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An Unlikely Classroom Environment
22nd January 2019
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In this emotional rollercoaster of a talk, Martin Suarez retells the heart-wrenching stories of two of his students, who he met when he was doing volunteer work as a teacher in a maximum security prison in Argentina.
Gaby and German had come from entirely different backgrounds. Gaby had grown up with an abusive father, and at the age of 13, fatally struck his father and ran into the streets with his mother. It was inevitable for him to enter a life of crime, he had no choice in the matter. German, however, was an educated and artistic man, whose family supported him when he made an awful mistake and went to prison. Both men attended Suarez’s lessons, and were ‘strong leaders’, as Suarez puts it. They had not only physical strength, but mental strength as well. Suarez talks of how Gaby would teach others to read and write, and how German would carry people to classes so that they could learn, and would paint pictures for the orphans. Gaby even studied law while in prison, and had completed 90% of the work to obtain a degree. However, both men had reached different endings. Suarez suspects that Gaby has gone back into crime, while German got a job due to a feat of kindness and his skilled hands, and tends to an old man’s machinery.
Suarez was first motivated to volunteer when he witnessed a prison maths class. He “saw human beings just like [him]”, loving and respecting a teacher in the name of education. Suarez realised that these juvenile-yet-not-juvenile people had just been the victim of ignorance, whether that be from stupidly making a mistake that landed them in prison, or growing up like Gaby, without the education or the means to bring themselves out of the never-ending cycle of pain they were born into.
But Suarez also realised, that “education is so powerful”, and is an door that leads to a whole new hallway, with even more doors, for you to explore and learn, and this is how we stop ignorance. This is how we stop the problems that we have in this world, by educating ourselves to rid our prejudices, and realise that everyone deserves a second chance, or a third, or a fourth. We are all made up of the same things, after all. So we must ask ourselves, “What can I do for others from here?” (German), and realise that, “The past was destined, the present is inevitable, but the future is up to me.” (Gaby).