Sir Ken Robinson and the continuity of the main trouble in worldwide education

This Monday we had the opportunity of listening Sir Ken Robinson and his ideas about the occidental educational system. He’s a man who has dedicated his entire professional life to study the educational system from inside and, obviously, he have peculiar perspectives about it.

I think the most interesting argument that he introduce is the way how education progressively kills the development of the talents in the children. The skills that are not related with the logical-mathematical intelligence are gradually underestimated and it seem like the educational system sees it like a menace. Talents related with art go to a secondary place and, in the best of cases, are seen as mere hobbies, so the children don’t have the chance to develop them in a professional way. In my opinion, this is the reason of the existence of bitter and frustrated adults and we can see them around every day, unhappy with their jobs and their choices of life.

I see my little baby girl sleeping right now and I think that I don’t want a bitter future for her. And then I think that she’s in the actual educational system already, growing in a context that transmit her the importance of the professional success related to the material or monetary success, killing any kind of interest in another area of human development, like arts or culture. How can parents struggle with this system? How can I teach her that success must be related with her own interests, independently of the monetary reward that it may have? It’s a difficult fight, but it’s possible, promoting her talents every day, showing her that life is not just about consume or have money, but it's about being happy with our choices of life, whatever they are.

Well, I hope you have thought about these topics, because every one of us is responsible of our future, building a healthy and fair society.

You can write your comments below :)

Have a great week!

Panic disorder

Last week I had to do something I don’t like to do at all: present a topic in public. An important part of my problem with presentations in front of other people is related with my undeniable tendency to dispersion and the other part is the worst: my panic disorder. 

Basically, panic disorder is part of the spectrum of anxiety disorder, characterized by recurring grave panic attacks. These attacks are series of intense episodes of extreme anxiety that can wax and wane for period of hours and intensity. The common symptoms related with these attacks are almost the same of heart attacks: tachycardia, perspiration, dizziness, dyspnea, trembling, etc. During panic attack, the person feels an uncontrollable fear, which may be related to fear of losing control and going crazy or fear of dying. All these symptoms are commonly accompanied by thoughts of impending doom.

This disorder can include significant behavioral changes related with concern about having other attacks in any place or any circumstance. It can be a potentially disabling disorder, but at present can be controlled and successfully treated.

As I said before, I chose this topic because I’m one of those who suffer panic disorder and it’s important to me show you what their scope are, how this disorder affects people´s life and how devastating it can be under certain circumstances. I suffer panic disorder since seven years ago and I have crossed ups and downs with very critical periods until now. A I mentioned last week, I feel fine today, but I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, because this disorder is very unpredictable.

Every time when I present in front of an audience, I feel stressed and nervous. Sometimes I talk very quickly, and in other occasions I just ramble around the topic I’m speaking. I think I must work hard every day to overcome these obstacles.

Well, sorry for the extended post.

See you! :) 

Santiago alienated

Santiago of Chile is a grey city. Every morning, when I go to the University, I see the angry, unfriendly and bitter people’s faces and that deeply shocks me. How did we get this? How can we change it? I believe it’s a work of all of us make this city a better place every day. Actions like greet people smiling are very healthy for our society, because I think that we don’t share much with others, we are so individualistic that we don’t care very much about the people who is in our side when we don’t know them. We can change this fact just changing our attitude, choosing a positive and kind perspective of the world.

What I like the most from Santiago is the variety of places that we can visit. Have an historic tour, an entertaining tour, or a culinary tour is very pleasant and you have too many possibilities in the city and surrounding. Probably, Santiago is the noisiest place that I ever lived, but you can retire to other beautiful places to get some peace, like Buddhist temples located in Providencia or beautiful parks like the Quinta Normal, Japanese Park of Hill San Cristóbal, Sculptures Park, etc. I think that some visitors want to discover this syncretism of Santiago in every way.

This city is an example of the alienated life that we are carrying, but we have the opportunity of change this every day, having forged a reconnection with ourselves and the people around us.