MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Deseos hechos realidad
(Postales)

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Choices are in your hands.

I think that Willy Russell chose to end the play with Rita cutting Frank's hair for different reasons: first, as a way of showing that she wanted to acknowledge somehow all he has done for her; secondly, because she wants to help Frank to built his new self Haven't you ever change your hair style in order to change your mood? It is one of the most common ways of starting a change in our lives finally, because this is a very good way of showing us that the new educated Rita still keeps her essence and doesn't forget about her past: she has changed immensely but, at the same time, her cutting Frank's hair shows that she is still the hairdresser who was eager to learn and who is still eager to learn. Both Rita and Frank are still ready and waiting for learning.

What I want to add is in this scene we can perceived the word CHOICE . I think she had different choices since the moment she decided to start studying and as she said, she chose "her".But what Trish'attempted suicide taught is that she can chose how to live and thanks Frank because thanks to his help she had a choice.

To say goodbye, somebody who is "better educated" would be somebody who has accquired tools or strategies to make their own choices more autonomously, or has widened their range of choices, or can see themselves as better able to take wiser choices

The nature of Frank's feelings towards Rita.

Frank feels dissapointed towards Rita's attitudes. I say disappointed because he feels that Rita has completely forgotten about all they have done together and all they have shared. He thinks that Rita doesn't care anymore about attending Frank's lessons . When he realises that Rita is not working anymore as a hairdresser and she hasn't told him about it.

I complete empathise with Frank because I understand the way he feels.He thinks that now thatRita is educated and well-read she feels that she does not need him anymore.He feels that there is not place for him in Rita's new life. Rita makes the comparison between her relationship with Frank and that of a father with his suddenly grown-up daughter. she pretends to have changed because she seems to be acting this new self and not really be living or experiencing it

Who you really are...

Rita seems different from the beginning of the play.When she meet Frank she speak differently.She talked to Frank that her friend Trish told her she needs to speak properly all the time in order to practice.

Sometimes as students we tend to do the same and then we feel that we belong as the rest of the students.

She has become much more conscious of her capacities . She relates with other classmates and even argue Frank when discussing his point of view on her essays.These changes make Frank be jealous.

'What I'm saying is that it's up to the minute, quite acceptable, trendy stuuf about Blake; but there's nothing of you in there! This is what Frank want to say is that for him her essay on 'The Blossom' is not well done he wants to show her that, although he cannot say that her essay is not wrong, he wants to make her aware of the fact that what she has written is not based on her own views. He think whenever Rita acting in this way, she is not trying to improve herself but trying to change herself.

In fact, Frank does not want Rita to change because he feels she is losing her essence.

What I feel at this point,is that she uses her new way of speaking in order to fit in and not because she feels she learn to speak properly.After all,what Rita is doing now, is to speak in the same way like everyone around speak.So, what I have said in the previuos paragraph is dubtful, Has she grown and learned or is just an image?

What does Willy Rusell indicate that time has passed between the end of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2?

The way she dresses ,her attitudes towards Frank and the lessons too are some changes that we have the opportunity to see during these acts.She changes her attitudes towards Frank because she can answer Frank in a different way.She feels more confident,she thinks being there make her improve her process of learning poetry.She also learns more about the world that she was trying to understand better at the beginning of the Act 1.Rita hasn't exactly changed but she is just 'acting' as if she had changed, I mean, she wants to show that having been to Summer School has influenced her not only in her wanting to dress up but also in her wanting to be called 'the new educated Rita.' She wants to be compared with the 'proper students' she has mentioned previously in the play.the fact that Rita read books and learned a lot about writers means that she is now 'well-read' but, unfortunately, this being 'well-read' can sometimes be confused with being educated and that is exactly what happened to Rita: by this moment in the play she thinks that her being well-read and her having increased her knowledge about literature mean that she is now educated.

Why didn't Rita go to Frank's dinner party?

What I

think is that didn't want to go to the party because the fact that she migth have share the whole dinner with people who would have anything in common either to share and to talk with Rita. And because she wuold have the opportunity to compare herself with those people in the party.What's more,she might have felt she was not at the same level. She probably felt like a kind of test and she was not ready for this. Frank tells her that he wanted her to be there. He says that people at the party would have seen her as someone funny, delighful and charming... When Rita listensto this, she feels really awful and bad. What she wants is not to be funny, she wants to be taken seriously and be able to take part in their seriuos conversations as if she were one of them. She says: 'I don't wanna spend the night takin' the piss, comin' on with the funnies because that's the only way I can get into the conversation...'

Her mother's words reflects the same feeling that Rita has,because she has no opportunty to leran at some moment in her life.I think these words made Rita encourages to go on and not to have the opprotunity to regret not making the effort to improve herself.

WHTA WORDS DOES RITA USE TO EXPRESS HER ENTHUSIASM FOR MACBETH?

"I thoughtit was gonna be dead borin' "bleddin' great, honest... it done me in, it was fantastic".

These are the words Rita use to describe the play that she has seen.What's more she wants to write about it and tell Frank how did she feel with this new experience.

But she cannot use this words to write an essay.This is an informal language and it is not appropiate to use in this case.To write one she needs to use formal language.

I think she expresses her thoughts this ways because this is the way she knows how to do so.She felt she did not really know how to understand the play as she imagined she did andexpresses and I can perceive this feeling in this words: " All they out there, they know all about that sort of thing don't they", referring to all the students at college.What she want to express is that she is not so clever to understand or interpret the play as Frank does it.

WHAT EXPRESSIONS DOES USE RITA TO EMPHASISE HOW IMPORTANT IS THE COURSE TO HER?

"Comin' here, doin' this, it's given me more life then I've had in years, an' he should be able to see that."But its not takin' the place of life, it's providin' me with life itself.""Comin' here, doin' this, it's given me more life than I've had in years,... Well, if he doesn't want me when I'm alive I'm certainly not just gonna lie down an' die for him."

when Denny discovers that Rita is still on the pill. In a rage he burns her papers and books. This was obstacle that Rita has to face and from that moment on she has to resign to her old environment.Once drawn into the world of such writers as Shakespeare, the only thing se wants to is to continue in this new world.

I think that Rita feels alive not only by literature but also by Frank,her tutor.He makes Rita to think critically.And this helps her to feel motivated.

WHY DO YOUT THINK RITA SAYS IT MAKES ME STRONGER COMING HERE?

All taht Rita does is to work and be beside her husband.She can not enjoy life fully.She needs to experience some things.
Rita's progress does not come easy.One of the main obstacles taht Rita has to face comes from her husband.I think he has very traditional ideas about the social role of a good woman.What I can perceive is that he feels he is slowly losing control over Rita.But what he doesn't know is that she feels inferior among regular students.
Maybe when we were children and we started school we begun seeing things in a different way and our parents could perceived it. And we discovered others realities, it makes us face to different dilemmas.Our parents felt that our world was like a little bubble but then it has been expanding and sometimes it causes fears.

Proper students

Rita refers to Frank's room as a "a perfect mess",because she thinks he has good taste to decorate his room.Everything is in a proper place.During the scene she tries to define and understand Frank's personality by describing the room.I think Frank has his own "mess",his life is not in perfect order at all.He has problems with alcohol and his wife.
According to Rita's view, proper students are the ones who read and study a lot.In fact,she idealizes them and Frank explain that they are not always studying as she imagines. I think that these two points are connecting,the fact that Rita find the room as a proper one has to do with the image that she has about the proper students.
What Rita doesn't want to miss is the chance to be one of them.She wants to improve her life but what she doesn't know is that she is changing Frank' life.

WHY DOES RITA WANT TO STUDY?

Rita is a hairdresser who has decided to get an education at the Open University. But what she want was not a good education to get just a better job or more pay,but an education that would open up for her a new world.There were things that she could not understand so she did not enjoy them,such as the ballet and the opera just because of ignorance.

I think that education gives us an opportunity to see that reality has to do with our own perception of the world so we must be able to see and understand news visions that education can provide us.

Chapter six:Aparece Pepe Grillo

As we know,Pepe Grillo is a good example of a good conscience. He can tell us when our cactions are correct or not.Responsability as Savater says is to know that each of my acttions are building myself,they re defining me and creating me.This phrase is wonderful, it shows as another example of Freedom. As teacher we should try to show our students by giving them the example.

Chapter five: Wake up baby!

Today I want to share one idea that calls my attetion but is not savater's word.It is an abstract taken from "Emilio" by Jacques Rousseau.
I think that this idea summerizes our own goal in life.We need other people to feed our soul.Most of the time there is one insufficient of something in our life.And If we don't have it we are not alive! that's life!
We share knowledge because other s don't know have our own experiences and others teach us what we don't know.We help other people because they need to be rescued and when we do that we finally feel that we reach one of our goals.
I want to add one word so I can talk about Savater.This word is "reciprocity".It means that you will get the same respect that you gave.Ithink to treat other people like what they are:people, is important to start thinking about how we want to be treated and trying to put in practice in daily life,for example at work or with our students.But be careful, not everyone understand respectful in the same way.Teachers have to make sure what is disrespectful for our students.

Chapter four:"DATE LA BUENA VIDA."

Everyday we try to live life fully, but I not sure about this.Sometimes we think or we consider some things important for the time being, for example materal things.We spend life trying to be a successful person or working in order to have money.But we forget the idea of sharing,we have to live slowly and think about the importance of being ourself.And as teachers we should forget that teacher is just a "job"and we have to start thinking that we need to guide our students so we can enjoy our "job."we need to find out our students' needs! that's all!

Capitulo 3:Do what you want

Sometimes we are free to decide whether we follow someone else's orders.The most important think of this is to be aware of what,and why we decide it. We should think twice before taking our decisions. Because in some cases they can hurt someone in any way. The example that Savater told Amador about the soldier makes me feel ... so uncomfortable, you know.. Ican't believe that he obey these orders without questioning,he killed people like him like us, but of course most of us know that there a lot of terrible examples about this situations.It terrible!

Capitulo 2: "ORDENES,COSTUMBRES Y CAPRICHOS".

As teacher one of our most important goal is to teach our students as better as possible but sometimes it is difficult to reach it.
When I was at secondary school I remember a group of teachers who used to coloborate to"Escuelas de fronteras" in Salta.They told us they stayed in these schools during one month and they found most of the teacher who live there have the role of parents,doctors and clowns.Parents because they listened to children and parents' problems,doctors because child live in extremely poverty so most of them health problems.And clowns because whenever they go there they organise celebrations and try to enjoy these days with them.
I think of course ,they feel proud of their job,but if we think about Aristoteles' situation.We can saythe teachers are the captain of the ship and children are the crew and the storm is the extremely poverty in which they live .The teacher is oblige to decide if she has to just teach no matter what children's problems are or try to help these people inmediately and then think abput their education. This is a difficult and long travel to think about..

Capitulo 1:"De que va la Etica".

I think most of us had a rude awakening when we read some lines of this chapter.One of them that make me feel close to this lines was:"como no somos libres no podemos tener la culpa de nada de lo que nos ocurra".What Savater try to say to Amador is that some people think that we are not free really, so they are not responsible for their actions.

When we were at school, we started thinking critically, it means that we learnt that there are differents vision of the reallity,differents ideas and that we 've born in a society, so when we grew up our ideas are partly influenced by this society.

Ithink we confused the idea that our teacher want us to learn.For example I had the idea that our thoughts and decisions are totally influenced by the society and our cultural background and therefore I thought no matter what I do , no matter what I feel ,all my actions were a product of my surroundings.

So, the word "FREEDOM" doesn't take place in my life according to this thougth.But fortunately, during this process of learning I 've found the real idea of all what my teacher try to explain to us,as Savater try to explain to Amador.Now I can see that,of course we need to know our cultural background,different ideas,different points of view,but it doesn't mean we need to follow them or copy them.They are very important because they contribute to our decisions, these differents views, ideas help us to construct our own knowledge an dthen we are FREE to choose what way to follow, what kind of decisions we want to take.But instead of thinking about our bad luck,we can decide what can we do to fight against this bad luck! this mean to be FREE.

Etica para Amador.

This book doesn't try to answer some questions that we have in our life and solve everyday problems.What's more,it doesn't try to define ethics and neither pretends to be a book for the study of Ethics.

It is just the subjective point of view of a father that attempt to explain to his son the practical part of ethicsby taking to account their own experiences.

The main goal of this book is try to form "librepensadores."

One part that called my attention was when Savater told Amador,his son that "los chicos debeis tener amigos de vuestra edad! and when adults are too sympathetic is because they want something else.There is some truth in this belief,but in my case I couldn't find any connection between what Savater says and my experience with my best friend, my godmother.I think the only thing she wanted is to be loved.According to this, are everybody's action based on reciprocity? I have to read more to answer this question.