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...

Act 2 scenes 2 & 3: Rita's complete make over

Up to this point in the play, we have seen how Rita has developed into a more sophisticated person (according to social standards, mind you! ;-) ) She has now almost achieved her objective of discovering her true self, of seeing life in a different light... but Frank does not feel comfortable with her new self. As said in the previous post, he feels threatened by Rita's new independence, by this new criteria she has, by the way she speaks her mind confidently! Rita is able to sit down with "proper students" on the lawn and discussed poetry! This is a huge success for her... but it turns Frank even more insecure and jealous to the point that he goes to teach being drunk! rita is ready to fly and to try new things by herself but Frank is not ready to let her go... once more this kind of situation rings a bell in our lives as teachers! How generous one has to be to teach and to feel proud and pleased to see our students going places we have never been! How open minded to be ready to listen carefully to them to keep on learning! How wise to let them go when we know there is nothing else we can give them but our admiration and friendship! I hope Frank realises this before the play finishes!

Rita's back!

Rita is back from summer school with a whole new experience under her belt! She has changed a lot from that first shy, insecure student who started to attend lessons with a tutor... She is now living with a friend in her own flat, she now sees life from a totally different perspective and she loves it! This change takes place not only outside, i.e. she wears new clothes, has a new hair style, but also inside: she feels a whole new person and she says so! Frank is happy to see her back: he feels happy about her new look but quite hesitant about her other changes: Rita wants to experience new things together with him, to a point Frank feels threatened as when she insists that he gives up drinking or when she wants to open a window because "a room is like a plant: it needs air..." But what air does Rita refer to? This new air that has changed her completely? The kind of air that will change Frank and will turn him in the man she wants? Even when Frank starts looking for a great poet for her and finds out that Rita has already studied Blake we can perceive a certain frustration in both of them: in Rita because Frank is not offering her those new things she wants to learn; in Frank because he apparently has nothing to offer to Rita... How many times do we have this same feeling as both teachers and students? How many times do we feel that we cannot offer our students more than what we have already offer? I will leave the question open...

Act 1 scenes 7 & 8: Rita's awakening

Up to this point in the play, we have witnessed a huge change both in Rita and Frank. Frank opened his mind to a totally different world, i.e., teaching an adult from the working class. In this thorough task he had to leave aside lots of prejudices, like going with Rita to see an amateur performance at the local church! :-) He really likes Rita, probably beyond the teacher-student relationship they are supposed to have... but we need to remember that beyond these labels, they are human beings!
As for Rita, she is determined to achieve her goal. She will fight against all odds, even against her husband who she chooses to walk on. She is going through a moment in her life in which she does not know where she belongs to: she feels uneasy drinking beer at the pub with her husband, mother and friends, yet, at the same time, she does not feel ready to interact with "educated" people, such as Frank's wife and friends! This is probably why she could not ring the bell at Frank's house when he invited her for dinner or why she decided to keep on studying despite her husband's opposition. Rita feels moved by her mother's words at the pub while they were singing: "we could sing better songs than those," in a way she can see what her mother means: there is more to life than just conforming to what one already has, there is a moment in which one's urge for knowledge, or self-actualization in Maslow's terms, is stronger than any obstacle one can find in one's way... I simpathise with Rita, I can understand how she feels: I cannot picture life without studying, without satisfying my thirst for knowledge... I would not feel entirely human!

Act 1 scene 6

Rita keeps on trying to find out what the world has to offer. She goes to the theatre on her own and Alas! she loves it! She hasn't chosen any given play, but Macbeth... she's so fascinated with the plot that she wants to write an essay on the play... though first she'll have to stop to think what she wants to say. Rita finds in her own language many expressions to describe how she feels towards the play, words she'd never be able to use in an academic paper! She's so pleased with the world that is unfolding before her that she finds it difficult to explain exactly how she feels...
Her relationship with Frank continues to develop in such a way that she goes to see him on a day she's not supposed to just to tell him about her experience! They're beginnig to trust each other, they even want to spend more time together doing different activities: going for lunch, going to the art gallery and the like. Frank is enthusiastic about Rita's interest in literature and even explains the difference between a tragedy, from the point of view of literature, and a tragic event in real life... Rita takes for granted that "proper" students know all about that... she still looks up to them because they know better than her. But Rita's eagerness to discover this new world takes over her whole self and leads her to explore this world the way a newly-born human being does it...