The educator in Gabriela Mistral an approach to her life and ideas as a teacher (1903-1922)

Abstract

This work aims at showing Gabriela Mistral as a full-time educator who held a series of positions in the Chilean public education, from the simplest ones —as an assistant teacher “without a degree”— up to those with greatest responsibilities, such as a principal in the girls' high schools. In this first part we have studied her career since 1903 to 1922. At the same time, we have analyzed her prose texts and verse written during those years, concluding that she expressed valuable educational ideas such as: (a) the importance that the teacher offers and prepares his/her lesson with beauty because for her, education was loveliness; and (b) inviting to value and recognize the incomparable place the educator takes as an example and a model for his/her students.