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!