nuts.

‘How we see ourselves is the basic tool to build ourlife. If we see ourselves with
a little intelligence to understand Mathematics, they will appear to us as impossible.
The way to have a higher opinion of ourselves is to learn how we are.Throughout the
course we will talk about tricksto achieve this goal’.

‘We create our day to day, with a limited idea of us’, he continued, ‘and that
makes us lose a lot of greatopportunities. To be masters of our life is necessary to
develop our imagination. I’m going to tell you one of my favourite stories which is
calledThe Power Of Imagination’:

“Once upon a time there were three silkworms that ignored their future as
butterflies. Their names were: Pessimistic, Realistic and Idealistic. They were
approaching the time of his transformation and they began to feel the first symptoms.
His voracious appetite was fading, mobility waned very quickly and finally they felt how
the cocoon isolated them from the known world and its everyday security. In the dark
mystery of their future, they had different thoughts:

“Pessimistic told himself that he was witnessing the end of his life, and from
deep inside of him, he said goodbye to good times.

“Realistic kept saying to himself that all this would be temporary and that,
sooner orlater, everything would be as it used to be before.

“Idealistic felt that what was happeningcould be the opportunity to fulfill his
most cherished dream: to fly. And he seized the dark to improve hisdream.
 When the three buds opened, three things, equal and different, were shown at
the same time.

“Pessimistic was a beautiful butterfly, but he was dead. He had died of fear.

“Realistic was a beautiful butterfly, but nevertheless, he began to crawl as a

worm. With satisfaction, he thanked heaven for remaining as before: a silkworm.

“Idealistic, as soon as he saw the daylight, looked for his wingsand seeing them,
his heart rejoiced, and he flew away and giving thanks he started spreading his
complete happiness throughout the forest”.

José Luis ended the story looking at one of the windows, as if it were a large
painting made on the floor by the versatile Bert from the Mary Poppins film, which will
make the class go into the nearby wood. A great silence allowed to feel the magic of
themoment. Every mind wandered free playing with the lights and the shadows
causedby the tender morning sunshine rays when meeting the pines. The story opened
the students’ imagination, creating an invisible rainbow built with the colours of each
of the present minds.

‘How do you feel?’,asked the master respecting the atmosphere.

Some soft coughs were heard, showing attempts to return to the already known
reality. No one answered.

‘Who wants to give his or her opinion? It is very important for me your opinion
because every one of you is my teacher. A person is always a connection to knowledge,
although he or she is not conscious of it. If you listen truly to any person you will be
able to convert his or her words into wisdom. We are used to talk to each other feeling
deep inside that we are not being listened to and we do the same when it’s our turn to
listen. So the talking is repeated again and again leading us nowhere. I want to travel
with you, I want to—truly feel your words, I want to discover together with you the
wonders of life, I want to turn classes into adventures in which we can unveil the
enormous potential that we all have inside, I want make challenges out of problems, I
want learn from errors—I want to celebrate everything we learnt. Why don’t we make
a party from learning?’

Some laughter showing incredulity began to escape from a prison of

misunderstanding respect. The students were elbowing each other. One of them took
his forefinger to his temple as a sign of madness. A few remained serious hiding out
their feelings. The uproar ran throughout the room with the speed of a domino effect.

‘Well! Here comes the party!’,said the teacher, opening his arms once again and
smiling.

The seriousness that was left soon vanished from the classroom. Laughs were
freelyexpressed. José Luis walked through the desk aisles making gestures encouraging

5
people to a good mood. He was deeply surprised by his own performance and he gave
thanks to his entire background that led him to this wonderful moment.

‘Let us all laugh! Come on! Let us laugh! Let’s fill up this room with joy and
happiness!’, said he shaking his arms that wanted fly around the classroom, making the
air visible.

Everybody forgot where theywereescaping from Time. Some began to mourn

with laughter, others writhed to the rhythm of theirteacher's hands, as if he was an
orchestra conductor. And, like one of these, JoséLuis sought out the best music for each
and every single one of his students, approaching their faces and gesturing in order to
get more laughs out of them. Magic filled the air.

‘Let us all laugh out loud!Come on! You don’t need any reasons to laugh. Let us
enjoy this great moment!Let the laughter feed your bodies! Let the brightness of your
teeth illuminate your desk mates! Let your open mouths be an endless source of
joy!’.Thewords were led back to freeways opened up in the air by the master’s ongoing
harmonious hands movement. Sound and movement created a dance that tookJosé
Luisback to his teacher desk.

The teacher sat down and remained silent while watching the waves of joy that
their interpretation had unleashed. He felt the beauty of the moment from serenity,
forcing a faint smile. His eyes scanned, one by one, his pupils’ behaviour, trying to give
each one of them their own space within him. They were going to be traveling
companions during the whole year. They were going to live adventures beyond what
was established till then.

JoséLuis was facing the greatest educational challenge he had ever gone
through.A part of him feared that things might goout of hands, that his pupils might
not understand what he intended to teach them, that their parents might raise the hell
out of it, that the high school principal—he couldn’t imagine how the latter was to
comprehend his goals. However, he felt that part of him as peripheral, non important,
right in the middle of him he noticed something very different: a power made out of
passion that fuels his dreams, that told him that time had come to incarnate these
dreams beyond any fears, which gavehim the strength to make him feel absolutely
secure. That was the main goal he wanted for his students to discover for themselves,
the essence that gave life to every human being, the power that could allow anyone to
discover his or her own dreams, the light that revealed what was beyond the eye, the
ear that allowed hearing from heart, the taste that allowed tasting everything, the
smell that perfumed, the sun around which all our potential and actual personalities
orbited. Ultimately, that that tolerates everything without making any judgments,
above all beliefs, religions, philosophies, scientific theories or fears that might be
orbiting. José Luiswas determined to reveal it to his students. He reckoned that there
could be no real education without the learner feeling his heart, without the learner
awakening to the empowerment that madehim unique, which in turn, made him one
single body with the other learners. He knew there were major obstacles that would
impede hisvision, they gave the adventure which had just begun, a new dimension that
made it the adventure par excellence.

Given the prolonged silence of their teacher the students calmed down
gradually. Silence grew as the stars in the sky: first the most luminous dare toweak the
sunlight, then in a slow procession, but in a mathematical order of intensity, all the
others appear. Thus, laughter diedand silence was born.

The teacher maintained his silence as if waiting for the joy, still alive in the air,
to penetrate into the walls, windows, floor and ceiling, and thus into the whole
building.

‘It’s been a very rewarding experience, I’ve had a great time, thank you! What
about you? How do you feel?’.

No one dared to answer.

‘Come on! Having laughed together we deserve each other some

confidence’.Said he with a comfortable lookat the whole class.

Finally a smile shone from one of the desks furthest from the teacher’s.

‘I’ve never had so much fun in a maths class. Will it be so every day?’,asked a
blonde girl of a cheerful look with great selfconfidence.

Laughs came back.

‘That depends on all of us’, said the teacher.

‘No problem for me. The fewer mathematicswe take, the better!’, replied, as
savoring his last word, the blonde girl.

‘Yes! Yes!’,sentenceda few altogether.

‘We will not do maths’,the teacher surprised his audience.

A gibberish aroused all around the room. All kind of feelings appeared:
joy,bewilderment, disbelief, scandal, and even fear. They all looked like comic
characters. This couldn’t bereal.

‘This teacher will not last long!’, predicted the blonde girl.

As the gibberishwas gradually subsiding, the eyes were being fixed upon the
teacher. This remainedvery serious, spreading mystery.

‘Taking up maths is what you have been doing so far. Let's see what the
outcome of that is. Raise hands those who like maths and enjoy them’.

7
 Hesitantly, two out of twenty two raised their hands.

‘Now, those who hate them, answer without fear. Not to hide from us the truth
of what we feelis the first step on the path to being the whole masters of our lives. If
we are not masters of our lives what’s the point in calling them our lives? Come on,
answer as freeas someone who has taken possession ofhis or her own life’. ended up
José Luis, putting both hands upon his heart, and feeling in its beating his life.

A dozen hands went up almost in unison. Eight more were added gradually.
There were two students who didn’texpress themselves.

‘Raise hands those two that haven’t answer yet’.

Just like lazy bears they raised their hands.

‘What’s your opinion about mathematics?’.

A girl with a pierced lower lip answered. ‘I don’t enjoy them, but I pass the
exams even with A’s or B’s. I can’t say that I hate maths—but maths and I are not very
good friends’. She said this last word with a grin on her face.

‘Like people, if you give them a chancemaths can be your friend. If you feel
them from the centre of which we have spokenbefore, that is from your creating
centre, you’ll make them something yours, and they will be part of you. maths won’t
be an outsider to you, or just a simple tool’.

The teacher was thoughtful for a moment and added, ‘give them a different
name that will bring them closer to you, as you would name a puppy that has just been
given to you. Take a decision on how to name them letting yourself feel them. What do
you think?’.

The student was totally confused. He didn’t know whether her teacher was
being serious or not.

‘You can give them any name, although it didn’t exist’.

‘Sure!’, answered the girl, raising her right arm and smiling, thinking that idea as
something weird.

‘Not bad, I like it. It cheers us up’.

‘But—?’, said she softly absolutely perplexed.

‘Sure! Sure! Sure! Sure!’, said the teacher rising at each sure further up his two
arms and voice, and opening them in the air at the end, ‘I don’t know if Pythagoras
would agree with this but I love it. Congratulations!’.
 Before the student could recover back and answer, the master, gazing theentire
class, asked, ‘Who is the other person who neither likes nor hates maths?’.

A tall boy shyly raised his hand, expecting the worst. Would the teacher want to
laugh at him? Could he dodge what was coming up?

‘I’d like to hear your opinion’.

‘It’s very similar to hers’, said he trying not to get involved in the conversation.

After a moment that seemed an eternity to the boy José Luis had been staring
at,the latter smiled.

‘Your opinion is very important to me. I need it if I want to do my work. In order

to get to somewhere without getting lost, it is clearly essential to know where one
starts. Knowing where we each can get through the year is knowing far more than us
and our environment. The class has to be a creation of all of us. We are going to be
responsible for what we do and for what we don’t. I ask you please to tell us your
opinion. I won’t ignore it’, said the teacher nodding his head.

The student squirmed his mouth, then exhaled trying to relax. After a slight
lisp,said, ‘Mathematicsare always hard to me, no matter the effort I make to
understand them. I can’t hate them because—sincerely—I want to master them. I
can’topenly saythat I love them because they made me suffera great deal. So I'm sort
of even with them. I can’t say anything else’. Replied the boy trying to avoid what it
looked like a painful issuefor him.

‘Do you realize that you have said three times “I can’t”. Without noticing it, you
are denying your own power’.

The boy began to regret his talking and he started to look around the class
fearing to be the target of a show where his privacy would be displayed. He went red.

The teacher was aware of this and slowed down.

‘What I’m talking about is for all of us’, said he looking around and not paying
attention on the situation created with his tall student. He put his right hand on this
boy’s shoulder and gave end to his embarrassment.

‘Nobody has more power to deny ourselves things than us. The fear of not getting what
we want slowly diminished the safety of our ego, increasingly limitingouractions. We
begin then to live on I can’t and not on I can. It grows in us the victim we keep on
feeding with our fears. And that victim makes us believe that thecircumstances and the
others are to blame for ourunhappiness—anything but to accept our own
responsibility. We feel guilty and we get our sentence: jail. We are trapped in the oldest

9
jail there is, that of the blame. In it we are both the inmate and the guardian. Curious
paradox! Don’t you think?’, said he looking for something morethat a reply.

Some whispers were heard that tried to bring normality to a class seeking the
security of familiar surroundings. The teacher allowed these whispers to continue in
the same and natural way with which a TVviewer allows commercials on TV.

While the students relaxed, José Luis drewon the blackboard what it looked like
our solar system: clearly distinguishing the sun at its centre and the Earth in its orbit.
Other planets appeared more blurred.

‘Each of us is like a planetary system and its star. The planet most showy, most
famous, most apparently full of life—the equivalent of our beloved Earth—represents
our ego, the dominant figure in our present. The sun would be what I mentioned
earlier as our centre, the heart of the mystery we are. The remainingplanets, satellites,
comets and other celestial bodies would be possible personalities, hoping they would
beconsciously inhabited but which nevertheless influence us in our daily lives. The
egoreceives their qualities, coming to embody some of them. For example,
mythologically,Venus represents beauty and art; Mercury, intellect and communication;
Mars,thespirit of a fighter; Jupiter, joy; Saturn, stability; etc. Thus, each star of our
psyche represents some specific forms of power to act in life. They’re all different but
even so, they all have one point in common,one centre in common: the sun, more
precisely, we can call it theBeing, what keeps our real identity no matter the different
roles we play in life—’.

A raised hand stopped the explanation.

‘What you're talking about—isn’t it called astrology?, Said a girl

sincerelyinterested.

‘Nonsense’, said a skinny boy with twinkling eyes.

A dialectical battle broke out about considering astrology as a superstition or as

anuseful knowledge. Some intervened with passion while others just watched. The
teacher wrappedup with his silencethe situation his words had previously unleashed.

After a few minutes, some students, taking advantage of the situation, began to
introduce games such as throwing papers at each other, which have nothing to do with
the discussion going on.José Luis was forced to put order in the classroom.

‘I would answer the question raised by your mate’, said he trying with his
gestures and voice to calm things down.

‘It’s a good remark that you did. It wasn’t my intention to introduce you to
astrology’.
 ‘Why not? We'd rather get out of boring topics every day’, saida small girl with
rotundity while scattering his gaze throughout the class in a defiant tone.

‘I like the courage you show, I appoint you as a volunteer to tell us when the
class is getting soporific’. added José Luis also defiantly.

The girl's face showed confusion and answered to the challenge.

‘I can‘t be appointed as a volunteer!It’s a contradiction!’.

‘Maybe, but for me it’s a contradiction too to be learning and be bored. And
you willagree with me that this happens constantly in schools. Contradiction is part of
our daily life, we observe the attitudes of our loved ones and that of ourselves. We use
a lot of energy in contradicting ourselves, energy that we might use in achieving the
thingsthat really matter to us. By appointing you a volunteer I want you to take on
theresponsibility of your own desire. This is always the first step to achieving it.Also, I
need help from someone who has the courage to say what others are thinking and
dare not to express it. The best recognition of your work will take place when people
were also able to speak up. Then I will appoint you as a volunteer for something else’.
He concluded with a smile that brought up an open laugh.

The girl thought very quickly, and with a smile which suggesteda great
intelligence, she began to approvethe just heard words.

‘Shall you be volunteer?’.

‘I accept the contradiction because I don’t want to contradict my desire of not

being bored any more in class’, said she laughing, sharp gesturing with her right hand,
while fixing her eyes on the happy teacher.

‘Very good!Let us all welcome a such a strong decision as that. Thank you!’. The
teacher invited others to followhis applause.

Many students looked at each other not knowing what to do, while others
decidedto be carried away by their teacher’s enthusiasm. Slowly, the clapping filled the
room.

‘What’s your name, dared lady?’.

‘My name’s Ana’, said she firmly.

‘Ana, are you bored now?’, asked José Luis ironically.

‘Absolutely not!’.

‘You have a pretty name and a magical one’.

11
 ‘Why?’,asked Ana in perplexity.

‘Magical because if you read it from left to right says the same thing as if you
read from right to left: Ana’.

‘I already knew that. It only has three letters. That’s very easy!’.

‘It is well known this phrase “Madam, in Eden I’m Adam”. This has more than
three letters’,the teacher smiled as he wroteit on the blackboard.‘Can anyone tell me
how this phenomenon of obtaining the same result when reading from left to right and
from right to left is called?’.

This created a silence that broke a few moments latera redheaded boy, wearing
a blue scarf tied around his neck.

‘Are we going to take on language lessons in maths as well? We already have

enoughhours of language!’.

‘For me there are no watertight compartments in knowledge. Everything has to

do with everything. I know that most of you might have a boring concept of language,
mathematics, history, etc. Things can be boring or great fun, it all depends on how
weapproach them. Discover for yourself the magic behind all! It can be a lot of fun!
What's your name?’,asked he creating an atmosphere of mystery.

‘Tony’, said he sweetly.

‘And what’s the name people uses when calling you up?’.

The student was totally confused.

‘Well—Tony as well’.

‘Notice that these are two very different questions.Do you call yourself up?’.

‘No, what’s the use of that?’.

‘When someone calls you up, it means that at least there are two people: you
and the one talking to you. If you address yourself as Tony, you’ll have no choice but to
divide yourself into two: the speaker and thelistener. This is very important to observe
your own mind and to know yourinside world. Tonyis no more than a character that
playfor others but you're much more than thatcharacter. Remember the image of
thesolar system, the ego that you projectoutwardsis only apart of the whole. Try to call
yourself when you're alone, and watch your thoughts later.Discover and know your
character, feel that you can write your scripts, it will make you feel freer and more
creative. You can even use a different name to call yourself. What doyou reckon?’,
asked José Luis with mischievous eyes.
 ‘People would think I was nuts!’, said the boy, opening his eyes wide and thus
filling with an intense blue all the room.

‘No, if you didn’t tell anybody. It is a personal experience’.

After a few moments of thinking, the boy replied, shaking his head as they do in
India when they want to say something and someone who doesn’t know the gesture
thinks it’s a no, ‘I’ll think about what you’ve said—but now I’ll keep calling myself Tony
—if I ever decided to call myself—of course!’, he concluded with an open laugh.

The class began to laugh, imagining the scene of Tony talking to himself. The
teacher approachedhis desk and waited for them to calm down.

‘Well, there’s a question in the air. What’s the name of those words or phrases
that are read either way left-right, right-left? If we apply that condition to numbers
thename is better known’,the teacher wrote on the blackboard a number: 8448. ‘What
are these numbers called?’.

‘Palindromic numbers’, several voices responded at unison.

‘Why?’.

A chorus of silence was felt.

‘All words have their history, their hidden charms. To know this and to live this
truth allows us to turn ourselves mysterious and interesting whenever we pronounce
those words or phrases’, the teacher let the silence prolonged his last words.
’Palindromiccomes from two Greek words “palin” for againand "dromic" for racing. So,
it literally means racing again. We can say that is a number at the beginning of a race
and the same number at the counter race. It’s funny how, despite the intrinsic richness
a language has, it has to borrow words from other languages. Languages, like people,
need each other to enrich themselves’.

The teacher, after a short hesitation, he looked at Ana and said, ‘we still have
something unsolved—what’s the name of words or phrases that behave like
palindromic numbers?’.

Ana’s eyes fully opened, letting out a light that revealed some candy pupils,
which gave a sweet touch with her defiant look when she said, ‘are you asking me?’

‘Yes’.

‘Well—I don’t know—let me remember—that was from last year’.

‘It starts with “pa”’.

The girl, with her gestures, suggested that the key had been useful.

13
 ‘Palindro’.
‘Almost right!It’s palindrome’,answered the master moving towards the black
board and grabbing a chalk.

Watching the teacher turning around, Ana opened her mouth and drew a huge
“O” in the air.

José Luis wrote two words and went on explaining them.

‘Palindrome comes from two Greek words “palin” meaning again, by a second
time, and "drome",race. Altogether we could interpret it as to start again the race.
When we finish reading Ana, starting from its end, we can go and read back exactly the
same’, he concludedwatching Ana and smiling to her.

A hand wasraised decisively from one of the last tables, the blonde girl’s, who
had predicted the mad teacher a short working life.

‘You’ve already explained to us why the name Ana is magical, but why is it
pretty?’, asked she emphasizing the last word and with a mischievous expression.

‘”Pretty” is an adjective that expresses among other things love, and it is full of
the simplicity of the language of plain people’.

‘What!Are you calling me plain people? Unsophisticated?’, said Ana in a sudden

anger.

‘In any case it would be me the only unsophisticated person here for I am the
one who has pronounced the word’,settled down the teacher.

The class remained quiet. After a while the teacherbroke that silence with just a
smile. ‘I was born in Barcelona and I've lived here all my life. I like it but it is not
enough. Imiss the town I wasn’t born in’.

‘How can you miss something you've never lived in?’,asked the redheaded Tony
amazed.

‘We live in many worlds. In one of them I am from a small country town. I enjoy
sunrises, open spaces, nights full of stars, rivers and their charms, woods that surround
it, simple life, to stop time—‘.

‘And—do you live in many of those worlds?’,asked a boy mockingly from the
furthest desk from the teacher’s.

‘In manymany of them a year’, answered the teacher totally convinced.

A few soft laughs began to appear, accompanied by discrete elbowing.

 ‘In one of them I sail on a spacecraft, discovering new worlds. In another one I
aman old native American who knows how to listen to people and nature—‘.

‘Do you mean that you are imagining all that?’,strongly interrupted Ana.

‘Yes, as in the tale of the three butterflies—’.

José Luis suspended his speech, and looked out the window closest to him, to
the wonderful forest lit by the morning light. Suddenly, he saw a white butterfly
coming towards the window.

‘Look out! Look out! Through the window!,’he exclaimed signaling with his hand
and approaching the window. ‘There’s a butterfly in the forest and it’s coming to us!’

Half of the class was trying to peek up from their seats. The bravest headed
toward the show. The star of the show landed on the bottom of the window, and
displayed two beautiful white wings. The crowd around it didn’t seem to intimidate it.

‘This is Idealistic, no doubt’, said the teacher never taking his eyes off the
butterfly.

The class gathered around the window surrounding the teacher, forming a circle
with its centre in the beautiful wings, which are illuminated by the intense gazing at
them.Time stopped, andall breathed the same feelings.

A bang, as in another class next door, abruptly brought reality to the group. The
butterfly flew away, and the students’ eyes went with it in its wandering among the
trees.

The teacher invitedthe students to feel. Having achieved that, he continued his
speech.

‘This butterfly has come to illustrate our story, has entered into it. It arrived at
theright time. The coincidence in time and space is called synchronicity’.

‘Bah! It was just good luck’, claimed a boy that remained seated during
theevent.

‘What's your name?’,asked the teacher kindly.

‘Alex’,answered he roughly.

‘What’s good luck for you?’.

‘Something that is unpredictable, occurring by any chance’.

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 ‘Unpredictable and occurring by any chance are two different things. Predicting
anearthquake one month before it happens can besomething impossible today but
that doesn’t mean that it occurs by any chance. I agree with you that I have not
planned this consciously. Thebutterfly appeared just at the right time. However, I am
truly convinced it was not by any chance. The things we can’t explain are part of the
magic of life. Without them, science would be meaningless. If we only trust in what we
thinkto understand, what is reasonable, what is widely accepted, we’re
missingafundamental part of life. We can explore the unknown to our knowledge
through imagination, as did Idealistic in the story. One can’t be a real scientist without
using imagination beyond what it’s established. I wish you all you can enjoy a true
scientific spirit, which is the reason I said we won’t do maths’.

‘What will we do then?’,asked Alex.

‘Investigate, as scientists, mathematics’.

‘But—the ones we're going to do were already investigated long ago!’saidAlex

incredulously.

‘Yes, by others, not by you—You’ve always seen mathematics as something

alien, distant. In many cases, you’ve felt them as a nuisance, since they constantly
reminded you your alleged limitations’.

‘Alleged—’,bitterly interrupted the big boy the teacher had made him noticed
overuse of “I can’t”.

‘Limitations are always alleged as there’s a big part of us that we don’tknow. To

accepta particular limitation is as saying that—looking at a crowded skyof stars—life
can’texist on any other planet besides Earth. Scientifically, this would be a true
presumption, in the same way as thinking that would be a complete nonsense.
Youralleged constraints are an invitation to explore your inner territory’.

‘These territories are like the worlds in which you imagine you're the captain of
a spaceship space—or anything else without a real sense’, replied the skeptic Alex slyly.

‘Don’t you like adventures?’.

‘We must keep our feet on the ground, unless we wanted to live
misadventures’, sentenced he.

The teacher watched him in silence, and after a moment's hesitation, he

replied.

‘I reckon that sentence is not yours. Am I wrong?’.

‘You’re right. My father says it to me a lot of times, and he learned it from his
father. It really helps me not to foolish mistakes’,he answered proudly.
 ‘You were one of the two people who raised their hands when I asked who liked
maths. Weren’t you?’.

‘Yes’.

‘What does your father think of them?’.

‘That they’re the most important subject at high school’.

‘Have you found out why?’.

‘I suppose that you, as our maths teacher, will explain to us—if we go down to
them instead of talking about other matters—of course!’, claimed he ironically.

The teacher smiled at Alex, taking hisspeech as an educational challenge.

‘Can the fish come to understand the meaning of water without ever leaving it
and comparing it to air or vacuum?’, the teacher continued without waiting for an
answer. ‘Nothing can be understood without relating it to something else. All science
isessentially relationship. One can spend a thousand years just studying mathematics,
and not understand their role inhis or her own life. Everything is important, because
everything is connected to everything’.

José Luis finished turning his eyes to the nearby forest and letting a long silence
reign in the classroom. After a minute, he went up to the boy whom he had been
speaking to before Alexinterrupted them.

‘I’d like to know your name’, said he softly.

‘Tim’.

‘A straight name—no hiding in it—It sounds joyful. I congratulate you for having
it’.

‘Thanks!’, said the boy cheerfully.

‘We left it in your inner territories, how much there is to explore—inyour

hiddentreasures—’.

‘We haven’t talked about treasures’, Tim interrupted in an unusual confident

manner that showed his opening up to the new teacher.

‘Everyone has treasures, but not many know it’,said he involving his sentence
with an air of mystery, ‘I noticed your nervousness the first time we spoke. In order to
make the tension disappear you did something that to Dr. Caycedotook him long to
find out. He was a physician, neuropsychologist, who created avery important

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relaxationmethod, used in many hospitals around the world and sports training, also it
teaches students to improve performance and neutralize nerves before dreaded
exams. Hewalked for over two years throughout Japan, Tibet and India studying how
thesecultures faced nerves, lack of concentrationand so on. He incorporated
everything he learned in the East tohis prior knowledge of hypnosis and created a new
techniquehe called Sophrology. This word made out of three Greek words’, the
teacherwrote on the blackboard, ‘“sos”, balanced, harmonious, “phren”, unity of mind
and body, and “logos”, study. Thus, we can translate sophrologyas the study of
harmony betweenmind and body. That harmonyyou lose when nerves take hold of you
in an exam’.

‘I don’t remember having used anythingto eliminate my stress’.

‘Just before telling your relationship with maths, you twisted your mouth and
then released the air you were holding up, exhaling a long sigh’.

‘So what?’.

‘Stressingmusclesand then exhaling through the mouthis one of the techniques

used in Sophrology. It's like stretching the bow and then shooting the arrow. This
leavesthe bow relaxed. You wasn’t aware of what you did, the wisdom of the body did
it for you’.

‘Well—after releasing the arrow, I was still nervous’.

‘Because you reloaded the bow. Your fears imposed themselves again upon
your body.This is like a much sophisticatedcar with many automatic mechanisms, at the
end it will do what the driver wants to. We’ll talk about all this throughout the year’.

The teacher made a gesture to indicate that he was going to speak to all of
them.

‘I want to awaken you to the scientific spirit. Our society has been advancing in
technology—oddly enough—without developing a scientific spirit among its
population. That is clearly seen in the fact that only a few research, and each of these
does so in a narrow and determined field of knowledge. At the end what just a few
discover turns out to be an act of faith for the large majority of people.
Theinvestigations which are outside the accepted orthodoxy lack of financial support
andthose who develop them are marginalized, and even caricatured. It's an old
situation that is being repeated throughout our history. Unamuno said scientifism
condemnsthe ridiculous, as the Church used to condemn to the stake. The words
ending in “ism”may be indicating a desire to impose your ideas or feelings onto others.
Examples arecommunism,socialism, fascism, agnosticism, skepticism, vegetarianism,
spiritualism, etc.’.
 ‘You’ve forgotten one: “gradism”. That is the obsession of wanting to impose
the idea that grading is the mostimportant thing at high school’, interrupted the girl
who asked the teacher to explain why Ana was a magical name’.

The teacher looked intently at the student and smiled with an expression of
approval.

‘There is no such word in the dictionary. It is a great opportunity to start our

ownclass dictionary. Inventing words is a great enjoyment and fun. What’s your
name?’.

‘What’s the name I call myself?,said she joyous and provocative.

The teacher laughed openly and spread his joy to others.

‘Okay! What is your name?’.

‘Blanca. Are you going to say something about my name?’.

‘It's a symbol of purity—’.

‘I’m not sure if I like the idea of purity—’.

‘There are two ways of looking at the word: from the head, in which duality
governs, or from the heart in which integration is the guide’.

‘From the perspective of the first, everything has its opposite—that’s called
duality—, everything is divided into good and bad, beautiful and ugly, useful and
useless, pleasant and unpleasant, black and white, and so on. When this is applied to
people, we come into judging and as a consequence we make ourselves or others feel
guilty, opening a path to repression of thoughts and feelings’.

‘That's the yin and yang, isn’t it?’,exclaimed the girl with the piercing to whom
the teacher had given the advise of calling maths another way.

‘What’s your name?’, asked the teacher, changing the way of asking in order not
to open a new dialecticalfront, and making clear his intention with a naughty smile’.

‘Sara’.

‘Indeed, the yin and yang would be an example of duality’, the teacherwent to
theblackboard and drew the famous oriental symbol representing the bipolarity of life.
‘Notice that the circle is divided into two identical areas, seedshaped, one black and
one white. The mostsurprising thing is to discover that within the white area there’s a
small black circle, and vice versa in the dark area. Sara, how would you interpret this?’.

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 After hesitating a moment, despite knowing the answer, she said proudly,
‘although it might not be seen at a first glance, it means that, no matter what, the yin is
inside theyang and vice versa. For instance, in Star Wars,inside the good men lies the
ability to become bad’.

‘Bravo! Congratulations!’,said José Luis nodding, ‘Maybe that's why it’s been
shaped as a seed. We have the potential to be one thing or another.It depends on the
seed thatwe want to plant in every situation. Thank you, Sara’.

‘Let’s go back to purity. From the point of view of the head, of the reason, in yin
and yang, situations and even people can be divided into pure and impure. This
approachhas been used by religion and morality. But as Sara told us, the impure would
be within the pure and all the way around. This is what causes the socalled
confrontationbetween good and evil which is behind so many struggles in daily life, and
behind the endless wars that plague our history. Thus yin is confronted against yang,
and vice versa which makes them inseparable. They are tworelated concepts and
thereforegood people in a determined society can be considered bad in another
determined society’.

‘In our class, we that get bad grades, we’ll be the best then?’, interrupted
Blanca ironically.

Several students supported with gestures the courage of their partner. The
teacher let the situation calm down heading towards a window, and leaning with his
right arm on its frame. Behind it appeared the forest. Staring at infinity he made
thefollowing question to his class, ‘can you tell me which trees, of those out there
behind me, are the best and which ones the worst? Which are the most important
trees for theforest? Which ones would you cut down?’.

A great silence was made once again in the classroom. The eyes were fixed at
thewindows. There wasn’t any answer at all.

‘All trees are equally important.In every one of them the forest is alive.
However, there aren’t two alike, that is why all of them are so essential. In my class
grades will not be used to divide pupils into good and bad. Each of you can enrich
theothers. All we have to do is to find out a way to do it. Will you help me in this
commitment?’.

Another silence—after a minute, the teacher addressed Blanca pointing her

with his forefinger.

‘Will you help me?’.

Blanca was surprised and leaving her usual brash asidefor a few seconds during
which she didn’t know what to answer, said, ‘If you tell me how—’.
 ‘Sometimes I will tell you; some other times you will expose your ideas; and
many other times the ideas will emerge by themselves. Is this OK?’.

‘Very good!’,said the student recovering her usual ease.

‘This goes for everybody as well. I expect your help’.

‘We haven’t finished yet with my name!’, said Blanca.

‘That’s true!From the point of view of the heart—’.

‘Now we’re going to get romantics!’,said Alex, with gestures addressed to the
whole class expressing he had enough.

‘I think the heart to which I refer is not where you're thinking. I ask you to be
patient. After my explanation I would appreciate your opinion’,the teacher said with a
sincere smile on his face.

Alex relaxed and allowed his teacher to continue.

‘The point of view of the heart is responsible for integrating, in contrast to that
of the reason that is to analyze, to divide, trying to understand, through the parties,
how’s the realitywe live in. There are many ways to divide reality in order to
understand it. For instance, in a class we could divide students by gender, hair colour,
birthplaces, heights, grades—’,the teacher smiledwhen he pronounced this word,‘—
etc. Our sciences have abused of the analysis, marginalizing integration. The physical
heartpumps blood to all parts of the body without judging the role of each of them.
Theheart to which I refer does the same. There can only be true integration respecting
all parties. Let’s take afootball team. If we want the best out of it, first of all, we’ll have
to respect each and every one of its players in a same way. None is more important
than another. That’s why behind every winner team there must be a heart that had
achieved integration earlier’.

‘To contemplate the purity of the heart we don’t need the contrary –impurity—
toexist as it happens with the reason because the heart is watching from way beyond
duality. For theheart white is not the opposite of black, but the sum of all colours’,José
Luis remained silent, allowing the imagination of their students catch his lastwords.

Alex took the opportunity to look at his watch and realized that there wereonly
a few minutes left. With a shy gesture of disapproval, which wasunseen,he missed out
the words of the teacher who continued his speech addressing to Blanca.

‘Thus, from the heart, your name would represent the purity of a rainbow. From
the reason it would be the opposite of black. Which one do you prefer?’.

Blanca’s deep blue eyes looked so intense to her teacher that they closed all
other senses. Her thinking had become her looking. She tried to peer through her

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teacher’s mind and understandwhere all those words came from. She slowly opened
up the closed senses and tried to give an answer.

‘I've always liked rainbows. I love to carry them inside my name. Thanks!’, she
said this last word full of colour and wrapped in sincerity.

‘It would be nice if all of you were delighted with your names’,said the teacher
addressing the whole class,‘can you imagine that just saying your names the magic cave
in which all your treasures are hidden would open up and the one calling you could be
able to see them all? How would it be his or her look?How would he or she receive
your words?—’.

‘That only works with “open sesame” ’, burst out Blanca ending the imagining.

The teacher smiled while thinking how to answer back.

‘It would be like that if we had stolen the treasures as the forty thieves. I mean
the type ofwealth that it is lost if it is not given away’.

‘If I give you something, I can well forget it definitively’, sentenced Alex,
assuming he had wasted his first class with the crazy teacher.

The teacher suddenly went to the student and held out his right hand.

‘Give me your hand, as if we were presenting one another. Hi, my name’sJosé

Luis. What’s yours?’, said he very politely.

The student was totally confused, but to avoid further ridicule he cooperated
with the teacher but without much enthusiasm.

‘Hi, my name’s Alex’,he said shaking hands.

The teacher shook hands with the boy tight but warmly. With a big smile he
said ‘It's a pleasure!’. Slowly, he withdrew his hand and walked a few feet away,‘what
have we given each other?’ asked he insidiously.

Alex decided to cut it off using his humour. He didn’t want to discuss any longer
with his teacher—besides the lesson was almost over—, ‘I've not given you anything,
I’ve recovered back my hand!’,he put up his right hand, waved it so all could see it, and
laughed out loud.

‘And I have mine!’, added the teacher mimicking the gestures and the laughter
of hispupil.

The room was filled with laughter as the light filtered through the woods
touched successively each of the windows. When the laughing went down the teacher
continued talking.
 ‘There are many things you can give in a greeting. Look at the word itself! It
comes with friendliness. It can be a great remedy to give out sincere happiness and
friendliness. To greet someone is a great opportunity forbeing felt, and for revealing a
glimpse of our qualities. Don’t think, just feel— Reciprocal smiles can light up thefaces,
with a light that overwhelms all defects, searching for the other as he or she truly is.
You can convert a greeting in a magic moment, in which you can be healed and at the
same time heal the other—all in just a few seconds!’.

These latter words reminded the teacher that he had a limited period of time
for his first lesson. He watched the clock and saw that he had only a couple of minutes
left—just enough time to say goodbye.

‘Closing a process is as important as opening it. We have to finish the lesson by

now’.

‘Do we have to shake hands once more?’, said Alex half worried half happy.

‘No! To wish you something will do! It must be something that motivates you’.

‘You’re not going to give us homework to do, aren’t you?—Not on our first day!
—No one does it!—’, expressed Sara while her piercing brightened every word she said.

‘Don’t worry! It’s not my intention’,he repliedsmiling.

The teacherstood at the window that offers a greater perspective of the

classroom and ended up saying, ‘I wish you a year full of adventure and discovery,
where you can uncoverthe enormous treasures hidden in each one of you. I hope it's
fun— see you tomorrow!’.

To access the entire book go to:

www.ladanzadelavida12.blogspot.com

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