...EdUcAtIoN iN cUbA...

Last tuesday we had classes with the other section , because Miss Patty was having an acreditation meeting.....

Well Amira`s group presented a very interesting, but hard to debate theme; Education in Cuba.

In Cuba children are taught under one ideology ; comunism. Religion is not taught in the classroom, parents can not teach other ideology different from comunism.... But beside these facts, Cuba has the best results among latinamerican countries, in terms of education.

The presentation was too long. The group gave a whole speech about Cuba, they showed graphics, stadistics, which made the debate looked more like a speech than a debate.

The debate did not work out very good...

I got to be against Chilean schools and in favour of Cuban system, and I`m afraid it was too dificult to provide arguments to support the motion given.... It is really hard to believe that learning without freedom of speech is something accepted in our society......

In Chile, nowadays, we are free to do many things, to believe , dress and think as you wish without being punish or paying a fine.... so it was really difficult to defend our motion.......

javiera got married!!!

Yesterday was a very special day... my cousin javiera got married ... Vicente and Javiera did a very nice ceremony... the four elements ceremony... where javiera`s daughter watered a plant that my cousin gave to vicente.... it was a emotive celebration........

At ScHoOl

Today I did not attend the class.... In the school where I do my teaching practice, I was asked to help on a Catholic Religion Class...

I prepared some prayers for the first grade (elementary).

It was a very nice experience, there were 13 kids... all very interested on praying in english. We sang, painted and had a wonderful time together.......

I hope I could do it again!

...pUbLiC sChOoL`s In eNgLaNd

Today we had a very interesting debate in our class.

The debate was about public schools in England.... it was a very interesting topic because what we understand for "public school" is totally different from what english people understand for it.

In England a public school is a very expensive school, with more than 300 years of tradition. Kids go to these schools from the age of ten. Normally they are boarding schools, which means that students must live in the same school.

The debate was well done. We discussed a lot about the importance of family support when you are a teenager.

I can not imagine a ten years old boy being by himself in a huge , traditional and strict school. Educating is also a family role...so I think that it is cruel to leave a child at that age by himself in such scenery.

During puberty it is necesary to count on your family......

I do not like boarding schools........ and of course ... education should be equal for everybody

..... MaRiA mUsIcA aNd OtHeRs....

These week in Mr.L`s class we talked about Maria Musica Sepulveda.... the teenager that pour a pitcher of water to the Minister of Education. We realized that a lot of factors are involved, such as media, values, parental responsibility, among others.

In my opinion I`d say that Musica could have done things in a better way. She could have apologized in a media conference and she would have had a better image and people would have thought that even she acted unpolitely she had the courage to apologized infront of the country.

After talking about Musica, we disscused about learning to learn.

We went to the computer lab and surfed in the web for information. I found that there is a project in England which tries to change the way people think about education and learning.... this page explained how important is to make learning motivating for kids and adults, otherwise people reject learning........

I think this week we will talk about the teacher from antofagasta who treated his student awfully infront of the class......