''Chilean education and the role of future teachers''

The recurrent theme which states that Chilean Education is getting through a crisis has nowadays become such a commonplace topic that it cannot be denied or ignored so frivolously. As a matter of fact, a too well-known truth like this is not quite easy to be overlooked by any citizen who is not so foolishly absent-minded as not to happen to look at the newspaper headlines or watch at least once in a while the nine o`clock news on tv. However, one thing is to take something seriously and another one understand it thoroughly. The point at issue is to research what is actually happening in Chilean schools, which is the basic element which is not working properly well at that level because the so-called “crisis” seems to turn up from the very bottom of the educational system as the “penguin revolution” exposed dramatically to the public consideration: in the very classroom.

From my personal point of view, the educational problem is of structural nature, that is, its origin rises from the technical way in which the post-industrial society tends to organize and rearrange its different parts or structures and how they function within the extremely defined limits of the capitalist pattern. Obviously, being the educational system so important a “substructure” within the cultural superstructure of Chilean society, whose main role is reproduce the socially accepted norm and knowledge, it must be necessarily affected by the inevitable contradictions of its economic base. In other words, the teaching-learning process is not simply a neutral or objective phenomenon taking place in a classroom, aseptic lessons in schools isolated from the “real world”outside. Above all, the contractual relationship between students and teachers is also suffering all the time from the “capitalist schizophrenia” brought about by the dichotomy between the economic need of producing cheap and qualified labour force and the individual pursue of human development. Values such as freedom and justice are taught to “pure”students by most “democratic” teachers as noble aspirations which can never be given up despite the barriers which society puts up in order to weaken, discourage or even abolish them. “Why should I study and be a good student if when I leave school the society will despise me anyway?”. It is actually very hard to be honest enough as a teacher and give a correct answer at the same time, especially to a young boy brought up in a ghetto like La Legua or La Victoria, isn`t it?

With respect to the role of future teachers in the crisis, I think that there is no practical way out for us not be unjustly blamed for it. Historically, teachers have always served as scapegoats for the mistakes and faults committed by political authorities and businessmen hidden behind them. Nevertheless, the teaching profession should always feel obliged mainly with students and their families even when the government and school managers tried mischievously to break this commitment. I hope I will get through despite all the difficulties to come in the near future.

UFO: HOW TO IDENTIFY AN UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT

The term U.F.O. or unidentified flying object is usually used to refer to any flying phenomenon which an observer can see from the surface of the earth or any other place and cannot be clearly identified with any known natural atmospheric phenomena or human-made flying devices such as airplanes, balloons or satellites. Obviously, anything which might be somehow recognized as something “earthy” is an identified object and not an UFO. But what is exactly that phenomenon which cannot be identified? Let us try to go back to the past in order to grasp a possible answer to this sort of mystery.

Reports of unusual phenomena in the sky date back to ancient times. Even though many of these sightings undoubtedly corresponded to phenomena of natural nature such as comets, meteors, planets or atmospheric optical mirages, people of those pre-scientific times were not able to interpret them in a realistic way and tended to elaborate fantastic explanations based on a primitive religious mindset. However, it was not until the 20th century that the term UFO would be appropriately applied to any observation not accounting for identified objects.

In the late 1940s, the modern UFO era would start in the most powerful country in the world. Following the end of World War II, a series of famous sightings began in the United States bringing about what would be later called “the flying saucer fever”. The first of these reports ocurred in June 24, 1947 while a businessman called kenneth Arnold was flying in his private plane near Washington. His report mentioned the observation of nine brilliant objects flying at a fantastic speed and shaped like saucers or disks. It was this description of the objects as “flying like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” that would capture the media´s attention and the general public´s imagination giving rise to the now popular nickname of “flying saucer or disk” when referring to UFOs.

Over the last decades many theories have arisen to explain this phenomenon over a scientific basis but it has been rather fruitless owing to the obvious fact that “ufomania” is a kind of cultural fashion among many people in the modern world who unconciously want to believe in “something else”. Some psychologists who have studied western society have suggested that the increasing weakening of religious influence on peoples´ lives, combined with permanent states of political crisis, have triggered this new and modern version of a collective neurosis, as Freud used to call it. Nevertheless, there is no definite solution for this puzzle until empirical evidence can provide a subjective UFO experience with enough objectivity to “identify” the “unidentifyable”.

What the fxxx is a SONG?? This is IT!!!

"What exactly is a dream?", asked one day a beautiful scarecrow with his pretty hollow head full of those strange creatures. I think his name was Syd and his favourite colour was pink and this sad Syd said: "And what exactly is a joke?". So let me introduce to you the perfect joker and thief who turned a little tune into a masterpiece...


A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

By Bob Dylan

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked
highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a
graveyard,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and
it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin',
I saw a room full of men with their hammers
a-bleedin',
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all
broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young
children,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's
a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a
warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole
world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were
a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people
laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's
a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?

Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a
hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts
a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all
empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their
waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty
prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and
breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can
see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a
hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

GOD IS DEAD

God is fxxxxx dead, said Neitzche.

Nietzche is dead, said God.

Both God and Nietzche are goddamn dead, said... guess who!!!

(The anonimous undertaker whose sacred name is Who-who-who.)

here I CUM AGAIN, dear comrades!

Ok, this is my first time as usual, so please don´t be so creatively boring when sending me your opinions. The floor is all mine...

By the way, do you happen to know what the left hand image is about? No? So that´s gonna be your first assignment for your mind´s sake...

BYE.

Yes, the answer is...the same question? Who knows who, my dear only stranger at the zoo, who-who-who you ain´t at all tonight or were or will tomorrow´s flight?. PERHAPS, maybe perhaps, you´d love whipping everybody´s personal slaves or just spoiling December´s children to death on your fading nasty way or screwing up that pattycake or suzycreamcheese so cozy and juicy on your naked lap, who else?. Whatever lady or gentleman in honest distress would say in such a memorable place like this, on your last day on this earth,

is

DON´T FORGET WHAT THE DORMOUSE SAID! (FEED YOUR HEAD)