enseñando (teaching)
snapshot from Chile
a tiny piece of my first interview for this project - the initial inspiration for all the photos and voices featured
A many-decade teacher, 84, who lives on the outskirts of Temuco with her daughter, pictured here with her (still in use) alphabet lessons.
It was this photo which inspired me to take all of the anonymous photos of older adults, in their elements, which this project features. And the soft swell of her voice that inspired the voices included.
On how technology is changing how kids grow up, learn, and interact, including her own grandchildren:
Sometimes, [we] worry about [my granddaughter’s] computer use. Not just hers, but so many kids. They come onto the street after school, and off they go [on their phones, etc.]
On continuing to tutor a student in her one-room schoolhouse, sustaining her lifelong identity as a teacher:
Given I am retired, I’m in my house, and I have a heap of aches and pains, sicknesses… so this distracts me, satisfies me, and it brings me joy that she is learning.
On why loneliness is a human experience:
Well, loneliness, I believe… You see birds who walk together, play, and suddenly part ways. But the human being is not this way. The human being, many times, remains alone.
On how personality draws her to spend time alone, having been raised in a quiet, rural town with few friendships:
I am a person who, at best, was formed in a certain loneliness. This makes it hard to integrate myself with a group.
On the abandonment and indignity some older adults face. This leads her to urge that the Chilean government support more housing options with staff and attentive care for those with advanced health problems, and few social supports.
There are many older adults in Chile who [are not treated like] human beings. Imagine, three days pass before a person is found dead. And this isn’t talked about. But these things happen. But there are people alone, alone, alone, bedridden.
A closer look at the school books she used just that morning. This book has been in circulation for decades.
Photos taken by Grace Ellrodt with subject’s consent.