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.