Happy Children's Day !

Letter

Dear Mr. Burgess,
I am writing this letter to tell you how I felt during your classes this year, and how I feel now that I have been able to pass my exams.
As you remember, Mr. Moore wanted to punish us for our bad behaviour. I really want to thank you for not hitting us and for teaching us that if we worked together and were responsible of our own actions, we would succeed.
I will never forget you. You have been a really good teacher.
Hugs =0)

Appendix Diez años después: ante el nuevo milenio

After ten years, Savater decides share with us one more chapter.
Taking into account the times we live in, he says that the key to enjoy a good life is to care about others. We must realize that we're social beings: we need to look after ourselves and, at the same time, take care of others since we belong to the same species. We need to leave aside stereotypes and recognize each other as what we are: humans.

Savater says that the division of time into hours, days, weeks, months and years is just as the division of a book in pages:it is not the number of the page that tells us what happens but it serves just to the purpose of giving it an order and the possibility of going back to see what has happened before in order for us to remember it or to reflec upon it or to learn from it... I have to say that that is exactly what happens with our lives, the more numbers of pages we turn over throughout the time, the more experiences we have lived for us to go back and learn from them.

Tendras que pensartelo.

We may perfectly listen to many different people, opinions, advices, experiences but, all the same, the only way is "to think it over", to reflect... to analyse and, what I think is the most important thing, to be coherent and honest with ourselves. It is our duty from now on to keep on thinking and although it is only through and with others that we will be able to achieve a Human Life, we don't have to forget that we are the ones that can take our own choices. No one will come and tell us which path to follow or what to believe in...

Elecciones generales

One of the most important ideas I take from Savater is that ethics helps us improve ourselves and not to reproach others.
Politics are everything surrounding us, each relationship between two people involves power and politics indeed. It is deep in ourselves as part of the society to develop the type of politician we want to be.
According to Savater the political community needs to be based on freedom, justice and help; and its politicians need to prioritize human rights above all.
Finally,I consider that to change something you need to be an active part of it. If what is wrong is power you need to take part in politics, don´t you?

Tanto gusto

I totally agree with Savater, the answer is as simple as¨ happiness¨. Anyway as simple as it might seem, it is one of the most difficult things to experience and keep. For not anyone learns to find simple happiness in simple things.A first step would be to reflect upon what we have. Then we can start making choices, and finally learn to love what we have.
Another word that I would like to discussed is the word PLEASURE.There is nothing bad in doing something for pleasure... the only problem or the only reason why we tend to reject anything that gives us pleasure is because of what Savater calls the oldest fear of the human being: Our Fear of Pleasure...the fact is that we don't have to be afraid of it but to be aware that as well as it happens with everything else we have to be very careful in order to avoid going into extremes. Most people are not "afraid of pleasure" in itself.I think what frightens many of us is the price we might have to pay for it. As if we had learned to believe that we don't have a right to enjoy life.

Ponte en su lugar

One thing that we have discussed while we are reading Savater is that we need to make the right choices so as to live a good life. We need to consider that life as a human one, and this means, living with other human beings. if we want to be loved and have a good human life the main idea entailed in this concept is to be able to feel what someone else feels. So if we feel sad when someone feels sad and we feel happy when someone feels happy we won't make them feel sad or bad but, on the contrary, we will try to make them feel well, happy, joyful... As we are all humans, we are the only ones that can understand and feel what someone else (another human being).when we can emphatise, when we can see things (and understand them!!) from somebody else's perspective... when we can be objective in our judgements... In order to distinguish if we are being loved or used, we need to define what we understand for loving others. According to Savater, being loved is no only being important to somebody else but also to be understood. When we understand others, when we step on their shoes . But we must take into account is that all of us have the same rights, rights to be understood, rights to be different.
We as teachers need to care about others, we need to understand them and love them. It is not only being more humans but choosing how to do it. As teachers, we need to take into account out students´s viewpoints i.e, take into account THEIR RIGHTS. If one of my students could not come to class, I shouldn't be mad or upset with him but I should try to put myself in his position, trying to analyse the reasons why he did not come: tiredness, job problems, family issues, etc.