Quito, May 30, 2018

Drafting FIDAL

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Harvest

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The wonderful sensation of immersing the hands in the grains just harvested in the field, that of the fragrance of the potatoes that are taken from the generous and stirred earth, the new color of the vegetables that stand out in the middle of the cultivated fields, gives us an idea of ​​what the HARVEST means, after the long wait, the elapsed times, the impatience, the disobedience, the battles held.

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This is how I feel today, this is how every teacher surely feels when he looks at the achievements and achievements of his students in the various stages of their lives. Knowing that the HARVEST is opima, that the feelings overflow and that the tears arise spontaneously as a liberation of the happiness that is kept in the most intimate part of the being.

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The concept of HARVEST is fundamental in the educational field, because it takes us first to what sowing means, with its process of preparing the field, and not only by referring to what Ecclesiastes mentions, the wonderful biblical book of time there is of everything: "time to sow and harvest", but because it involves the different stages in which farmers think and necessarily have to wait, this being the time of waiting, an ingredient without which final satisfaction does not arrive.

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The protection of the seeds, the care with the irrigation and the fertilizers, the pampering with the growing plant, the contemplation of the flowering and the production of the fruits, all are steps worth celebrating, they all deserve applause and contentment, as well as each challenge, each challenge, each distaste that manages to be overcome, are part of the wonderful task that being a MASTER entails, thus written and pronounced with capital letters, in a superlative way, to highlight it before the whole society, before the world.

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I learned from the farmer grandmother, the patience that the profession requires, the need for the winds, the rains, the suns, I learned from the peasant grandfather the satisfaction that can be seen in the eyes in which the veil of tears is barely insinuated and it makes them brighter, the frolic of perceiving the trees set with the reddish or yellow fruits in the middle of the protective leaves.

This is how I perceive the task of training, of educating, of the one who has brought them here, to this great space full of people who are interested in education, who stimulate and value it, to be recognized, to feel that work is worth it. It is a pity that we cannot leave the teachers alone in their efforts, in their desires, in their struggles, for this reason we have built not only the possibility of obtaining prizes and recognitions such as those that the FIDAL Foundation delivers in this Tenth edition of the contest Ecuadorian and V of the Ibero-American Educational Excellence, but we have created an environment in which education is breathed and vibrated through an Expo Fair, in which Innovation and Excellence are the generating matrices, in which the Experts devise their methods and share them, in which the avid minds, always hungry for more knowledge, of the masters, feel rewarded.

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The development of intelligence, the construction of valid human and social relationships, the expansion of affectivity, the ability to create, are all urgent challenges that contemporary education requires. We are going there, with faith and enthusiasm, because we are hopeful, with the quality of teachers who are here, with those who accompany us from far away latitudes and with those who decide to choose this career that will leave them immense satisfaction, because being A teacher is to be a trainer, it is to be a dream maker, it is to be a seed planter.

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* (This speech was delivered at the Award Ceremony of the X National and V Ibero-American Contest of Educational Excellence, on April 25, 2018, in Quito)