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.