Women

When I remember myself in the past, I remember a girl who started studying because of her aunts and all women who were abused. I thought this will never happen to me if I am educated and can stand up for myself. It has been true so far.

Many women still live today in a society that undermines them and abuses them. The abuses may come in different manners such as physical and psychological violence, labor discrimination, society expectations and many others.

Women who are abused inside their houses by either their husbands or any other relatives find it hard to escape and start a new life because they do not have the means for doing so. A woman who is a housewife and faces physical violence is likely to follow two paths: death or submission. They do not have other choices especially if they have children. Their lack of choices comes from a position where they have never been independent. They lived with their parents and then they moved with their husbands. Usually these women find little value in themselves and have a rather poor educational background.

By society expectations I mean abortion. Women are abused in many countries today to their right of choice in being a mother or not. It is no longer a matter of morality, but a matter of respect of women’s choices. I don’t see people judging the choice of a man for playing football, watching football or talking about sex. Abortion should not be a matter of what’s right and what’s wrong. Abortion should be a matter of personal choice which should not be questioned. As a woman, I want to be able to decide whether I want to have a baby or not. We need to make the choice because we are worthy of choices as humans we are.

Empowering women through language and education is essential to our societies. Women who are abused in multiple manners need power to stop people from stepping on them. I think learning a foreign language like English can empower women and contribute to their standing up for their rights. I think English is a perfect means to discussion and reading and developing critical thinking and emotional intelligence for those women who are at a temporary disadvantage. Knowledge is power and when women gain knowledge they can understand that they do have options. They will become their number one advocate.

Worthy Life

What's a worthy life? I have always thought about death and it scares me so much. I think that my purpose in life is to live on, to trascend. However, I am 25 years, 4 months and 15 days old and I think I haven't done anything worthy. I look at other people who have already done so much to collaborate and cooperate with the world and I have done so little. I know teaching is a lot of collaboration: I am educating young people's mind, but whose? I work in the private sector and even though I am convinced that they need as much as any other student from the public sector, I still think that I should do much more. I want to do much more and I feel disappointed at myself for so simply giving in to the life I lead and settling down with work and money. 

Am I really trascending by getting up, going to work, work some more, get home and go to sleep just to do it all over again the next day? Am I making a real difference? Maybe I am to those I teach but how big can the change be? I feel so restless when these questions arise because I need to move and do something. I see people devoting their life to charity and being so selfless when embarking in a great adventure like going to Africa, sharing with HIV positive people, trying to change the world through Education and just giving up their lives for being with others. 

Time is moving faster every minute and I don't want to turn 30 and look back and see my life has simply gone by and I haven't lived it! I don't want to turn 30 and see I've done nothing with my life besides working.

I remember being younger and having so many selfless goals. I wanted to work in Politics for building a more just world and society. I wanted to work with women and empower them through Education. I don't know where that Carolina is. Has she lost herself to the system? Are you still there? If you are, please, take over!!!

Simplicity

Having almost 20 dresses, multiple pairs of shoes, over 10 pairs of jeans, multiple pens and pencils, I can say I was an extreme consumer. Did it make me feel happier? Yes, it did sometimes. Did it make me feel anxious, stressed, frustrated? Yes, it did, especially when I got the bills. Whenever I went to a store to get something specific, I bought on-sale items because I was going to need them later. And it has been true. I have bought very cheap items that I have used after, but I am 25 years old and I have debts. Not many, but I do and it stresses me out.

Fortunately, during a recent trip, I met a man who talked about simplicity. He told me about how things and items are valued and respected in his culture. This is by no means a matter of cheapness. You can buy the most expensive purse, but you’ll have one because that’s the amount you need. Things are respected and value because of their service to us. If I have one pen and it’s broken, but still works, I will not buy another one because it still needs to fulfill its purpose of service to me.

After talking to this man, I realize that my life needs to be simpler. I know that I need to value what I have. That I need to save money and buy experiences with that money: Travel the world, spend a day by the ocean, go to museums and watch the stars. I have enough and I don’t need more. Therefore, I will lead a simpler life. I will delete my debt stress and live with what I have which is more than enough.

Thank you for teaching this to me!

Non-Violent Communication for Conflict Resolution

In a quiet, rural area in Costa Rica, we can find Centro Espiral Maná. It is in this beautiful, warm and welcoming place where I learnt the importance of non-violent communication (NVC) for conflict resolution. It is important to know that NVC can be used in different aspects of our lives, but in this article we will focus on classroom conflicts.

Non-violent communication is defined by Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph. D. as “a way of communicating that leads us to give from the heart” (2003). He states that this approach can be used in different aspects of our lives such as: intimate relationships, families, schools, organizations and many more.

Rosenberg claims that whenever we hear or face anything, we have four choices for answering. These choices come from the jackal and the giraffe: Our inner voices. The jackal is the voice that judges, evaluates and blames either one-self or others. On the contrary, the giraffe is the voice that observes and connects to the feelings. The giraffe listens and understands either one-self or others.

4 choices for answering:

	Jackal	Giraffe
Me	Judge/blame myself	Understand myself
Others	Judge/blame others	Understand others

We all have our jackals, and we will never kick them out. If we react to a situation with our jackal voice, we will blame, judge, hurt, undermine and make demands of others. On the contrary, the giraffe will listen and understand. We want to focus on our giraffe talk in order to connect and solve conflicts.

The model of NVC with our giraffe inner voice has four components:

1. Observation: The actual fact we can observe without making evaluations or judgments. This observation needs to be precise. If possible, include time, be neutral and concise.

2. Feelings: How do I feel about it? Avoid saying “you make me feel”.

3. Needs: What do I need at this moment? Are my needs being met or unmet? Needs fulfilled or not create our feelings.

4. Requests: What I ask myself or others to meet my / their needs. This is a request not a demand: Therefore, we may hear a “no” as an answer.

Now it is time for some examples.

Situation 1a: The student does not hand in his homework.

Teacher: “John, how can you be so lazy? You always do the same. You never do what you are supposed to. I want your homework right now or I’ll send you to the principal”. 

If my reaction is as shown, it is very likely that John will not respect me because I have shown no respect for him. How well can we connect to our students if those are our reactions? What result are we going to get from John with this speech? What we want to change is reactions. Instead of reactions, we want responses which come after a moment of pause from our heart. So, situation 1a was a reaction.

Let’s see a response.

Situation 1b: The student does not hand in his homework. Teacher: “John, is everything all right? I notice that this is the 3rd time this semester that you haven’t handed in your work”. John: “I know and I am sorry, but it is hard for me to get internet connection, so sometimes I cannot finish my homework”. Teacher: “How do you feel about it?” John: “I feel unhappy because I really want to learn and be responsible”. Teacher: “John, would you be willing to stay at the library after class, so that you can use the internet here and finish your work?” John: “I think that’s a great idea. Thank you, teacher”.

 

 It is important to notice that we are asking for a change and we are showing that we care, but we are focusing on the situation and trying to understand. You may think that the student can say “no” to our request and it is true. However, it is also true that we can modify our request multiple times in order to have the same result: Having the student hand in his homework.

Let’s use another example.

	Situation 2a: The student is 5 minutes late. Teacher: “Mary, you are late again. If this continues, I’ll ask you to stay outside”.

 

Let’s work with our giraffe.

Situation 2b: The student is 5 minutes late. Teacher: “Mary, this is the 5th time this month that you’ve been late for class. Can you tell me what’s happening?” Mary: “I am taking a medication and I need to go to the restroom before I enter the class. I do not want to interrupt the class.” Teacher: “Are you saying that you need physical ease?” Mary: “Yes and I feel troubled that I come in late sometimes.” Teacher: “I need order in my classroom, so I feel upset when the class is disrupted. Would you be willing to get to the class in time and silently leave when you need to go to the restroom?” Mary: “I think that wouldn’t be a problem. If that works better for you, I can do that.”

It is important to mention that this is a method for solving conflicts and communication in general. There will be times where teachers will not be able to use this method and we have to use our discernment. Therefore, if any student’s physical safety is at jeopardy, we cannot take the time to go over our four steps. We need to act in that moment and leave NVC for later.

After all my learning, I do think that NVC can be a solution to many conflicts inside the class. Many times I lack strategies and I do blame myself for things that happen inside my class which eventually are entirely out of my control. However, it is not blame what I need, but steps for solving problems, for understanding. I think the connection with my students that I can gain from this model is essential to creating a safe, respectful and friendly environment which will lead to better learning. Also, it would be wonderful if we could have workshops with our students and work with the NVC model based on their relationships with their peers and parents.

The question now is: Would you be willing to try it out?

References:

·         (2003) Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. (222 pages) Second Edition. Encinitas, CA: PuddleDancer Press.

Carolina Jiménez

English Teacher

"Private Lessons"

False teacher ran away after been accused of sexual arrestment

Hu Jian Ming is seventeen and a Chinese student at Bangkok International Academy, an international school for the children of foreign people working in Thailand. This academy is really expensive but Hu An Yuan, Hu’s Father, works for a Chinese oil Company and the Company helped Hu An Yuan to pay for the academy. Hu likes animals. Actually, she loves animals and nature. Her hometown is Wu Xi and it is full of nature. Hu brought, from Wu Xi , Lao Mao, a cat. Hu always talks to Lao Mao. Hu is a good daughter. She is very respectful with her parents. Also, Hu is a very good student. She works very hard in her homework. Moreover, she is really good at English.

Mr. Declan Stanyer was the English teacher at Bangkok International Academy. Mr. Stanyer is from the United States and he studied at Ohio State University. He started teaching last term at this prestigious academy. Mr. Declan Stanyer is bald, a bit fat and very sweaty. He always smells terrible and he always looked at Hu very much and smiled at her.

Hu got a bad result for her English test. She only got a 46 % although she studied very hard. The problem was that she had to get a better grade because she has to get into the International Baccalaureate program. She has to get the IB because her father wants her to be a doctor. Mr. Stanyer talked to Hu and he decided to help her with “private lessons” after school but Hu had to pay him for them. Hu did not have enough money and she did not want to tell her father because he was too busy with his job and his own problems. She had to pay him five hundred Bath. One day, Mr. Stanyer asked Hu if she would like to go to his apartment to be “more comfortable”. This was clearly evidence of sexual assault.

Hu talked to Mr. Riding, the school counselor, and he made a meeting with the principal of the Academy, some teachers and Hu’s father. At the end, Hu realized that she must tell the truth to her father. Her father was very angry about it. He could not believe how the English teacher was so shameless. Hu An Yuan could not believe his daughter was suffering.

Mrs. Verity Truman, the head of Upper School at the Academy, heard about the problem between Hu and Mr. Stanyer and called Wiwat Phalavadhana, an important official.

In the meeting, everybody except Hu An Yuan said that Hu Jian Ming was telling lies. When the principal was about to say that Hu had to leave the school, Mrs. Truman and Mr. Phalavadhana arrived into the meeting and they said that everything Hu had said was true. Mr. Phalavadhana told the principal that there was no record in Ohio State University of a student called Declan Stanyer and he did not have permission to work in Thailand. Mrs. Truman gave some porn magazines to the principal and he said ‘Mr. Stanyer’ but he was not there.

‘Just disappeared! Three weeks now, and no one’s seen him. Of course the policeare still interested. But I had no idea! I was away when he was given the job. The head of the Upper School then, Mr. Nyondo, had made the arrangements. And of course, the school will pay back the money Hu spent on the “private lessons”, said Mr. Grisman, the principal of the Bangkok International Academy, the same one who accused Hu of telling lies. TBAT

Holocaust in “The Pianist”

"... in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again." - Anne Frank

Throughout history, several abominable events have happened. These historical episodes have shown us that humans are able to do the best and the worst. Just to mention one example, the bombs thrown by U.S planes in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War (1939-1945). In the same war, another cruel episode happened: the Holocaust. In the Holocaust almost 6 million Jews were killed in Concentration camps and ghettos. The most affected populations were in Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. How the holocaust in Poland occurred as depicted in the movie The Pianist will be presented in this essay.

During the years 1939 to 1945 a Great War happened between The Allies: Great Britain (including the Commonwealth), Free France, URRS, the United States and China and Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Finland, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria (Fernandez, et all, 1996). There were several reasons why this war was developed. Some of them will be following stated. One of the reasons was the extreme nationalism present in Germany, Italy and Spain which would later become the Rome-Berlin Axis. Another was the breakage of the Treaty of Versailles by Germany because Adolf Hitler, ruler of Germany and member of the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparte) decided to rearm the army and buy new armament. Then, Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Finally, the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939 which is another reason of the outbreak of the war because Great Britain protected Poland (Richard Fuller, 2006).

Because of the war, Hitler decided to replace all the workers who were being called to the war with many citizens from different of his occupied countries. This was at the beginning the reason of creating different concentration camps such as: Drancy (France); Auschwitz, Treblinka and Belzec (Poland) and Bergen- Belsen and Buchenwald (Germany) (Fernandez, 2004). It was not until he decided to kill the major enemy, Jews who were impure of race according to him, that these concentration camps were known as extermination camps.

This entire extermination is known as the Holocaust. According to historians from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community (2009).

This definition is close to the definition shown in the movie The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski in which he shows how the Jews were being selected to work for the Nazi Germany. In the movie, Jews were being discriminated against at the beginning by not allowing them enter some public buildings and parks. Then, by restricting their amount of money at only 2000 zlotich and later making them wear a star in their right arms. Another type of discrimination was having Jews walk in the street and not the sidewalk.

In this film, we see that Jews in Warsaw were removed to ghettos in which they lived in very poor conditions. After that, they were selected to work for Germany and Nazi soldiers would kill people from the ghetto everyday. That is how the extermination of the Jews began. Later in the movie, they were transported to other places, concentration camps, in which you had to do much work and receive poor portions of meals which made the sanitary conditions worsen. Once they could not continue working, they were mercilessly killed.

From an historical point of view, the movie portraits flawlessly what happened during the Second War World with the Jews in Poland because it follows the historical succession of the tragic episode. Almost all of the events previously described in this essay are also described in the book Polonia en Defensa de la Libertad 1939-1945. As it reads, “Los guetos supusieron una etapa de transición para la aniquilación completa de los judíos que vivían en el territorio del Tercer Reich y de los países ocupados por él.” (Krzysztof and Skalski, 2006).

In conclusion, every event is formed by its circumstances. In this essay we have seen how the Holocaust in Poland happened as depicted in the movie The Pianist, and what the context to that episode in history was like. However, this is a brief description since there are so many issues to discuss that are involved in the extermination of the Jews and the war itself that touching upon them would take far more than an essay. I would really like to see that what happened in that period is learnt by all of us humans so that it will never happen again.

Holocaust
by Barbara Sonek

We played, we laughed
we were loved.
We were ripped from the arms of our
parents and thrown into the fire.
We were nothing more than children.
We had a future. We were going to be
lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers.
We had dreams, then we had no hope.
We were taken away in the dead of night
like cattle in cars, no air to breathe
smothering, crying, starving, dying.
Separated from the world to be no more.
From the ashes, hear our plea.
This atrocity to mankind cannot happen again.
Remember us, for we were the children
Whose dreams and lives were stolen away.
(Holocaust Poetry, 2008)

Realism

1. So far we have studied several works of US Literature. Apply your concepts of “What is literature” to one of those works and discuss why you think it is a work of art.

I must begin by saying that, without disrespecting the scholars, I disagree with the definition shown in the class of considering only canonical literature as good literature. I believe literature is something very personal and subjective. In my opinion, good or bad literature does not exist. In short, what is good for me might be bad for you and that is perfectly right. One cannot give a concrete definition of literature, and probably of nothing at all as Virginia Woolf pointed out: “One cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold” (Project Gutenberg). My opinion has its roots in the article “What is literature”. In this article, the author states that “’Literature’ and the ‘literary’ then are highly subjective categories” (Laga) and its definition is left to the personal background. However, in the article, there are some characteristics which define what a work of art is. Using those characteristics, I will analyze one of the pieces of literary work we have discussed in class.

“The masque of the Red Death” written by Edgar Allan Poe can absolutely be considered as a piece of canonical literature, I think. The first characteristic is the imaginative or fictive character of literature as opposed to factual information. Poe’s story is a work of art in the sense that he invented the pest, the context, the settings and the characters. “The masque of the Red Death” is art because it is an imaginative story and does not contain any factual nor historical information. Secondly, literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language. For example, in the story Poe writes: “There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution”(Literature Network). This is an intensification of the language since he uses exaggeration by using the word profuse. The use of language in the story is definitely not ordinary, but denotes mastery. Thirdly, literature is non-useful writing. Reading “The masque of the Red Death” is of no use for us. It does not contribute to do anything pragmatic. Literature in that sense is not practical; nevertheless, I do consider thinking as something pragmatic, and Poe invites us through his story to reflect upon our fears. Lastly, literature is what I like to read. I do enjoy reading Poe, and whenever I write something it has macabre features like his writings. I believe Poe is one of the best American authors because it moves me completely. I could say that, according to me, Poe is a canonical author and “The masque of the Red Death” is a work of art. The article also supports my opinion because of all the above mentioned characteristics of what makes a piece of writing in a literary piece of writing.

In conclusion, “The masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe is literature because it is imaginative, intensifies the language, is non-useful and I like reading it.

2. Romanticism is a very complex literary movement. Choose one work you consider romantic and explain what it is that makes it a romantic piece of literature.

Throughout history, artists have created and been part of different artistic movement. Literature is considered an art; therefore, writers are artists. They have also been part of various movements. In our American Literature class we have studied Romanticism which I think is one of the most complex artistic movement to understand. Anyhow, we have dealt with it in our classes and I can say I have some basic knowledge regarding its basic characteristics. When I say basic knowledge, I am implying that to deeply understand a literary movement we need to devote more time to comprehend its rationale and read quite a number of pieces.

Romanticism’s basic features are the representation of supernatural and occult dimensions, human psychology and sensibility of human beings. Apart from these characteristics, it has also been called as the Counter-Enlightenment movement since it disagreed with the rational dimension of the epoch. It highlighted the intuition, imagination and feeling which were not considered by the Enlightenment movement. Another feature present in the romantic works is symbolism. Based on the previous romantic features mentioned, I will analyze “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe.

“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a completely imaginative work since it does not have any factual information. Poe’s imagination created this great story and he did not have any rational reason for creating it. It does not have any reference to place, time, or characters. In fact, it does not even mention names, which makes it a romantic piece. Human psychology is also present in this literary work. We can observe that when the killer talks to himself after he had committed the deed: “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.” (Literature Network) and also when at the very end he confesses the crime because he felt the officers were listening to the dead man heart beats: "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! - tear up the planks! here, here! - It is the beating of his hideous heart!” (Literature Network). In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe also showed the feelings of the main character by writing:“TRUE! - nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”(Literature Network). Finally, Poe uses several symbols in this work such as the disease, the heart beat and the planks. All of these do not have any explicit meaning and are merely left to the reader’s mercy of definition. We can see how this is very romantic because it is connected to the more psychological and sensible aspect of human beings rather than the rational.

In conclusion, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a romantic piece of literature since it has all the features of basic Romanticism. As exemplified, romantic authors like Edgar Allan Poe must include imagination, feeling, symbols and human psychology in their works of art.

Sources

• · English Department Brooklyn College. “Romanticism”.http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html
• · Laga, Barry. What is Literature? A Refusal to Define or Limit. Mesa State College.http://home.mesastate.edu/~blaga/theoryindex/literaturex.html
• · Literature Network. Edgar Allan Poe: The Masque of the Red Death. http://www.online-literature.com/poe/36/
• · Literature Network. Edgar Allan Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart. http://www.online-literature.com/poe/44/
• · Project Gutenberg. Virginia Woolf: A room of one’s own. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200791.txt
• · Wikipedia. “Romanticism”.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism