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.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Deseos hechos realidad
(Postales)

Envía postales de Dias Festivos

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.