Educarchile.cl is the portal for the educational community. The purpose of this webpage is to improve the quality of education in Chile. In my opinion this portal is very useful not only for teachers, but also for students’ parents because they can also be involved with new educational policies. This portal contains also an English version designed to inform the rest of the world about the educational system and strategies established in Chile.
This great movie goes beyond the violence that the four youths performed. In my opinion, the author expressed three ideas that arise in society. The first and more transcendental is that violence is presented on the government, the police, and every system because it is the way that this people have the control on society. For instance, the movie shows government administrators and important people drinking milk in the same place where these four youths got together. It also shows that the three members of the gang became policemen even though they still had their perverse behavior. Moreover, it appears Hitler, one of the most evil leaders with the huge distortional mind ever seen on the history of humanity
The second idea is that society is not prepared to receive somebody rehabilitated due to the previous idea. Alex, the main character was rehabilitated in two years for a group of doctors and specialist proposed by the government; however, after the process Alex is repelled by his own family, attacked by his old friends, and stereotyped by the mass media. This episode reminds me the Chilean movie “The Jackal of Nahueltoro” it is also about a criminal that was rehabilitated, and then he was murdered to pay for his crimes. In both cases society was not ready to received and accept them.
The third idea is related with stereotypes; the mass media shows us what they want us to think. Therefore, the author used the characteristics of somebody who has values and a perfect life to express characteristics that supposedly are presented in somebody who has the opposite characteristics. For instance, the criminals drank milk, were intellectuals, loved Beethoven music, and had a stable economic situation. We expect most of the time that people with these characteristics would never act against values or ethic. However, all that asseverations belong to stereotypes; this situation reminds me the movie “Hannibal Lecter” he was a very cultured professor with the same characteristics, intellectual, glamorous, and sophisticated, but he used to kill his victims listening to classical music.
Finally, this movie is one of the best movies through history because expressed relevant and transcendental aspects of life. Moreover, it was useful for me to consider that we as teachers do not have to stereotype our students. In my opinion Alex was a victim of the system, and everybody behave in the same way after all; their family, their friends, the government, everybody discriminated him. In other words they were as violent as he was. Nowadays, these three ideas previously explained are represented due to globalization because we still have wars, famines, and poverty; all these terrible realities caused by violent people who are leading the world.
What Is Going on with Public Schools Today?
There are two main points that the educational system is facing, one is the debt of the municipal bond known as SAE, and the other debt is known as “the historical debt”. The first debt referred to a special assignation that the government granted to municipalities to gave it to public teachers at the end of the year; however, municipalities never paid. The second debt emerged when public schools became part of municipalities; therefore, teachers who worked in public schools had to get this benefit, but none of the teachers have received some of it.
How Do I Feel about It?
I feel very disappointed; it is controversial to have to experience this situation at this point of our history. On one hand, there is a clear understanding of the key of development, sending future teachers to study abroad, giving scholarships and credits to vulnerable families, in other words investing on education. However, on the other hand, the people who need all the recognition are left aside by a third mind world. I really hope this situation could be resolved soon because in my opinion teachers should be the best rewarded people due to their role in society.
Teachers’ styles and positive psychology are two aspects clearly linked. Javiera, Pamela, and Pia presented the first topic explaining in detail the different styles that teachers have; some of them were the funny teacher, the teacher who gives life lessons, the fair teacher, the authoritarian teacher, among others. In my opinion teachers should have a mixture of styles because they should be flexible in some situations and diverse in most of the time due to every student’s personality. These two characteristics could be difficult to achieve sometimes because teachers are also human beings who face problems, have frustrations, and so on. However, considering the positive psychology enlightened by Juan and Nicolas, it solves somehow this problematic situation of life. I remember some teachers saying that they are acting from the moment that they enter into the classroom. In my opinion this should not be like that because sooner or later they will collapse, and being realist clowns also cry; therefore, I consider the alternative, which is positive psychology and the explanation of the five minds.
It is very important to be conscious about what mind I have, and what style I perform. On one hand, I reflect myself on the mixture of the creating mind and the ethical mind; on the other hand, according to the teachers’ styles I have also a mixture between the teacher who gives life lessons, and the fair teacher. These two presentations were useful to understand deeply not only the practical situations that teachers should consider at the moment of teaching, but also this important tool of identifying my mind. This will help me not to be that vulnerable because now I know how to stimulate my mind with the positive aspect of life, and the styles that I have as a teacher.
Teachers are also one of the most important people through life because they are the ones who help people to achieve their goals; moreover, they are always there in the first three and most important stages of human development. These previous ideas clearly attached not only the transcendental teachers’ role, but also how they inspire. Marlene and Franco presented this topic very concisely and deeply because they considered the practical and the theoretical aspects.
I agree with them in the sense that most of the time teachers spend more time with teenagers or children than their own families do; therefore, we are responsible of being able to get students attention effectively, help them to discover and improve their capacities, and lead them to learn how to contribute with the neighbour. It is crucial to get students’ attention because they will accomplish our objective, which is the learning process. Therefore, students will be learning not only the academic contents, but also social aspects. This integral learning is vital considering the paradox situation in which in some part of the world a scientist is trying to create vaccines to help people to recover from different viruses, but in other part of the world another scientist is trying to invent an atomic bomb to destroy some specific territory. Consequently, if the educational process succeeded in an integral manner, the world would be so different. As a result, I can say that nowadays this big responsibility is in somehow on the teachers’ hands because they really inspire students what and how to be in the future.
Tal Ben-Shahar explains the issue of happiness from a scientific point of view and considering practical aspect assures that it is possible to be happier if somebody changes from inside the idea of being happy only with achieving success. According to the author being happy is something that it is not related with the external success because sooner or later people start to feel unsatisfied again; I completely agree with this idea, and it is one of my arguments to support my happy life. In my opinion, it is not so difficult being happier every day; the problem arises because most of the time people complain about all the situations that they have to face, focusing all their strengths on those specific moments leaving aside other beautiful moments of life that let you experience happiness, like family, friends, and even living.
I am absolutely happy because I based my life on the process of accomplishing the established goals, considering the positive every day aspects, and understanding all my life purposes. I base my three ideas considering the fact that everyday runs faster than the previous day; I can hardly remember that I thought I was never going to be sixteen because that idea represented too much time passing for me, but here I am nearly to finish one of my dreams at twenty two years of experiencing life. As a result, I can say that life is temporary, and it was created to make the most of it, but if people do not focus their life on the relevant things like happiness, they will live wasting in some way the real opportunity of living. I thank God to let me understand this relevant aspect of life because I know that without him, I had not been able to understand what living really means.
According to Bruno Bozzetto's presentation from my point of view living means being optimist. People usually have to face different situations where they have to choose on facing them with a favorable view or with a negative one. Beside the election that people make, if they decide to keep living that means they are waiting something better; therefore, they are optimist after all.
Bruno Bozzetto shows us a metaphor of the creation of the world; at the first step, he created the earth; second, the vegetation; third, the animals; fourth, the humanity, and finally, the urbanization. Everything was happiness at the fourth step when people lived without so many technology, but when people started to be civilized, they started to be as barbarian as possible. There were people shooting each other, street crime, and suicide, among others. The music in the presentation started to be an uncomfortable noise. At that point, Bozzetto observed the situation, deleted that world, and threw it away. At the end, he had a box full with balls, the happy music started again as it was at the beginning till the fourth step, and he went up stairs simulating going to bed at night.
This shows me that this is a Bozzetto habit, he wakes up every morning trying to create a new world, then he tries to delete every bad attitude or situation at the end of the day, and he goes to bed wanting to start over again. Therefore, he decides to live, and living means being optimist always trying to start over and over again.
