Report of Frank´s teaching

This is a kind of report that a superviser made after having observed Frank´s job with Rita...

“I have been observing the job that you have done so far in this course and I could clearly see some good points that you worked on.
The way you have been teaching was quite good. That is, the class has shown some challenge to respond to your requirements, homework, and texts to read and debate. I could see that you improved very much since last year where there was not any kind of discussion related to the material presented.
However, I did not see if you have tried some extra activities to reinforce the learning of this student. What about going to the theatre or to another cultural event? This might have helped more to see that literature is not just a subject but something that can be related to our lives… It would be great if you try this new experiences with the class for a next time, would you Frank?
On the other hand, the student’s papers have shown me that you worked with material quite think-provoking. Although in the beginning of this course, she just wrote few words as an answer to your questions, and then I could see that she has improved gradually as regards the topics she developed and even her vocabulary and the way she put her ideas together showed how much she has improved.”

PRoGrAmMe Of sTuDy

During all the play Rita has experienced some changes in her life as a result of her education. What is more, she has gained and simultaneously she has suffered different things.
She has gained confidence in herself as well as new experiences and the “power” to take her own choices.
I think that this self-confidence can be seen when she comes back from the summer school. Since then she considers herself as one of the “proper students” because she is more acquainted of the things she has learned and she is not afraid of showing what she knows. Because of all this (her self-confidence) as a consequence she has also gained new experiences. That is, she is now open to new things and to new challenges.
As regards taking her own choices, this is the most important thing she has been able to achieve. Now she decides what to do with her life and she knows that that is thanked to education.

I consider that Educating Rita is a play about the clash of class and culture since two persons from different social backgrounds get together because of education; in way they have some conflicts because of their belonging to different social classes.
One of those persons is Rita who is eager to be a well-educated person since she knows that this would help her to change her life for the better, so that she goes to the Open University. There she finds a different new world where there are different things, attitudes, and people with a different culture. There she meets Frank that “belongs” to that new world. He is the one who teaches her new things and also who helps her in this new process of her life.
When I said that they have some conflicts, I referred to the different ideas and attitudes that they have towards life, for example. Their cultural and social backgrounds may have caused those little confrontations between them.

Educating Rita (Act 2 Scene 6 & 7)

These are the final scenes of the play where Rita and Frank decide “to embark on new stages of their lives.”
So far we have seen that Rita learned different and worthy things for her life. First of all, she learned that through education “new doors” can be opened to her. That is, she got to know that education is a powerful process that enables people to improve and change their lives for the better as well as to have a different view of events that happen around them.
What is more, she learned to have self-confidence since now she feels able to do things that she didn’t use to.
Last but not least, I think that Rita may have learned that now she has new opportunities and new decisions to make as regards her life. Besides that, she may have learned that now she is one who has the “power” to decide or herself what way to take. Now she doe not have “to follow or to obey” any order or any wish such her ex-husband’s…

Although the title is “Educating Rita”, “Educating Frank” might have been an alternative title. By the end of the play, he also learned that he has been a good teacher after all. He have helped Rita to realize that there are other things to do with her life and that she shouldn’t have felt as if she belonged to a “less level” of the proper students (as she used to feel like). I think that Frank tries to show this to Rita when he invites her to a dinner at his home, where friends of him were.
Another thing that he may have been taught is that, as Rita says he hadn’t give nothing, but the opportunity to show her that she is the one who has to decide for herself.

As regards Rita cutting Frank’s hair, I think that Willy Russell chose this scene to end the play because he may want to show us that Rita doesn’t reject her background completely as she may have done previously and that she wants to thank Frank for all his patience, pieces of advice and the way she finds to do that is by cutting his hair: the best thing she know how to do.

Educating Rita (Act 2 Scene 4 & 5)

As the book says “these two scenes represent the crisis in the relationship between Frank and Rita.”
This crisis begins when Rita tells Frank that he “can’t bear is that she is educated now” Another thing that she says is that he consider himself as a father who can not see how his little girl has grown up…
Rita has made lots of changes as regards her attitude, her personality (she is more confident now); but also as regards her job and her name!!
She might have given up her hairdressing job since she might feel that that place is not comfortable anymore for her. That is, now that “she is a educated woman” she might think that she needs to talk about more relevant things and to be in touch with people who shares the same thoughts, interests such as literature. All this she may find in another place but the hairdresser’s shop. Now in the bistro she says that she “finds a lot of people (she) mixes with fascinating; they’re young and they’re passionate about things that matter (…)”she likes to be with them. I consider that this may happen since she may feel that she needs to share her “new” interests and points of view of life and other things with new people who care about those things.
I partly agree with Rita with this change of “environment” since when you want to achieve something or you have some interest in something, you should be with those who think similar to you, who can join you to achieve that objective, this would make your “journey” easier than doing alone with persons who may not understand your thoughts or beliefs. On the contrary, this doesn’t mean that you have to stop seeing completely those persons who also may care about you but who might not have your same thoughts.

As regards Rita changing name, I think that she might have done it because she might want have “nothing of her past”, nothing that may remind her background. Maybe that now she feels a “new person”, she may want to change all of herself and to forget the girl she was before this course she is taking now.
I think that this is impossible because you can’t forget all your past in order to start a new life because now you’re “sophisticated or literate”. You always take your background with you, this is part of you if not you weren’t you!! It’s part of your nature…
I agree with Frank when he says: “you’ve found a different song, that’s all- and your lips it’s shrill and hollow and tuneless” I think that this is what happens to her. Although she may reject her background and wants to change completely, she might won’t succed.

Educating Rita (Act 2 Scene 2 & 3 )

In the scene 2, Rita shows a further development in her character, now she is able to discuss literature confidently with the students she meets.
At this time, we can see that the new and more educated Rita is wiser in some aspects:
§ When she meets the “proper students”, she feels completely confident so that she decides to take part in the discussion about a poem. Remember that before the Summer School, she “used to be quite wary of them.” I think that Rita is wiser in this situation since she feels able to discuss about literature. I mean, she doesn’t feel anymore that she is not in the “level of these students” and through this way her self-esteem goes up, something really important in order to get what one wants.
§ Another situation in which she is wiser is when she defends her “own point of view” and she stands up for it. This whole situation shows that she is wiser since she believes in herself as well as in her ideas.

As regard the last aspect, what Frank says about Rita’s essay is that “there’s nothing of (her) in there” He considers that she is influenced by her new friends (those whom she knew at the Summer School) and what he wants is her to write her “simple” view in the essay. In order to defend herself against Frank’s criticism, she says that now she is more acquainted of the things she should write so as to make an essay. Her opinions are now more enriched since she knows where and who to consult.

Here we can see that Frank “is somewhat taken aback by these changes in Rita and what appears to be her independence of mind” I think that Frank might feel quite afraid of Rita’s changes because this progress may make him think that she would not need him anymore. That is, he might feel that now Rita shows a great development in her character, she might not need Frank’s approval. Frank can perceive her self-confidence and he may take it as a menace because now she is able to think different than Frank and stand up for her position.

Educating Rita (Act 2 Scene1 )

After the time Rita spends at Summer School, she comes back with a new attitude that is not only seen in the way she dresses but also in her attitude towards Frank.
One of the main changes that have occurred in Rita is the way she responds to Franks´ requesting as regards the books she should read in this term. That is, now that she “knows” more and as a consequence she is more familiar with different poets, she is confident but at the same time arrogant. This can be seen when she talks about a particular poet, Blake, as if she knew about him from a long time ago!! She says: “You don’t do Blake without doing innocence and experience, do y´?” and previously she looks at Blake’s poem and recites by heart. In this situation she may want to show that she is not the same illiterate girl than before.
Another attitude to point out is the way she feels now towards “the others” as she calls them. In this scene she seems not to feel different than them. In fact, now she might consider herself as “one of them” since she ask Frank to have the tutorial down there, on the grass. This whole situation is rather different than the ones before the summer school when she used to look the “proper students” through the window as if they were from “other world”.
Last but not least, her attitude towards Frank is different too!! Now she shows Frank that she cares about him by asking him for his holydays, giving him a present and also by telling him that he shouldn’t drink any more since he “gots so much goin´for him.”
As regards Frank attitude towards Rita’s changes, he may feel quite impressed; but also he seems to feel quite ashamed since she has learned lots of things without him but with others.

In this scene, after having tried unsuccessfully to have the tutorial down there (on the grass), she tries to open the window and she says some words that may have another meaning: “won’t bleedin´ budge”. To me, those words may mean that we don’t know what opportunities we have until we try; we have to struggle, as Rita does when opening the window, to achieve what we wants, and surely we will get what we wanted. But if we don’t success, at least we will know that we have tried hard.

Educating Rita (Act 1 Scene 7 & 8)

In the previous scene, Frank invites Rita to his dinner party but she doesn’t go. She gives lots of excuses to say why she didn’t go, for instance that she didn’t have what to wear or that she didn’t remember where Frank lives, etc. I think that the real cause of her absence was that she didn’t feel very confident about herself. She might have felt that she wouldn’t be able to talk about the same topics, issues, etc with Frank’s friends. This might have happened because Rita needs to gain more confidence on herself and on the knowledge she is getting. It’s not an easy job but it’s not impossible to achieve, it would take time.

By the end of the scene 8, Rita asks Frank to be completely honest as regards the way she writes and what she has to do so as to pass the exams and to write essays as the other students do.
What Frank tells makes her feel that she needs to change her writing style since she tends to express her inner thoughts and feelings. So she considers that they have to start again since she feels that her work till then is not enough to achieve her goal.

Educating Rita (Act 1 Scene 6)

After having seen Macbeth (play written by Shakespeare), she tells Frank that “it wasn’t borin´, it was bleedin´great (…) it was fantastic.” Although she uses these words to express her enthusiasm, it would be improper to use them in an essay.
I think that Rita might have to distinguish what language style (I mean formal or informal) is the best to write an essay. It wouldn’t be rare to think that she may write with an informal language since she may feel that her thoughts are expressed better with that informal language style. That is, by using “her real words” (the words that she uses daily), she may be able to express herself when she saw the play.
Sometimes people tend to feel awkward when they use, wear or talk in a way that they aren’t used to. However, we should try hard if we want to be better, so that Rita should try hard to write the essay with a more sophisticated language.


When Frank and Rita talk about the play and the difference between tragedy and tragic, Frank makes Rita realize that the main character, Macbeth, can’t avoid what is going to happen, that is, his fate. Then Rita says “all them out there, they know all about that sort of thing don’t they?” I think that what she may want to say is that all those students (when she says that, she is watching through the window to the students, I guess) have another way to analyze things, a deeper one than she has. She might think that they have the “tools” that are needed to make that kind of analysis. What I wanted to say when I refer to “tools” is that they may have been “trained” to make analysis of that kind.
I feel that she might be sorry about that since she is not aware of many things yet as regards literature analysis.

Educating Rita (Act 1 Scene 5)

She emphasise how important the course is to her by saying that to take that course is a way to “find herself” inside.
To me, what she may want to say is that learning will help her to discover the abilities she is unaware of. That is, no one knows what is able to do until you try to do so; then you will know if you succeed or fail.
That decision of taking the course will enable her to feel more confident since she will “find herself” as she says.
She also emphasise the importance of going to the course by saying that coming there makes her stronger because she feels that she is learning a new world instead of wasting her time going to the pub with her husband and mates. I think that because of that she refuses to go to the pub with Frank when he invites her. She doesn’t want to keep doing those things that now she considers being unworthy for her new life.

Educating Rita (Act 1 Scene 3 & 4)

Rita’s essays (on Howards End and the two she writes on Peer Gynt) tend to be quite short since she does not give any reasons supporting what she writes: a sentence that is just the basis of an argument. What she needs is to think over more ideas so as to justify what she states in her essays.
She considers that coming there (to attend classes) makes her stronger because she feels that she is learning instead of wasting her time going to the pub with her husband and mates as she says.
Rita knows that education is very important to change her life in some way; she feels that she is learning something different everyday so that she feels more confident so that she says that coming there makes her stronger.

Educating Rita (Act 1 Scene 2)

After reading this scene, what Rita needs to learn is to have an objective point of view, to analyze from a different point of view than hers. This happens when she has to read a book and she got angry because of the author’s opinions about a particular subject. I think that she needs to separate those things: subjectivity and objectivity.
As regards the way he tries to teach her that difference between subjectivity and criticism, Frank is good teacher since he wants her to feel comfortable in the place where they are, this is seen when Frank told her that she can sit wherever she wants so as to feel fine.

Educating Rita (Act 1 scene 1)

I think that Rita wants to study because she is eager to learn since she considers that study will enable her to see things from otherpoint of view, more deeply. For example, she says that she doesn´t want to see ballet or the opera and think that it is rubbish but she wants to watch it and understand it.

I think that she is an intelligent woman since she knows what she wants (to succed in life).

Term Test

Movie: “Election” (1999- Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon)

Scene:
“After all the ballots are counted, Tracy has won by one vote (we learn that Paul, who has no ill will towards Tracy and did not want to egotistically vote for himself, voted for her). McAllister is so angry that he secretly disposes of two of the pro-Tracy ballots, demands a re-count, and names Paul as the winner.”[1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_%281999_film%29

We can see that the decision taken by the professor McAllister is a human act since he has the intention to do so. That is, he considered that she does not deserve to be the class president; so when he counts the ballots and sees that she wins, he disposes of two of the ballots. He has the intention to make his student notice that there are more important things than winning that election. That is why he takes that decision considering that that is the right time to do so.
McAllister is completely awareness of his acting brings. That is, he knows what consequences his disposing of the pro-Tracy ballots carries. That is why he decides to act like that so as to reach his purpose. However he is not aware at that time of the consequences that he deals with when everybody knows about his cheating. If he had analyzed the consequences that his acting would bring, he would have avoided many unpleasant situations, to be fired from her job, considered to be a dishonest and disloyal person, to lose the respect he used to have among the community where he lives (one of his students spit him out after his cheating came to light).
Although McAllister has other choices to teach Tracy a lesson, he does not take them into consideration; so that he considers that preventing Tracy from winning is the most suitable choice.
According to Daniel Ruiz (1987) there are three requirements that a human act must have in order to be morally good. These requirements are the following:
· the action must be good in itself
· good intention/ purpose
· good circumstances.
To begin with, an action to be good in itself must follow two principles “kinship (to help somebody who belongs to your community) and reciprocity (to help somebody and assume that that person will do the same for you) principle.” So according to that, this human act is not good in itself; it responds neither kinship nor reciprocity principle although he thinks that his acting is right. This human act lacks these principles since he does not think about Tracy and the harm that he may cause her (he is not helping at all, he thinks that though).
The circumstances at which he tries to teach that lesson are not good either. I think that it is not the right moment or situation to show Tracy that he/she is wrong about being very ambitious. The intention that his acting may respond is not good since what he wants is Tracy to lose so as to learn a lesson about life. Would you make somebody feel bad and sad in order to teach her a lesson?This professor does.This human act is not morally good because it does not follow to any of the requirements that they must have to be considered good.
Finally, I think that there are other options to be considered in this decision, for instance, to talk to the girl and make her reflect over her acting. The teacher considers that she is “evil and needs to be stopped, especially when she is able to use her rather false good girl image” so that he decides to stop her in that way. Neither he nor anybody can prevent somebody from being happy, no matter what that person thinks about being happy. “Tracy wants to be simply because it would make her college application even more desirable to colleges;” that is why she works to the bone in order to win, so why do the teacher feel that she does not deserve to win if she responds to the characteristics that any commitment person have to fill that role?
What is more, the teacher knows that Paul, the boy who wins, is not very concerned with the issues that he must deal with as being a school body president.
So to my mind this was not the best choice to take since as a result of the teacher’s acting, many people got hurt.

Diez años después: ante el nuevo milenio

After reading Savater`s words, I realised that it is very difficult to accept the differences that may exist among human beings. As he said, it is easier to accept or to interact with those people that think, behave, and look as we do than to deal with those who are “different” from us. A lot of problems could be avoided by behaving politely and treating others in the same way we would like to be treated. I remember some advertising that expressed that to be different is something beautiful and amazing, which should be celebrated by us, and I think the same too.

EpìLoGo

One more time, Savater reminds me that no one can tell us how to live, what things we can do in order to live a “good life” because there isn’t a series of instructions that we can follow so as to live. It would be perfect to have a kind of book which can tell us what things not to do in order to prevent mistakes or wrong decisions that we would be regretting later!!
Our parents, friends, and teachers may give us some advices, which are very useful in some cases, but that is all they can do: GIVE A PIECE OF ADVICE. The rest of the work is done by us: we can take it or live it.
Although we have the last decision to make, Savater tells us that we have to trust on ourselves and that “Elige lo que te abre: a los otros, a nuevas experiencias, a diversas alegrías. Evita lo que te encierra y lo que te entierra.” Personally, I will take it!

Chapter 9: EleCcIoNeS GeNeRaLeS

In any democratic society, politicians do not get into the government on their own. They need to be elected by others, they need “our help”. But then WE are the ones who judge them later as persons who do not behave “ethically.” So I wonder why did you vote him/her at elections if you consider them not to be a trustworthy person?? Here I totally agree with Savater. I mean we can`t expect others to solve troubles as if they were superheroes!!
As Savater says there are good and bad politicians like in any other field: good and bad teachers, football players, etc. We should not always think that all the politicians are not good persons because they couldn’t or can’t fulfill our wishes that concern public life.

I think that this picture may show us what young people think about politics. They don’t want to feel involved in that kind of matter since they may think that politics is a dirty business or just because they feel that politics isn’t related to their lifes.

Chapter 8: TaNTo GuStO

I asked my mom what she thinks about pleasure, and the first thing she told me is that we tend to connect pleasure with guilt. This is what the majority of people think. We usually forget that we need in some way to satisfy our body, our soul, and our feelings, but we forget about that or we do reject those pleasures because we tend to think that enjoy is something bad, something that we should not fee. But what about when we say that we are enjoying a job, that it is a pleasure to do it, and spend hours working because we are very happy about that? Is this kind of pleasure different from the one that is related to sexual relationships? Why? I just know that in our society those pleasures that are connected to private things are the ones that are punished.
Something that made me reflect very much was the difference between “use and abuse”. Perhaps we consider that pleasure is related to guilt because when we satisfied some need, we tend to want more of that, don’t we? And here appears “abuse”, which can make our life a disaster if we let that pleasure to take control over us.Some religions, such as the Catholic think in the same way. They consider that there is a limit between to live and to have some pleasures and to live in order to have those pleasure: that’s why they talk about Capital Sins when we abuse of those pleasures that make us enjoy life
To me, enjoy some pleasures have nothing wrong, but we have to be very careful about looking for that satisfaction in order to live a good life.

Chapter 7: PoNtE En Su LuGaR

Something very important to name in this chapter is the fact that we should take into consideration others’ point of view when we want to understand their acting. To me that sometimes turns difficult to do because we consider that the way we think is right, and that there is no another one.
Personally I try to do that in order to understand some things but it doesn’t mean that I will do them completely.
We choose to consider somebody else’s point of view which would or not conditionate our actions or we can choose to ignore other’s feelings, thinking. And we come back again to something very crucial in our lives: choosing.

Chapter 6: ApaReCe PePiTo GriLlo

When Savater talks about the different kinds of “imbeciles”, I realize that in my everyday life I happen to act as some of them!!! For example, I am sometimes so scary about the freedom I have that I refuse to make my own choices and decide what route to take; or I just see what is happening and I don’t do anything to change it or to avoid it because the fear do not let me to do so. I know that I can change that if I would like to.
Another thing that I consider important to name is "remorse". It is so powerful that can make a person to feel upset, uncomfortable and unhappy with oneself when one feels that he/she did something wrong. It would be great if many of us had it (especially politicians).

Chapter 5: ¡DesPieRtA, BaBy!

The only thing that I can say is that when we treat others as things, we should put on their shoes and think just for a second if we would like to be treated like that; what they would feel in that situation. We shouldn’t behave towards others in the way we know we wouldn’t like to be treated: the Golden Rule.

Chapter four: DaTe uNa BuENa ViDa

ThIs is another chapter where freedom appears again, it must be very important, isn´t it? I think it is so since we can not escape from this and also because nobody can´t take it away from us. In all the decisions we make, freedom comes to play;

We have to be very careful with this statement "live a good life" since we have to consider that living a good or great or wonderful life is not related particularly to own material things. Why is this idea the first to come to our mind? something that I heard , and that is true, is that we can live in a comfortable way with just the half of the total of goods we have at home.But why don´t we think that to live a good life is very very related to live with company, with other persons who may love us, or hate us or help us, but in some way they make our life to be good. We can live pretty well if we haven´t got internet, t.v., a car, etc., but are we able to spend our days lonely? without anybody to share those things? I don´t think so. What is more, in some way our life depends on others, so we should "give a good life" in order "to receive" a good one.

We should take into account that we are an animal species that need others to live and/or survive.

Chapter three: HaZ Lo Que QuIeRaS

ThE title of this chapter says "do what you please", but this is very difficult to do. Why? just because those actions should be done always taking into account the consequences that they would bring. In some situations, we act according to commandments or customs that are not always the best ones to follow, so in this kind of situations we have to realize that we can choose not to obey or to keep doing what they say.

We have "something" that comes to play here which is "freedom"; we are free when we take a decision (to follow what commandments and/or customs say or not to follow them), and we know that we have to respond for the consequences that they may cause. Savater says that freedom is a concept concerned by ethics, naturally.

Another thing that can be met in this chapter is the fact that there is no "universal rules" to determine that a person is "good". We say that a tool is good when it is useful to do something, but when are we "good" persons? aren´t we "good" when we don´t hurt anybody when we want to achieve something? what about those who help others without any kind of self-benefice? Yes, we are good persons in those situations among others, but the problem is that there are a lot of actions that we perfom which make us be good, so that we can´t make a list saying which are the conditions that people must fill so as to be "good".

Chapter two: Órdenes,Costumbres y Caprichos

According to Savater there are different justifications that conditionates the way we act: “ordenes”: this comes to play when we obey somebody who has somekind of power over ourselves.
In those situations when we do things over and over again even without thinking and also because everybody does it,so we are talking about “costumbres”.This two reasons above are considered by Savater that comes outside as if they were imposed to us. Finally Savater talks about “caprichos”, that is when we act in a particular way because we want to do so and there is no other reason.
After reading this chapter I can see that for every act we perform Savater wants to give a possible reason, cause, etc. He wants to justify the way we act everyday of our lifes and he finds this way as the easier to explain to his son the reasons that may conditionate his behaviour.

Comments about the prologue

Fernando Savater wants to talk to Amador, his son, about what ethics is, but he wants to do it in a way which allows Amador to understand him and trough this to put in practice in his life.Savater also wants that his son has confidence on himself and on love and on his intelligence which will allow him to livea better life.This philosopher tries to explain some concepts that life concerns trought this particular way because Savater wants his son to read this when he feel that this is a neccesity and not an obligation.

Chapter one:de qué va la ética

I will star talking about the first chapter of this book “Ética para amador” by Fernando Savater who talks about a few concepts that are difficult to define and or to understand.
First of all, Savater wants to tell us that we have a “powerful tool” that conditionates our actions, which is “will”; that is, we can learn something or not to learn it just if we want to do so. Another thing that influences what we want to do is the point of view that we have about the situation or the action.If we think that it suits us so it is “good”, but if it does not suit us so it is “bad”.
After that comes a concept that is more difficult to talk about without arising discussion:what is “freedom”?Savater tries to give us a couple of items of what freedom concerns.We are not free of choosing every situations such as the place we were born, the parents we have, etc, but we are free to answer to those situations.Another point that he makes is that freedom is not to do all the things that we want even those things that are imposible for us.
He finishes this initial chapter telling that we can choose the kind of life we want, choosing what is good or bad for us. The “art of living” is what ethics concerns.