THE LASALLIAN EDUCATOR'S CREED (A VIEW FROM LATIN AMERICA)

(First published in Lasallian Family, number 4, Medellin, Columbia )

I believe that to educate is to help someone to be.

I believe that I should live my job as teacher as a mission and not as a profession.

I believe that the fulfilment of the mission without concealment or hypocrisy requires a reference to values.

I believe that it is necessary to define myself as a person of faith, even though in doing so I may lose the esteem of others.

I believe that I should ensure that my presence, my use of time and my relationships with colleagues and students are occasions for raising up values and ideals.

I believe that my presence in the school may be the means of awakening in someone the possibility of believing, of bringing out the meaning of the gospel.

I truly believe that the protagonist of education is the student and not the book, the method or the teacher.

I believe that I should be up to date in the specific knowledge that I am to teach.

I believe that I should be in tune with new techniques in order to help students to develop all of their capabilities.

I believe that one learns and discovers what it is to be an educator through contact with persons who are honest, generous and open.

I believe that one cannot be an educator without believing in humanity, personal needs, ethical responsibility.

I believe that educators who are no longer willing to be companions and friends, growing in knowledge and esteem, risk becoming incapable of fulfilling their mission.

I believe that it is a blessing to be allowed to collaborate with God so that students may discover the joy of being themselves.

I believe that the most beautiful thing the educator can do is to believe in the work of God and in the most beautiful creation from his hands: the humanity of students.

I believe that my performance and plans are rooted in Jesus who was the Teacher.

I believe that being an educator gives my life meaning.

I BELIEVE ... and ... I HOPE!