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This academic essay arises from an essential question: how can the teacher shape humanity if he himself does not inhabit the word with full consciousness? Based on the findings of research conducted in teacher training contexts in Cuba, a deep tension becomes visible: teachers theoretically recognize the value of assertive communication, but in the daily life of the classroom, communicative practices anchored in one-directionality, fear of dissent, and the difficulty of sustaining genuine pedagogical dialogue persist. An ontological thesis is defended here: assertive communication is not a technique or an ornament of teaching professional performance; it is its very essence. The teacher does not teach how to communicate: he communicates, and in that act consciously or unconsciously he models a way of being in the world. Based on the foundations of the cultural-historical approach and the theory of Advanced Education, this text moves from empirical evidence towards a philosophical reflection on the modeling nature of the educational act. It is concluded that the improvement of professional performance in Pedagogical Schools requires strategies that transcend the purely instructional and touch the existential: to train a teacher who listens, who doubts, who recognizes the other as a legitimate interlocutor. A school that trains teachers cannot inhabit the silence of the monologue.
