After reading Rita’s words: “It makes me stronger coming here”, I immediately began wondering why it is that education makes people stronger. At first, I thought about the professional you become after graduation and the sense of independence you experience not having to get temporary jobs but one where you can really apply your professional knowledge. But just then, I kept on thinking and I realised we become stronger AS we are being educated.
When we decide to joining any course of studies, we are choosing the people we want to interact with as well as the teachers we want to learn from. The whole learning process can not be isolated from the social and interactional context. In my opinion, that’s how you become a stronger person: you learn and interact with the course, but also, bit by bit, you use that experience in your personal life.
Education makes me stronger because it enables me to build social bridges which, if used wisely, will help me be a happier person as I think it will happen to Rita by the end of the book.
Tuesday 26 August 2008
Friday 22 August 2008
What is being a “good” teacher?
We all know what a teacher is, her roles in school and in the classroom. After all, we’ve all had at least one in our educational life. Yet, what is being a “good” teacher?
I’ve asked my own students, and they all agree a good teacher is someone who knows about the subject she is teaching, but also a human being who should care about them. A person who gets the trouble to get to know her students and is willing to help them become better persons. I must admit I agree with them.
If we consider Rita’s tutor, Frank, so far I believe he is a good teacher because not only does he show to have knowledge of literature, but he also seems to have a great capacity to adapt himself to Rita’s ways. For instance, he answers Rita’s personal questions with great enthusiasm and patience, but never does he lose track of the main objective which is Rita’s final exam to get her degree.
So, next time I’m asked what being a good teacher means, I’ll say it’s a human being who has been trained to be a teacher, but also someone who cares about her students, who is patient and capable of adapting herself to her students´ different ways of learning.
By Miriam Rodriguez
I’ve asked my own students, and they all agree a good teacher is someone who knows about the subject she is teaching, but also a human being who should care about them. A person who gets the trouble to get to know her students and is willing to help them become better persons. I must admit I agree with them.
If we consider Rita’s tutor, Frank, so far I believe he is a good teacher because not only does he show to have knowledge of literature, but he also seems to have a great capacity to adapt himself to Rita’s ways. For instance, he answers Rita’s personal questions with great enthusiasm and patience, but never does he lose track of the main objective which is Rita’s final exam to get her degree.
So, next time I’m asked what being a good teacher means, I’ll say it’s a human being who has been trained to be a teacher, but also someone who cares about her students, who is patient and capable of adapting herself to her students´ different ways of learning.
By Miriam Rodriguez
Thursday 7 August 2008
There’s more to Rita than meets the eye?
I have just finished reading scene one of a theatre play called “Educating Rita” by Willy Russell. I would like to share with you my first impressions of Susan, or Rita as she prefers to be called, one of the major characters in the story.
When the play opens, Rita meets her tutor, Dr Frank Bryant, at the Open University. Through their dialogue we can infer that Rita is a very intelligent woman in spite of the fact that she has been poorly educated and belongs to the working class.
To begin with, Rita makes some impressive comments about the painting hung on Frank’s office wall, which reveals she can talk about arts and religious sensibly. She then realizes Frank has an alcohol addiction as well as why he has agreed to teach at the Open University: he needs the money. Rita also comments on the differences between the ordinary university and the Open University, which proves she knows what she is doing at enrolling this course. In addition, the moment Frank and Rita talk about books and poetry, we come to think she has good understanding of what certain technical terminology means, although she is still not capable of expressing herself properly.
I think that having changed her name from Susan to Rita is her first step to become a different person. She is unwilling to remain as a hairdresser and a housewife for life, and she wants to change from the inside. While she discovers herself, we will find out if Rita succeeds and becomes the well educated higher class woman she really longs for.
By Miriam Rodriguez
When the play opens, Rita meets her tutor, Dr Frank Bryant, at the Open University. Through their dialogue we can infer that Rita is a very intelligent woman in spite of the fact that she has been poorly educated and belongs to the working class.
To begin with, Rita makes some impressive comments about the painting hung on Frank’s office wall, which reveals she can talk about arts and religious sensibly. She then realizes Frank has an alcohol addiction as well as why he has agreed to teach at the Open University: he needs the money. Rita also comments on the differences between the ordinary university and the Open University, which proves she knows what she is doing at enrolling this course. In addition, the moment Frank and Rita talk about books and poetry, we come to think she has good understanding of what certain technical terminology means, although she is still not capable of expressing herself properly.
I think that having changed her name from Susan to Rita is her first step to become a different person. She is unwilling to remain as a hairdresser and a housewife for life, and she wants to change from the inside. While she discovers herself, we will find out if Rita succeeds and becomes the well educated higher class woman she really longs for.
By Miriam Rodriguez
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