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Rita seems to have a very 'Socratic' way of being intelligent since she is perfectly aware of her own ignorance and that gives her the possibility of being able to ask for more 'knowledge' in order to achieve what she wants: to succeed in life. She knows that the only way of doing so is by means of fighting against ignorance (the most powerful weapon to kill and destroy humanity)Rita is a very clever and strong woman since, as far as this scene is concerned, she shows a clear awareness of what life is about when she tells Frank that she has tried to make her husband realise that she wants a better life for them but, she explains, he does not understand a word of what she is trying to tell him. And that's why she wants to study, that's what she does not want her to be... she does not want to live in a world of 'happy ignorance' (as her husband does) because she knows that a good life is not something exclusive for wealthy people but for everyone... and she knows that being from the working class, she will have to work very hard to achieve it, and I'm sure she will do it because she has already given the first step into her new life...'In order to be able to change something, we will first have to realise that it needs a change...'
What I will try to do in this post is to analyse a decision taken by a teacher in a movie to see if it was a 'Human Act' and a 'Good Decision' and to see if other options were available... The decision taken by Katherine Watson, who takes a job in the art history department at Wellesley College in the fall of 1953, takes place when she is told that in order for her to go on being a teacher in the College she will have to avoid showing her own ideas and telling anything 'off-subject' to her students... This College was too strict and traditional to let Katherine show her students that life is more than 'being the wife of...'
When the moment comes for Katherine to decide whether to go on giving lessons at this College with the condition of forgetting about all of her beliefs and convinctions or to quit, she decides that it is better to leave the place than to stay there simply because she wouldn't let herself go against her beliefs and her ideas... She does not agree with the ideologies of the College and going on teaching there will force her to lie to herself and pretend being someone she is not...
Having seen this movie and taking what I've just written into account I will start by explaining why is it that this decision was a Human Act.
First of all, she is perfectly aware of what she is choosing and the other options available and what their consequences might have been. She is conscious while taking the decision and, therefore, capable of reasoning and thinking out all the different options and paths she might have followed.
Secondly, her decision is not conditioned or limited by any kind of mental desease or problem so she is perfectly conscious and aware of her acts and, as a consequence, it can be analysed from a moral point of view.
And finally, she has the possibility and the intention of choosing among other options; i.e. freedom (if there had been just one option available, then the 'act' of deciding could not have taken place and, therefore, she would not have been free to choose but forced to follow the only path available)
Going on with the analysis, I would say that this decision is Morally Good since it is something good in itself (she isn't going against anyone by doing so and, what is more, she avoids going against herself by following her beliefs); it has a good intention since she has always done her best to help her students open their eyes and see beyond what they are taught at College or by their families and when Katherine is forced to leave her beliefs behind and act against them she decides to leave the College since in that way she can show her students that the most important thing is to defend your ideas and not to lie to yourself... so her purpose is this... her purpose is to show the girls that defending what you believe in is the best way of living your life; and finally, her decision was taken in good circumstances because, although she takes her decision a few months before the end of the year (before her students' graduation), she decides to stay at the College and go on teaching until the end of the year for her students not to feel at a loss and helpless during the very last weeks before their graduation (Katherine shows us here that her decision was made in the right moment and place since she bears in mind all the consequences of her decision and their implications.)
Furthermore, and this is my personal opinion, I would say that, it was a very good decision because sometimes it is very difficult to defend your thoughts and ideas at any moment and place but she has chosen the best way to teach something: through your own example... Katherine has always tried to show her students that there was a lot more about life beyond what college may taught them or what traditions may require them to do...By deciding not to go on teaching there, she showed them that what she has taught them was true and valid for her...If she had chosen to stay there following the conditions imposed on her, Katherine would have lied to herself and, consequently, would have killed her beliefs and thoughts. Her decision was, for me, good and perfectly coherent with herself.
Finally, and for me to finish with the analysis, we don't have to forget that when we decide (something) it means that we are choosing one from two or more options, and, in this case, there was just one more option available: to go on teaching in this College accepting the conditions imposed on her (no interaction with her students, no advices to them, no 'subversive' ideas, no 'modern' or 'progressive' ideas...) but, as you can imagine, this was not an option for Katherine...
'To change for others is to lie to yourself'
I've prepared a short video with this scene I'm describing for you to take a look at it if you happen to be interested. However, there is a problem with it, the movie is in Spanish since it was the version I had available at home... I'm sorry!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDNPsCrkj_A
Well, here I am, and after such a long time of being 'absent' here, trying to give a kind of closure to this trip throughout this incredible book! There is only one thing that I wanted to comment on... I really loved it when Savater said that the division of time into hours, days, weeks, months and years is just as the division of a book in pages: it is not the number of the page that tells us what happens but it serves just to the purpose of giving it an order and the possibility of going back to see what has happened before in order for us to remember it or to reflec upon it or to learn from it... I have to say that that is exactly what happens with our lives, the more numbers of pages we turn over throughout the time, the more experiences we have lived for us to go back and learn from them... the fact that years pass by does not mean that things change... the only way in which things do change is not because we grow older but because as we grow older we become more and more able to look back critically and ready to learn from the mistakes and the good choices that we have personally written in the pages of the book we will keep on writing during all our lives... Well, it seems that I'm about to finish this trip... but... I'm starting another one! One page of my book is turned over today... and another one is here right now waiting for being written... So... Let's go on with our lives! Let's go on with our books! But never forget to smile! Never! Because this blog, as many other things in our lives, is a clear sing that we are alive and that we are alive because we have a reason! We will always have a reason for going on! Always! Remember your past (and learn from it), enjoy your present and smile proudly because we are invited to live our future! Thank you very much for 'blogging' with me!
Keep On Laughing! :)
