Ethics

Clash

2008-11-17T16:06:00.000-08:00

This play deals with the conflicts that appeared after Rita and Frank meet. They both come from completely different backgrounds and social status. They move around different social circles, Rita chats with colleagues at the hairdresser’s while Frank delivers Literature lessons at university. This is why at the beginning of the play Rita cannot understand why she cannot write her opinions directly in her essays. She is very clever. Yet, she also needs to learn how to adapt her linguistic forms according to the context in which we are immersed. Otherwise, she would not pass the exams. So Rita, as well as Frank, has to adapt to her new surroundings. For all this, Educating Rita can be considered a play about the clash of class and culture. But what I believe is that this clash turns out to be positive and enriching for both of them.

I chose, me

2008-11-12T17:59:00.000-08:00

I’ve noticed a huge change in Rita’s attitude from the previous chapter to this one. I’m happy to see that Rita finally chooses herself. In the end, she realises what Frank was trying to teach her before, to be herself, to decide and to be responsible for those choices. Because after all, the important thing is to be free. All the knowledge Frank helped Rita to get has given her the tools to choose. Now she can confront life without shame and without pretending to be somebody else. For all this, Rita wants to thank Frank. I believe the end with Rita cutting Frank’s hair represents her acceptance of who she really is, a new Rita but at the same time the old Rita, both together merged into one. At this point, I would say she has become wise woman. This ending also symbolises all the things Rita also gave Frank throughout the novel and the fact that now she is aware of what she has done. So, I can say that both of them are teachers and students at the same time, and this is a model to follow for us teachers or future teachers: teaching is not connected with contents but with life experiences and sharing, it a double-way process.

Reciprocity

2008-11-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

After Rita’s process of change, Frank feels she is leaving him behind, that she doesn’t need him anymore. Throughout Rita’s course of study, Frank developed strong feelings towards her and vice versa. He’s got used to her being around, consulting him about recognised authors, chatting about her feelings and conflicts with her family and job. He felt that somebody needed him, and he was more than happy to do so. But now that Rita’s grown more independent of his guidance, he feels miserable and alone. He realised that the need for guidance was reciprocal.

Who you are

2008-11-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

As I pointed out on an earlier post, I wouldn’t say “the new Rita” is wiser than the old. Wisdom is not only related to how much “knowledge” we have about things such as Literature, Arts and Science, but also with how much knowledge we have about the world and how we learn from our experiences in life. I would say Rita was already a clever woman before starting the course with Frank as she was very skilful when dealing with every day situations. What I feel at this point, and what I believe Frank thinks as well, is that she is displacing her old knowledge of the world, replacing it with information about plays, books, authors and a bit snobbish trends. She seems to be ashamed of who she was. This is why she has changed her way of speaking, a strong symbol of her old identity. She wants to leave no trace of it. I believe this is not the right decision; internal growth involves not killing off our own identities so as to go back to square one and try again with another identity, but to build new knowledge and attitudes accepting who we are.

Life is change

2008-11-10T07:58:00.000-08:00

The impact that Summer School had on Rita was incredibly significant. She came back fascinated, even more energetic than before, confident and proud of herself. I can imagine her faced shining with excitement while describing her marvellous visit to London to Frank. I think this period there helped her face new challenges and these in turn made her confront her fears and shames. For instance, Rita was able to ask questions in front of a wide audience and to resist the temptation to crack a joke to a tutor in a library, attitude she remarked proudly. I dare say she’s beginning to feel like the ones she called “proper students”. She wants to study outside on the grass with them. At the same time she feels the necessity to help Frank to overcome his fears by trying to transmit him her enthusiasm. I must say I love her idea of giving him an engraved pen as a gift saying: “Must only be used for poetry. By strictest order- Rita” So all in all, as we can see in this scene, Rita’s attitude changed completely, but she wants Frank’s life to give a turn as well and she is trying her best to make it happen.

Be Unique

2008-10-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

Rita has a perfectly clear picture of the kind of person she wants to become. She does not want to be herself. She’s made this pretty clear by this point. And this is the main reason why she did not go to Frank’s dinner. She realised she has not actually changed yet, and thought she was not going to fit in with Frank’s friends. Rita peered through his window and saw the group talking seriously, confidently, wittily… Through that window she could take a brief look at all she has always wanted to be, and this vision had two effects on her. First, she freaked out and rushed to the pub where Denny and her mother were singing. But then, she plucked up courage and took this image she had seen at Frank’s as an ultimate goal to achieve, so she decided to start all over again. The sad aspect of this decision is that she wants to change everything about herself, ignoring her incredible uniqueness. She needs to be just like the rest of people, losing in that wish her precious identity.

Rita burst through the door out of breath...

2008-09-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

Rita could not hold her excitement after having gone to the theatre, so as she abruptly entered the room she gasped: “I´ve gorra tell someone…” “I went to the theatre!” She does not reflect upon what her word choice is to express her thrill. Her words seem to burst out of her mouth like an uncontrollable flaw. “It was bleedin´ great, honest, ogh, it done me in, it was fantastic. I´m gonna do an essay on it.” Feelings and language are closely connected, the way we express what we feel is an echo of our identity, but we also need to learn how to adapt our linguistic forms according to the context in which we are immersed. For example, if Rita expressed her opinion about the play in an essay using the same register she used with Frank, the essay would be cosidered “incorrect.” Rita was never given the opportunity to learn this before, so the only way she knows to express her feelings towards anything is by using colloquial vocabulary.

“The key to success is often the ability to adapt”

Chase your Passion

2008-09-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

“I´m busy enough findin´meself,…” “ I´ve begun to find me_an´ it´s great y´ know…” “It might sound selfish but all I want for the time bein´ is what I´m findin´ inside me.”

Without any doubt, this course is changing Rita´s life as it is helping her to find something within herself that she did not know for sure it existed, but I´ m sure that deep down her heart she sensed it was there. It is her other self, that part of her that she has always felt as missing.
Rita said: “Art and Literature… are providin´ me with life itself.” Wow! She must love studying Art and Literature. I can imagine her face expressions, her thrill, her passion when reading or writing something new, and I could see that passion and excitement when she was getting ready to leave for the theatre. I’ve always admired those people who do what their job or what they love with sheer passion, those are the ones who are always successful in life, this does not mean life it´s easy for them though! Passion gives you determination, self -satisfaction, strength and willpower. In my personal life, I try to do everything I like with passion and at the same time to enjoy what I am being given the opportunity to learn or teach. I don’t know if I am good or bad at what I do, but I constantly try to make the most of it and learn from everything, because after all… we will be learning something new until our last day on Earth.

In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.

2008-09-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Why does Frank tell Rita the story of the theology student?

Frank pointed out the anecdote of the theology student to Rita to illustrate his remark: “…a clever answer is not necessarily the correct answer.” Rita had been witty when answering his previous question on her essay, but she failed to understand that in the context in which she was now immersed other parameters would be taken into consideration when deciding which mark her essay should be given. So, though her answer was not precisely incorrect, it would have meant a failure in her essay due to her not following the necessary “rules” when writing an academic paper. These rules are what Frank is going to teach her in the course of her studies since what Rita essentially needs is not content knowledge but guidance. I’m sure, she will discover the rest by herself… I found it interesting the way Frank tries to guide her train of thought, helping her to spot the connections so as to build a rich support for her essay. I must say he is very patient, and I am also sure he knows Rita has a big potential and that she has what’s needed to be an excellent student.

In between the doors of perception

2008-08-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

What does she think about Frank´s room and about the “proper” students?

Rita, as I think everybody must have noticed by now, is an extremely perceptive woman. On one of her observations she pointed out what she thought about Frank’s room. She said the room was a perfect mess and that there was nothing phoney in it. I think she was trying to define Frank´s personality through his room as it were his own reflection. She believes he is honest and truthful as his name declares and as his room reveals. At the same time, she admitted she wanted to have a room like that.
Other of her observations was directed towards what she thinks a “proper” student is. She refers to them as the ones who had the chance to start studying right after finishing Secondary school. So she does not consider herself a “proper” student since she did not study when she thinks it was “supposed” to. What I think is that it really does not matter when you start studying, what is really valuable is the desire to become better in every aspect of our life, and for Rita studying is the way to achieve this.

Why does Rita want to study?

2008-08-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

Rita is a young hairdresser who has apparently decided to become a student at the Open University. I believe she has taken this decision because she did not have the opportunity to do it when she finished secondary school and now she wants to learn to know more about everything. What I think she really wants is to open her eyes to new realities and experiences and enjoy all the things she cannot understand due to her ignorance such as the opera or the ballet. She said she wanted to see the opera on the telly but she got bored as she did not understand, so in the end she turned it off. I believe this is very valuable attitude since this energy and determination to want to be better is what I think make us grow as persons. Nevertheless, I also feel that we, humans, learn from all forms of experience and that is not always necessary to study at a university to become a wise person.

YOU LEARN // ALANIS MORISSETTE

I recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone
I recommend walking around naked in your living room
Swallow it down (what a jagged little pill)
It feels so good (swimming in your stomach)
wait until the dust settles

You live you learn
You love you learn
You cry you learn
You lose you learn
You bleed you learn
You scream you learn
I recommend biting off more than you can chew to anyone
I certainly do
I recommend sticking your foot in your mouth at any time
Feel free
Throw it down (the caution blocks you from the wind)
Hold it up (to the rays)
You wait and see when the smoke clears

Wear it out (the way a three-year-old would do)
Melt it down (you're gonna have to eventually anyway)
The fire trucks are coming up around the bend

You grieve you learn
You choke you learn
You laugh you learn
You choose you learn
You pray you learn
You ask you learn
You live you learn

Que te vaya Bonito

2008-06-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

What I believe Savater tries to point out in this chapter is the fact that even though the time passes and some features of our context change, the inherent essence of the human beings remains the same and this is with what Ethics deals. So the date shown by the calendar is not important when trying to reflect on what we want ourselves to be and to achieve in life as part of the humankind we all are. Of course, there are some differences or new issues to be discussed as far as Ethics is concerned, but the essential ingredients are always the same. As Savater wrote, “Vivir en rebaño es como vivir entre espejos…” we, human beings, in spite of all our differences, show the same basic characteristics that humans have shown throughout centuries.Throughout our lives we come across people we think are different from us and maybe, as a first reaction, we tend to reject them as we are all conditioned by stereotypes and so forth, but we need to overcome those prejudices and try to see beyond superficial differences so as to find the essence of the other which is, at the same time, our own human essence.

Don´t Be Afraid

2008-06-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

I think one of the most important messages this book has given me is Don´t waste your life being afraid. Fear is the main obstacle we can come across with when trying to move ahead in life. Many times I find myself being afraid of thing I do not know, but I’ve learnt that I can not know how to do everything and to enjoy the opportunity to learn new things. In one occasion during a lecture on graphic design an important Brazilian designer told us she was never afraid of the things she did not know, on the contrary she said she usually took on jobs which required her to do things she did not know. She was happy to had come across those jobs as they made her learn a lot about the profession and about life itself. I think this was a good lesson for me, she taught me not to feel bad but to take the situation as a good challenge to learn from it.

Help

2008-06-18T10:13:00.001-07:00

I thought it interesting the lines of this chapter in which politicians are compared to the rest of the people. I couldn’t agree more with the fact they have worse reputation than us, just because their acts are more public than ours. If we look at it closely, politicians are not very different from us. Last Sunday, my uncle told me about this chain help the TV show CQC carried out some time ago in which a rural school located in an inaccessible place in the South of Argentina was given a pick-up truck for the teachers to be able to carry materials, food, etc. Some time later, CQC received a phone call from a teacher of that school denounced the very same teacher who had called CQC the first time asking for help. Now, he was the “owner” of that vehicle and was using it for his own benefit, not for the school’s benefit. This is a sad example of what many people do and it is also a way to show that we don’t need to be politicians to be dishonest, amoral or corrupt. Apart from this, I truly believe there are many politicians who are not like this either. Like this story I think we have heard many. People like this teacher are the ones who make of the world a corrupted place and discourage us as human beings, but it is necessary to show the counterpart of this also, especially to our students, and to discuss this issue carefully and tactfully with them. There are much more people working for this world to be better so we shouldn’t let the bad actions of some make us give up on the good things we can do for our peers.

A Wolf in Sheep´s Clothing

2008-05-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

What’s the purpose of life? What are we here for? This of course, I cannot tell you, but what I think (here I totally agree with Savater) is we should enjoy the little pleasures life give us TODAY. Nowadays, due to us being all the time on the go, our life revolves around our worries, duties, problems, etc. That’s to say, our mind is never relaxed taking pleasure in a moment, a flavour, a song, etc. I believe we should slow down a bit and find those little things in our lives that make us feel happy and take time to enjoy them to a full extent. Another important thing to consider, when talking about pleasures, is our control or lack of control over them. The concept of pleasure is often misunderstood. On the one hand, it is believed it’s wrong to enjoy any pleasure as it may be unfair to get pleasure from something others don’t have, so you should feel ashamed! On the other hand, many times people cannot distinguish between use and abuse of “pleasures” and end up losing control of their own lives. When we use a pleasure, we enrich our lives and you not only like this pleasure more but also you love your life more. But when we abuse, we impoverish our lives and then we are not interested in enjoying our lives but only one pleasure. This issue is closely related to what happens nowadays all around the world, especially when talking about the use of drugs. People usually resort to drugs to escape from their own harsh reality and I consider it vital to make a point of this. The abuse of drugs is not a pleasure in life which makes it better but it’s a way of escaping from life as it makes you its slave. It’s a punishment disguised as a pleasure that many times leads you to death.

What you really are

2008-05-25T21:19:00.000-07:00

One of the main characteristics of human beings is our capacity to imitate. Our behaviour, likes and dislikes are mainly conditioned and shaped by others´ actions. This is closely related to education as it is proved that children learn how to behave and treat others first by imitating their parents and later on by imitating their teachers and classmates. Educators state that children should treat others as human beings, recognize them as peers by trying to put ourselves in others shoes, imagine what it would feel like to be in their situation, being as objective as possible; and always having in mind they are not identical to us. That is to say, as Bernard Shaw said: “Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.” I’ve found this very interesting, we all have something in common, an underlying characteristic that make us humans: we communicate through language; and unlike animals and plants, our whole world is built on symbols. But at the same time we are all different, each of us is unique and we must show our students the value of this and help them realise they have to respect these differences.

All in all, as children are innate imitators, our actions must be accord with what we teach; otherwise we would be giving an ambiguous message to the them.

“After a while you learn that what you really are is all the experiences and all the thoughts you've ever had and all the people who have touched your life, no matter how briefly.”

Anonymous.

The naked truth is always better than the best dressed lie.

2008-05-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

Responsibility is a key issue to discuss with children and adolescents. As I pointed out on previous posts, as human beings we are free to choose how to live our life, and once we have made choices it is crucial for us to assume responsibility for those choices. What does this means? To be responsible is to be consciously free for good or for bad; it is to know that every choice we make define us as people. This is why it is vital to face the consequences of our acts and not just the ones that have positive outcomes but the negative ones too. This seems very difficult to achieve; but as teachers we should show our students the importance of being responsible for our acts even though they may feel ashamed or afraid. Admitting having done something wrong is much more valuable than lying, because in the long run it would destroy us in the inside.

Wake up Neo

2008-05-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

While reading this chapter some questions popped into my mind: What do children and adolescents think it’s important in their lives? What do they think means “living a good life”? And of course, I ended up reflecting on publicity and television shows. Today advertisements on television tell us (and the children) that we cannot live a good life without owning things. You need a new brand cell phone to be happy, to be cool; “to be in”. TV shows and magazines also show kids that to be happy you should be famous, competitive, uninhibited, show no interest in culture or intellectual skills, of course not all TV show are like this but the great majority are. I think this created a crisis in children’s priorities and values; and as a result their lives revolve around material objects and superficiality. For example, when adolescents come across something interesting or unexpected in the street or wherever; or even when being in a birthday party, their only concern is to record those moments with their cell phones so as to upload those photographs or videos on their fotologs later on. By doing this they miss all the real experiences of their lives, they don´t enjoy the present moment but think about that virtual world they surf on where everything and everyone are merely images on their screens. This reminds me of “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury a short story we analysed last year where two children are figuratively abandoned by their parents when they are left in the care of a technological baby setter. What I believe is that children need to be shown the importance of human relations and to reflect on the fact that to be happy doesn’t mean what others say to be happy means namely money, power, influence, technology, fame, etc. They should try to define what makes them really happy. A way to do this can be trough stories or debates concerning current news formulating questions that trigger more questions and reflections on their part. I know it is a difficult task as television spends more time “educating” children than parents but as teachers we should give it a try. Don’t you think!

Humanise Me

2008-05-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Ethics is not more or less than a rational attempt to discover how to live better, how to have a good life; but not just a good life, a good human life. To achieve this, we need to understand we are social beings; that is to say, we cannot survive if we don’t relate with others and establish bounds with them. We are incomplete creatures, for example we cannot survive without being fed by another person, animals can. Would you be happy if you were the last living human on earth? You would posses everything you’d ever wanted to own, but they would just be valueless objects. Would you still call yourself a human being? We are humans because we live within a society where we are “humanized”, and this is a reciprocal process: for me to be treated as human I must treat others as humans, right? The story called “Human Is” by Philip.K.Dick, revolves around this concept: one of the main characters behaves and treats his wife as a piece of furniture, showing no feelings towards anyone or anything at all, so at the end of the story he is treated the same way by his wife.
I believe that to have a good life you need to built worthy relationships and value them because they are going to give you things that material objects don’t such as support, love, affection, friendship, etc; and not spend all your life working hard and trodding over others trying to gain power so as to own material things.

Go with the flow

2008-04-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

Freedom of choice… As human being this is our blessing but sometimes it can also be our curse. How difficult it is to learn how to choose correctly!! It seems almost impossible because it is also difficult to establish what is good and what is bad, what means to be a good person or a bad one; there are thousands of views on this issue. When we are kids we are immature, dependent and inexperienced so obeying others seems to be logical but when we become adults we need to we capable of shaping our own life, not just living the life others had created for us. In this sense, and coming back to the orders, how important it seems to think about our actions at least twice before performing them!

-Why should I do this?

-Because it is an order.

-But why should I obey this order? Is this what I believe to be the right thing to do?

This is the reason why we are not satisfied with the excuse of the nazi commandant saying he had obeyed the order of a superior authority when being asked about the killing of thousands of Jews. The fact that he was told to and that many people thought it right, did not justify it or made it morally correct.

Before going with the flow it is crucial to reflect, to think it twice or a thousand times if necessary so as to be sure, not necessarily that it is the right thing to do but at least to be sure that it is what you want and to be responsible for that choice.

Do this, do that !

2008-04-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

In connection to the third chapter of the book I would like to focus on the issue of orders. According to Savater, orders are one of our motives; that is to say, the reasons we have or believe we have to behave in certain ways. The different motives have different levels of importance, let’s say. Orders very often, take their strength from fear of what could happen to us if we don’t obey someone; and other times from the affect and confidence we have in others. What we can infer from this is that this kind of motive comes from the outside and is that it is imposed to us. What I believe important to point out is that we shouldn’t always do exactly what we are told to because in many occasions we need to reflect on what would be the best choice and find our way out by ourselves even though this implies disobeying someone.

Conformity is not the best option when deciding what to do with our lives.

The good, the bad and ... the cow

2008-04-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

Each day we seem to be faced with the dilemma of deciding what we believe it’s “good” and what is “bad” with respect to what is convenient for us and for the rest of the society. Making this kind of decisions is not easy at all because there are multiple criteria when comes to opt for one course of action or the other. This situation stem from the fact that we are human beings, and as such we are free to choose. Even though, sometimes people prefer to believe they are not so as to avoid being blamed for anything that happens within their society.

I’m sure we can make the most of this “human ability” by searching and analysing as many points of view as possible and then, grounded on this go ahead and MAKE A CHOICE. Of course, we will make mistakes (like me in this post jajaja) but those, together with our good choices will build up our way of living and our identity. Our choices and actions will be the example we’ll be giving to our students in the future.

So, bear this in mind!

Moo

Think different.Think!

2008-03-31T14:17:00.001-07:00

I believe the main aim of the book is very important when teaching youngsters. The book doesn’t attempt to give a long list of moral answers to everyday problems but to stimulate young learners to develop critical thinking; not to take everything that comes from the outside world for granted and to help them to take positions and build up their identity. This can be related to what we were discussing on previous lessons as regards thinking differently. If we always do and believe what we are told to; or never ask ourselves why should I think this or that or behave this way? Is this what I really believe?, we will never be free, we will be like entities that can be easily controlled.
I particularly like the way the book is written and the role the writer takes as a father talking to his son, who wants to transmit all what he has learnt, reflect and experience throughout his life advising him to trust himself and at the same time, learn from his son too, so that enrich each other’s lives.