Act 1 - Scene 2

As the story develops, we come to know more about both Rita and Frank. She finds it very difficult to leave behind her previous experiences in life in order to be able to be 'educated' by Frank. That's why she has problems with her first essay. She (as many of us most of the times) cannot 'criticise' Howards End without feeling discouraged by the author's opinion ('We are not concerned with the poor'). However, Frank finds the way to show (teach) Rita that we may not always agree with what we read (or with what we are faced in life) and, all the same, we will be always able to take something good from it (there are people with whom we agree and people who does not agree with us). I really believe that Frank is trying to show her that we have to be respectful upon others, their views and values...However, it is true that Rita may not be ready to accept this diversity yet, but I do believe that she will learn it sooner or later. We just have to give her more time! Because we can be sure that she'll be able to do it!

'Is this the absolute maximum I
can expect from this livin' lark?'
Rita

Regarding what Rita thinks about the proper students I would say that she thinks so simply because they are the ones that 'come here all time', she seems to have the 'typical' and 'ordinary' view of what a student is, i.e. students are the one that go to school. Consequently, Rita does not see herself as a proper student simply because she does not go to school. So, it doesn't matter if she is studying or learning she won't be a proper student as she does not go to school.
Finally, regarding Rita's opinion about Frank's room, I think that she just likes it. She said that although it's a mess, it's a perfect one. I think that Frank's description is great 'I just moved in. The rest sort of happened.' What Rita likes is the fact that he has not even taken a moment for arranging it. 'It's like wherever you've put something down it's grown to fit there.'

Educating Rita (Act 1 - Scene 1)

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...'

'Mona Lisa Smile' Katherine's Decision

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

Appendix: "Diez Años Después: Ante El Nuevo Milenio"

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! :)

Epilogue: "Tendrás Que Pensártelo"

It has been a long and an enriching trip, don't you think?
And what a nice way of ending a book of ethics has Savater chosen: "After all, it is probable that it may not be a real book of ethics..."!
And I have to say that I do love it simply because by doing this he wanted to show us that there is no "User's Guide" in terms of Ethics and this means that it is only inside of us that we will find our own Ethics...
We may perfectly listen to many different people, opinions, advices, experiences but, all the same, the only way is "to think it over", to reflect... to analyse and, what I think is the most important thing, to be coherent and honest with ourselves. It is our duty from now on to keep on thinking and although it is only through (and with) others that we will be able to achieve a Human Life, we don't have to forget that we are the ones that can take our own choices. No one will come and tell us which path to follow or what to believe in...
Difficult? Yes! Impossible? NO WAY!
Everything will sooner or later be possible if it is something that pursues HAPPINESS, JOY and LOVE...

And finally, as Savater wrote: "Good Bye, my friendly reader, and try to avoid wasting your life hating (no matter whom) or being afraid"

Chapter IX: "Elecciones Generales"

In this chapter Savater talks about plenty of ideas and conflics between Ethics, Politics, politicians... but I would like to concentrate in some few ideas that I find really interesting... There is one thing that he says that for is crucial: Ethics cannot wait Politics. We have to know that we can not wait until politics solve all our problems in order to start solving our own ones... It's the other way about: since Politics has to do with the harmonious coexistence of all the human beings, we cannot expect Politics to function perfectly if every single individual within the society do not care about living their lives ethically... We have to start the change from the most simple thing and not the other way about... We know that our every day situation, especially in Argentina, is not the most desirable or the best one, but we have to be aware of the fact that we still can do something to improve our lives and our society... the fact is that sometimes many people tend to say that as our country's situation is not good, how can they possibly be good if within a society so unfair and violent? Well that's exactly where the answer is: the only way in which out country can start becoming a better place to live in is by giving our best as indiviuals who at the same time form part of something else (the society) and try to keep on believing in our own capacity of choosing, deciding, sharing, helping, guiding and living our lives in the best we can: living a Human Life (with all the ideas we have been discussing so far while reading this beatiful book)... We, as teachers or teachers to be, have to be aware of the fact that we can be one of those who have that incredible and challenging mission of showing others that the change (in our country, society, school, and so on) is something that will only we achieved if we first start the change from our own every day lives... Ww don't have to forget that it won't be something easy to do, at all... but we are the ones that can show our students that the best way of living your life "humanly" is by means of assistance... i.e. being willing and ready to help, guide and accompany others when they need it... Help, guide, accompany... doesn't it sound familiar to you? Yes, we know them... these three words are the most important roles of the teacher... So, don't you think that being an English teacher, or a teacher of any subject, is more than that? Well, I do... We are more than teachers... we are Educators, Guiders, Helpers... So when someone come and ask you "What is your profession?" or "what do you do?" just answer "I am a Teacher"... and be sure that that is something you'll be always proud of...

Chapter VIII: "Tanto Gusto"

"Nothing is Bad JUST because you feel well doing it"... I really find this quote very telling of what is discussed in this chapter, and I think it is like that... I mean, many times we find people saying that something is bad or that we cannot do this or that just because it's "badly" seen by other people...Now, the question is: Is something bad just because someone else says so? What a question! With all this we are going an step further since we are talking about what is Good or Bad (ethically speaking)... Well, I think that the only way to answer this question is to see if what we want to do is something that will help us to live the Human Life we want to live or if is goes against ourselves or someone else... and if it does go against one of the keys of a human life we can say that it is something bad... There is nothing bad in doing something for pleasure... the only problem or the only reason why we tend to reject anything that gives us pleasure is because of what Savater calls the oldest fear of the human being: Our Fear of Pleasure...the fact is that we don't have to be afraid of it but to be aware that as well as it happens with everything else we have to be very careful in order to avoid going into extremes...As long as it doesn't go against ourselves, our lives or someone else's life any pleasure will be (ethically) bad...The idea is that if you are hurting someone else or making him/her feeling like they are not humans your pleasure will automatically stop being something good (at least from the ethical point of view). We don't have to forget that the only thing we can get from any pleasure is joy...and if we happen to lose it as a consequence of some pleasure we have we may be doing wrong and not acting according to what we really want... Do you remember? Yes, the difference between what I think I want and what I really want... So, don't lie to ourselves! If we stop being happy by doing something we believe gives us pleasure, we will have to realise that that is not actually a pleasure simply because for it to be so it has to make us feel well, happy, joyful...
So, now, our job will be to be able to put pleasure to the service of joy and happiness, something that won't be an easy task at all but it is not impossible either...