Final task: programme of study

It took me a long time to sit down and start writing this final task... Probably because each of the questions I'm supposed to write entails a lot of thinking, a lot of reflection. The whole play is so rich that it is extremely difficult for me to come up with the kind of answer I'd like to be able to provide!
Rita has gained a lot from this experience, though the fact that she gained doesn't necessarily imply that she hasn't suffered. Lots of times we go through experiences in our lives that completely change us, that make us feel sad or even frustrated! But it's worth it! We learn from every single thing that surround us, and that learning at times entails pain, suffering. Rita has suffered a lot: she broke up with her husband, stopped seeing her friends, gave up drinking at the pub but because she CHOSE to: this is what her learning experience gave her! A choice... that marvellous experience to know that one is in charge of one's life, that no one else can force us to do something we don't want to! While discovering "her own voice" she got hurt and she hurt other people, but this is what life is about! Otherwise we would be amebas!! :-)
She discovered that appearances are just that: something that doesn't exist, something hidden; what is valuable is what is within each of us, our true selves. And this is something that not only did Rita learn but also Frank: he had to leave aside lots of prejudices when he started to teach Rita and Rita too! And he discovered that teaching is worth it! He's going to giveit a try in Australia and problaby start all over again...
If I take a look at this blog, from the very beginning I mean, there's something in common in most of the posts: the fact that we're in charge of our lives, that no one else can tell us what to do and that every choice we make entails a responsibility and make us freer, no matter the role we're playing in life! Call it teacher, student, whatever name you want to give to it... All in all, life is wonderful, isn't it!

Act 2: scenes 6 and 7

What a play! Very much like real life in the classroom... Throughout this play not only did Rita learn, but also Frank; and this is one of my beliefs as a teacher: the teaching process is enriching both for the students AND for the teacher!! Rita has learned a lot during the course of the play: she has learned that there's more to life than the pub (at the beginning of the play) and by the end of the play she came to realise that appearances are not important: Trish's attempted suicide, among many other things, taught Rita that what is important is to be in charge of one's life and to have a mind of one's own... In this way, one could say that Frank succeeded in his goal as a teacher! We could say that Educating Frank could have been a suitable title for the play since, as I said before, Frank has learned a lot as a teacher from this experience, he has learned to become a commited teacher...
As to our lives as teachers, I truly believe (both as a teacher and student) that teaching a subject entails more than just the mere subject: it implies a change in our students' lives... A teacher I admire once told me that a subject is just a excuse to be with our students!! Commitment, passion are feelings that are at stake when we are teachers, if we want to go beyond our subject to transmit more... I've certainly enjoyed reading this play and reflecting on it!

Act 2: scenes 4 and 5

Both Rita and Frank have come a long way... Frank cares for Rita, he is falling for her... He even gives Rita his own poetry to criticise, something entirely personal, yet probably with another objective: to see whether Rita can be objective towards him and to make her see that it is not her the one who is thinking but ohers instead of her. On the other hand, Rita believes that he's just trying to hold her, to prevent her from blossoming. She feels hurt when Frank tears his own poetry and asks her to leave... there has come a point in this play in which one doesn't know whether a couple is having an argument or a teacher and a student! Roles seem to have been completely mixed up! Both of them feel strongly about each other but don't know what to do about it...
As I said at the beginnig of the post, both Frank and Rita have come a long, long way... I hope that one as a teacher can celebrate what other students achieve at the end of this journey and reflect upon what we have given to them while teaching...