Modern Times: a real progress?

A film I really like is Modern Times, where Charles Chaplin appears as the protagonist. This is a movie about modernity and, how this process affected the daily life of people. I am using the word “affected” and not “changed” with a clear intention; putting in discussion the motto of modernity which was “progress for society” which is portrayed and argued ironically in this movie.

The film starts showing a herd of pigs running together and next to that scene it shows a crowd of people running to their jobs rapidly. This two scenes show a direct analogy between pigs and men. At this point the film starts its sarcastic way of showing modernity. At this point appears Chaplin, working in a factory where he supposedly had to be adjusting nuts repeatedly. So the protagonist after been working too hard starts feeling stressed and then he had a nervous breakdown and he is sent to the hospital where he spends a week there. After that period, he feels better and goes out for a walk when suddenly he is sent to jail for a misunderstanding. In jail he meets many people who showed him how the life inside the prison was. After being in jail Chaplin is set free and then he meets a girl which he felt in love with immediately. Chaplin and the girl pass for many difficulties to get stability in order to buy a house to live.

What I liked the most about this movie is that it shows in a funny and easy way how the life was for the people who were living the process of modernity. It also illustrates what processes affected their calm and relaxed life and what social problems brought modernity hidden under the beautiful speech of “progress”.

It is good to see that with a short budget and without huge special effects this movie knew how to convey its message; put into discussion the progress of modernity.
As I mentioned before the main character is Charles Chaplin and he portrayed vividly how modernity affected his life, his mind and his sanity. For instance, he was sent to hospital for been too workaholic.

I think that this is a very good movie for being aware that our social problems are not new but, most of them started with modernity and even though modernity started centuries ago, as society we still have the same problems than in those times.

Finally, I would like to invite people to watch this film because is a movie that every person in the world should watch in order to understand when our social problems started. Besides, also this content is shown in a funny and simple way in order to do not get bored to the audience. As an advice; watch this movie in family!

Ways of seeing: how can we, as teachers, try to avoid bullying at school?

The purpose of this essay is to put into discussion the actual fact that is presented in Chilean schools; Bullying. This topic was chosen because it is crucial for teachers to understand that bullying is a problem that is dangerously increasing inside the Chilean culture.

This essay will also present a relationship made between the book written by John Berger named “Ways of seeing” and bullying. This relationship was made with the intention of presenting students the different ways of seeing the world, which may help them to understand different points of view, different from their own. Making this connection will facilitate the students’ comprehension about empathy and, why it is important to be aware of how other people think.

First of all, it is compulsory to explain what is bullying in order to get a better comprehension of this issue. In that case, bullying is described like “all the ways of violent, intended and repeated attitudes that occur without evident stimulus, adopted by one or more students against others.”(Kotesky, 2006). In this quote it is shown that bullying implies violence that should not be presented inside the school or elsewhere.

Subsequent to the explanation of bullying and, now concerning to the relationship established with “Ways of seeing” by John Berger, it is required to understand why this relationship// is made in order to recognise the development of this essay.
Through the exhibition of different ways of seeing of people through years and, their different points of view, students will get an approximation to empathy. In other words, showing students how people thought, felt, behaved and acted in the past in relation to one specific subject and, how this thinking has developed and changed through years, will lead them to comprehend that their own way of thinking and feeling might not be the only one that exists but, there are many ways of seeing the world. Therefore, showing this different perspective of people will have a strong impact on students’ behaviour in relation to bullying because students will know that their supposedly innocent acts of bothering classmates may have negative
responses in their classmates.

I am saying this because students start very early in theirs lives, when they are young, to bother their classmates but without no negative or aggressive intentions but, their intentions are innocent and, many times these acts respond to the way that society and TV is showing the world; through violence. At this point is when the problem starts, when small children start bothering their classmates just because they watched this behaviour on TV. The problem also lies on the teachers’ laissez-faire because most of the times they prefer not interfering when they see a student bothering to another student stating that it is normal that students bother each other, just like a normal process of life. As a result, this action will probably lead to increase a problem between two students for the reason that, as they see that violence or fight is the way of solving problems and besides, the teacher does not do anything and he or she just let them to solve their argument as the way they want.

If teachers do not show the different points of view that other people can have, students will not be able to understand that, when they are bothering another classmate he or she may feel bad because of this action. Furthermore, if teachers are collaborators with their laiseez-faire and with their spirit of non interfering in the course of things, they will help to increase the rising of violence and bullying inside the school.

What this essay is trying to convey is that it is compulsory for teachers to talk about the violence and bullying inside the school because if teachers do not do anything against these topics they are going to be just passive characters of a violent war that is defeating the peaceful and grateful atmosphere that should be at school.

Another goal that this essay is seeking is the necessity of tackle the topics of violence and bullying, through the exposition of different ways of seeing and comprehend that people have about the world. This will help to students to be aware of the danger that bullying has.

To conclude and, taking into consideration the ideas presented above I can say that as teachers we must promote empathy among our students in order to make them to be conscious that bothering another classmate is not appropriate inside the school nor any place. That is why is so important to show Ways of seeing to students.



For more information about Bullying see this article posted on November 27th, 2006:

http://www.atinachile.cl/node/19007

For more information about Ways of seeing please check the following book:

Berger, John. 1972. Ways of seeing.
Grosssberg, Lawrence ed. 1992. Cultural studies.

Not just another Queen!!

There was a film I saw few days ago. It was Elizabeth: the golden age. It was about the time of glory of England previous to the war against Spain. I enjoyed this film not only because it showed a lot of epic scenes, but also because it showed a female protagonist who was strong, brave and also she was shown like a person who suffers like we all do.

Elizabeth I, King Henry VIII’s daughter, was queen of England and she had to rule her country alone, without a king to her side; she never married a man that is why she was called the virgin queen. So she had to fight against the ones who said that she was not able to govern the country. In fact, she overcomes the prejudice of being a virgin queen and she knew how to deal with the issues of her country.

One of these problems she had was the fact that Mary Stuart of Scotland, her cousin, wanted Queen Elizabeth throne for herself so she tried to get rid of Queen Elizabeth. Another problem that Elizabeth had was religion; she was Protestant and, Spain, the most important empire in the world at that time, was a Catholic country, which it meant that there was a fight between Catholic and Protestants. That is why Philip II of Spain declared the war to England, which also implied a war to get the control of the new world America, which had been recently discovered.

One of the positive things I like about the film were that the story was well told, it never tried to provide too much and boring historic details about Elizabeth I. This film was easy to follow even though without knowing too much about history. Also, this film showed the private life of Queen Elizabeth I, which allowed me to see and understand why she was so respected and well-known among people.

I could see that Elizabeth I was a very determined woman, she got what she wanted. She faced the fate and death and survived. She was almost like a god but, on the other hand she was also shown like a person with strong feelings. The film knew how to convey the message of Queen Elizabeth I golden age.

I really liked this film and I encourage to the ones who are interested on movies based on historical facts to watch this film because it will keep your attention at any time. If you watch this movie you will not get bored. You are not going to find a queen like the others in this movie, that is for sure!

A new Theory for Stonehenge

In this post I am going to refer about one of the last findings about Stonehenge based on the video from the BBC I watched and also from some articles I read about this new finding.
For years, it has been a totally darkness about what was the purpose of the Stonehenge. For many years scientists have tried to figure out why these huge stones are placed in a circle. Some theories say that it might have been a place for healing, or perhaps it was a place for watching the stars like an astronomical place. But, one last finding made by some scientists, who have dug a huge hole in the same place where Stonehenge are located, has brought a new theory about what was the purpose of Stonehenge. This new theory says that Stonehenge might have been a place where people come for healing themselves. This theory has its support on the fact that some researchers have found bodies buried next to the Stonehenge with some kind of illnesses which has led to researchers to think that Stonehenge was a place where ill people come for healing.
When I think in Stonehenge I inexorably tend to relate them with the Easter Island here in Chile with its famous Moais that are huge as the Stonehenge. Nobody knows how the Moais were placed there.

What is a Civilisation?

First of all, and before trying to say what is a civilisation (or an attempt to do it) I would like to present some assumptions that I have related to civilisation, in order to give some previous knowledge that I have about this word.
A civilisation has to be something huge. All sort of thoughts come to my mind when I endeavour to describe civilisation and, most of them are in relation with ancient societies such as Chinese, Egyptian or Mesopotamia which are some of the most known ancient civilisations that I have heard when I was at school.
Now, I will provide some characteristics of a civilisation in order to present a general idea about it:
A civilisation is a complex society where the people that constitute it have specific established rules to follow in order to maintain an order inside of it.
This society has a division of labour and a strong social hierarchy. It is well organized and developed.
The word civilisation is often used especially when it refers to a particular society in a particular place or at time.
As conclusion, and also considering some of the characteristic and definitions provided above I would say that a civilization is a huge society formed by a specific social structure, where the order and the establishment of rules are primordial in order to continue existing as a civilisation itself.