Antonio Lastra made the students reflect on the mission statement of a teacher. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Antonio Lastra, doctor in Philosophy and professor of that subject in the teaching Secondary, gave a session within the Master's Degree University academic staff, which has begun this academic year at the University of Navarra, replacing the old CAP. The session closed the section "The formative value of the Philosophy and the Humanities", given by Professor Jaime Nubiola in the module of Human and Social Sciences of the Master's Degree.

During his speech, Antonio Lastra made the students, future teachers, reflect on their profession. "The teacher must recreate every day a primordial scene in the classroom", he commented. "We must instill in the student the need to learn and, in addition, show him the happiness of intimate study added to that uneasiness that occurs when philosophers abandon us." In his discussion paper, Lastra tried to illustrate the intense moment that occurs when the teacher guide al student to the limit in which the pupil must take the reins of his own study, after having awakened in him the need to know. 

To carry out this task, Professor Antonio Lastra gave the students two pieces of advice. In the first place, he recommended reading Plato's Dialogues , since "in them this primordial lesson is explained in a brilliant way, which is still valid twenty-three centuries later and which is the true vocation of the teacher". Secondly, he warned them of the importance of reaching the truth of things in each explanation, awakening in the students that primordial need to learn.