Ben: Hola, Señor. I’d like you to preface this interview with you giving me a quick description of yourself, including a few words you describe yourself as.
Dr. Esteban: I’m a high school Spanish teacher, a husband, a father, and a Barcelona FC supporter. Being a soccer fan keeps me entertained. It makes me worry about unimportant things so I don’t have to worry about the important ones.
Ben: What kind of classes did you take in high school? Do you have any recommendations for underclassmen still undecided about what classes to take next year?
Dr. Esteban: … When I was around 16, I knew I wanted to study humanities. I also took literature, history, art history … I was one of those strange kids who loved school, and I always saw myself as a teacher. Maybe I was unoriginal and just wanted to do a job that I saw done in front of me every day.
Ben: What colleges or universities did you go to?
Dr. Esteban: I went to several. I started with the University of Granada in the south of Spain … They were giving scholarships to those students with the best GPAs, so I was sponsored to travel abroad to different European colleges … I was assigned a scholarship to the University of Bologna in Italy, the oldest university in the world. Later in the program, I went to Portsmouth University in England. At the end of my undergraduate studies, I received three degrees in philology simultaneously.
Ben: During your time as a teacher, what kind of changes have you been noticing along the way in both students, faculty, and the use of technology by both parties?
Dr. Esteban: The smartphone has been a game changer. For the worse! As a student, I had to live with doubts, with unknowns. With the cellphone and the internet, students feel they need to know the answer right away, and it makes students feel insecure and anxious. These moments of unknowns are excellent for learning … The American school system is at risk of becoming very superficial because it praises extroversion and quick responses. Innate qualities are being put forward above learned, repetitive, tedious, time-consuming skills. […]
Ben: Was there someone who inspired you to become what you are today?
Dr. Esteban: Many people, many great teachers, but some awful teachers, too! I felt as though I learned my best lessons from awful teachers. There was this teacher who accused me of cheating on this test, so I had to take it again, and I got an A on both occasions … This was my freshman year. This did not break me. I ended up becoming the valedictorian in my grade. Sometimes life isn’t fair. Sometimes you just have to deal with it. […]
Ben: What is a change you want to see happen in schools in the next couple of years?
Dr. Esteban: For starters, I want a total ban of cell phones in the school, even during the lunch hour or study halls. None whatsoever. Solid research backs me up. Many school systems around the world, even in NJ, are responding quickly to this crisis, but we seem lethargic in Highland Park to the point of being complicit. I would also limit the use of technology in regular classes. Get your pens, papers, and erasers, and get to work! Again, there is ample evidence to support this opinion. However, I am not a Luddite, and I believe those technological skills should be part of a specific, extensive, mandatory, K-12 curriculum, not as an add-on, but as an intentional computer/technology class. I would even suggest making that class a requirement similar to PE. I would also make more classes available that aren’t solely academic, say a robotics class or things like electrical, cosmetology, cooking, and shop courses. We seem to think that all of our students are just going to go to a four-year college. In reality, this is not the case for many, many students. […]
Ben: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Dr. Esteban: I am very aware of the pressures students feel—I live with three teenagers at home. And yet, I don’t know how to stress that the most consequential decisions these students are going to take in their lives are going to be random, one-second-of thought-decisions where luck plays a huge part. That being said, students need to prepare themselves, be alert, be aware of those moments. And for that preparation, there are no shortcuts. Nor any technological device that can help us make it through those moments.
Ben: Thanks, Sr. Esteban!