Empathy – the word that defines us as teachers
Lorina Ionela Lăzărică
Moinești, the city where Mrs. Lăzărică teaches, lies at the foot of the Nemira Mountains. It is a growing municipality with around 20,000 inhabitants. “Spiru Haret” Theoretical High School has 745 students, about 45% of whom commute daily, with many traveling from more than 30 kilometers away.
She began her teaching career at a middle school in Moinești, and after her first year, she moved to the Theoretical High School. As a biology teacher, she entered her 27th year of teaching in 2024. From the very beginning of her career, Mrs. Lăzărică wanted to combine her love for children with her passion for biology.
Her passion for biology began in the 5th grade, thanks to an extraordinary teacher who instilled in her the love for this subject. “I discovered my passion for animals. I went on to study at the chemistry-biology high school in Bacău, and then at the Faculty of Biology — not necessarily to become a teacher, but out of love for biology, to discover bios, the mystery of life.”
During university, Mrs. Lăzărică discovered her love for birds, and her dissertation for the first teaching degree was in the field of ornithology. She still nurtures this passion today and even brought it into the high school, where she created an elective course in ornithology.
“I remember teaching this ornithology elective to a 9th grade class, when a 10th grade student came to me and asked if he could also join, to see what this ornithology was all about. He came along, notebook in hand, for almost a year. He then went on to study Biology at university, specialized in ornithology, and today he is a PhD in biology.”
Over the years, many of her students have followed in her footsteps, enrolling either in Biology or Medicine. This might also be due to the fact that, as she explains, “I never wanted my students to simply memorize the lesson. What I want from them is to think. They must learn logically, and we do a lot of exercises in critical thinking, problem-solving, case studies. When I entered teaching, I wanted to bring a change, even though the Romanian education system was based on memorization and reproduction of learned notions.”
University doesn’t teach you how to be a teacher – you discover that at the front of the classroom. “Everyone has the nervousness of the beginning, but over the years spent teaching, your motivation for the profession grows.” For her, that motivation comes from talking with students, finding out how they feel, and treating them as if they were her own children.
The activities she has carried out are diverse: from building birdhouses in the park during winter, to the elective in ornithology, to health education and first aid techniques. “They are very interested in first aid, especially since we managed to acquire a cardio-pulmonary resuscitation torso on which we practice compressions and ventilation. I always tell them: once you’ve saved someone’s life, you are a lifesaver for the rest of your life.”
Her most recent project is implemented through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), through which the high school will be equipped with a smart laboratory and interactive educational content.
All these initiatives are meant for students – to broaden their horizons of knowledge, to create that moment when you can see on their faces that they understood, that they truly absorbed what you wanted to pass on. “I was delighted to discover that most of our 12th graders choose biology as their subject for the Baccalaureate exam, and so far, all of them have passed.”
Over all these years, there have also been many amusing moments she has shared with her students. She fondly remembers one from her early years of teaching: “I had a class with 11th graders. When I entered the room, there was an unusual bustle, everyone was laughing and trying to get the attention of one of their classmates: Careful, careful, the teacher is here. Then I saw that on the teacher’s desk a student was lying down, ready to give birth… to a globe. I played along and told them to let him give birth peacefully. It remained a fond memory for all of us, and at their 10-year reunion they even showed me the pictures they had taken that day before I entered the classroom.”
Being a teacher also means knowing how to work in a team. “At our high school, everyone tries to contribute, to lend a hand, so that in the end, the student is satisfied with the educational act.”
Her advice to young people who wish to pursue a teaching career is to first ask themselves whether they are very well prepared — because you cannot present yourself to children unprepared — and whether they truly love children. If the answer to both questions is YES, then they are fit to follow this path.
The greatest challenge, but also my deepest wish, is to know that the student who comes to school has no other worries, that they can simply enjoy the joy of their age. Even though the reality is different for many of them, when we meet them in the classroom, we must be there to guide them, to lead them toward learning, to listen to them, and to reach the soul of the child. This, I believe, is the role of a teacher.
This article was written by Mădălina Lescai, Institutional Partnerships Coordinator in the Own Your Path program, as part of the Storybook Teachers project, a series of 20 articles about the Partner Teachers of the program.