School is not a place where someone knows everything and someone else knows nothing. It is, or should be, a community where people grow together. The teacher has the task of guiding, explaining, evaluating and accompanying. But a teacher who wants to remain alive in that role must also continue to learn.
Every generation of students brings new questions. Language changes, fears change, habits change, the relationship with technology changes and the way young people read the world changes. A teacher today cannot simply repeat what worked twenty years ago. Some values remain: seriousness, study, respect, discipline and responsibility. But the way to transmit them must speak to the present.
Teaching well does not only mean knowing the subject. It means making it accessible, connecting it to life, listening to difficulties and recognising when a class is not understanding. Sometimes a different example, a slower explanation or a new method can open a door.
A good teacher does not lose authority by admitting that they are still learning. On the contrary, they strengthen it. Saying “I will look into this” or “let us try another approach” shows that knowledge is not arrogance, but research.
Students also have responsibilities. Learning requires effort, attention and consistency. No teaching method can replace personal commitment. But precisely because studying is difficult, school should help students understand the meaning of what they do, not only survive tests.
Each of us is, at different moments, both student and teacher. We are students when we learn from life, mistakes, children, colleagues and people we meet. We are teachers when we share what we have understood and help someone take a step forward. A school that understands this becomes a human workshop, not just a classroom.