The Instituto did not depend on specialists for its faculty. From the first, it relied on the good will of men who had acquired one degree or another to safeguard their careers or else had engaged in such a lengthy practice of their chosen professions that it was the equivalent of a diploma. Each one taught what he could. There was an abundance of lawyers, because the School of Law had been founded during the colonial era and had operated without interruption ever since. And since, by a tradition based on laziness, it was believed that a lawyer was capable of imparting any subject within the humanities, the Instituto could consider itself well supplied in that respect. But there was a real scarcity of technical expertise, a lack of doctors, chemists, engineers. That was why Fernando was asked for his assistance, but not without being warned, between obeisances, that the salary was merely symbolic and in no way a sufficient recognition of his merit or a compensation for his labors.

Fernando accepted the position without worrying about its drawbacks. He had never hoped to resolve his financial problems by giving a course in mathematics. And he had a very keen interest in renewing his contact with students, a contact he had lost since his departure from the capital.

So he began to prepare his classes carefully and to be present for them punctually. He didn’t let the students get away with doing nothing; he required a great deal of homework from them and made them participate actively in the subjects he was covering.

The boys were not accustomed to demands like these and were upset by them. Fernando was mistaken in supposing he would find in them what he and his classmates had possessed during their adolescence: a curiosity that motivated discovery, an urgent need to get their bearings and form a vision of the world, a generous interest in things.