A teacher’s heart is a chest that holds many emotions.

This Monday, teacher Jacqueline Arencibia de la Paz will feel again the same tingling of that day when she stood in front of a classroom for the first time, because there are loves that time only revives and brings back to life.

Jacqueline Arencibia de la Paz has the greatest treasure to which any professional can aspire: the affection, respect and admiration of her students, colleagues, family and community.

This renowned teacher of the Rubén Hernández Concepción elementary school in San Antonio de Cabezas, carries in her genes the art of teaching as an inheritance from her mother, another of those great education professionals who remains in the memory of many generations of Unionenses.

«As a child I always played at being a teacher. The pencil, the blackboard, the pointer, those were my favorite toys. I never imagined anything else for myself. Maybe because of my mother’s love for what she studied. I am sure she would be very proud. Her example had a lot to do with my choice. I feel like the happiest professional in the world for having decided to follow in my mother’s footsteps. I think it was the best inheritance she could have left me.

Jacque, as he is called in his hometown, has been loving teaching for 26 years, a passion he embraces with all the strength of his soul. In his long and fruitful career he treasures memories, lessons, passages and unforgettable students.

«One of them is José, a child who in two seconds stole my affection. I remember that the school principal, at that time Mercedes Celestrín, called me to the headmaster’s office and told me that she had a very difficult task for me. I confess that at first I was a little scared, but as soon as I met José I felt the need to help him. He has special educational needs. When he entered my class he didn’t know how to read or write.

The day José put mom and dad on the blackboard I cried like you wouldn’t believe. It is one of the most rewarding things that has ever happened to me. You can’t even suspect how much that meant to me.

She tells me as she wipes away a tear rolling down her cheek as she explains that José still comes to the door of her classroom and reminds her: «Teacher, you taught me to read and write.

«The heart of a teacher is a chest that holds many emotions. The simple fact of arriving at an office and finding that the doctor sitting there was your student, I don’t know how to explain it, but it is something so beautiful. I believe that if I were born a thousand times, I would repeat the same path a thousand times until I ended up becoming a teacher».

Jacqueline is getting ready to teach third grade in the school year that is about to begin. In a corner of her classroom there is a space dedicated to professional training.

«Yes, because I think children need to be oriented from an early age. Teachers can and are fundamental for the future of our students. For me there is no greater satisfaction than sowing in my little ones an interest in studying, in bettering themselves, in a career. This is a country of opportunities, although we are living in very difficult times, although sometimes we are not sufficiently remunerated in our jobs, the truth is that knowledge does not take up space, one must always insist on that».

Convinced that the school will be the second home, as long as the home is the first school, Jacque attaches a very special value to the link with the family, which is why we find her today organizing the preparations for the first parents’ meeting of the school year that will begin on September 2nd.

«It is a very important space, a meeting in which we reaffirm how much we can achieve if we unite school, family and community to form a more integral child, more in tune with his time, more self-confident. I am convinced that this coming year will be the best of all, because I have always believed that the best work is what is yet to come. One has nothing but to give oneself without reserve and to give everything with love.»

This Monday, when the doors of the 36 schools of Unión de Reyes open, teacher Jacqueline Arencibia de la Paz will once again feel the same tingling sensation as that day when she stood in front of a classroom for the first time, because there are loves like that, which time only revives and brings back to life.

Written by Yaudel Rodríguez Vento.