Public Schools (Part 2)

In my school, we had to pay 'las cuotas'. Cuota is an amount of money, about 50 or 70 pesos, given each month. Cuotas are supposedly not mandatory, they weren't mandatory in my school. However, I knew some people in other schools who were afraid of not paying cuotas because they were told that if they didn't pay, they wouldn't receive any official paper needed for the inscription. Besides the cuotas, we also needed to pay some extra money in December and April because of the celebrations (the Christmas and Día del Niño party). Besides, we had to pay for the woman who watched the school entrance's wage: 10 pesos per child. Nevertheless, when the woman's children graduated, she quit working there and the school never hired someone else to watch the entrance. My sister even told me that once, the teacher didn't arrive, and about half of her class left the school. Moreover, we had to pay 'Escuelas de Calidad', to improve the school. Personally, I never saw any change. Well, now they built a roof above the basketball courts, and they fixed the restrooms and the fences.

The building was actually pretty big and old; it has a basketball court, a football field, tiers, about 17 classrooms, two pairs of restrooms, the library, the computer center, la tiendita, the principal's office and janitor's room. However, the building lacked many things. For example, in the computer center, there are only 15 computers; one is for the teachers, and the rest for the students. When I was in elementary school, only 13 computers were available since one didn't work at all, but other computers didn't have keyboard or CPU. And we didn't have a computer class, we only were taken there to play in the Internet and draw in Paint. Some teachers taught students how to use Word, or Microsoft Encarta. The football field was enormous. It was like a sandy, battlefield, kind of a dessert to me. It was the best part to play, as well as a part of the school that we used to call 'la selva', because it had a pretty tall tree and many other little trees. It was a green area. But, the tall tree fell down and 'la selva' became boring. The library was excellent; it had many books, either given by SEC or books we gave to school. It was a comfortable place, except for a portrait of Benito Juárez, who supposedly watched you, and had three eyes when no one was around. Also, some classrooms were well-equiped and had Enciclomedia that is an Smartboard. Ah, this part is pretty disturbing: La tiendita, that was attended by a man and a woman. The man sold candies and junk food, while the woman sold tacos, pizza and food. But, here is the nasty part: They NEVER washed their hands and received the money with the same hands that delivered the food. They never wore a plastic bag or something like that. Once, a kid asked for a taco and he gave her a coin, but the coin fell into the meat's pan. And she just introduced her hand into the pan, got the coin out, and kept serving the food. Also, she always took her baby and when the baby was hungry or dirty, she just closed the tiendita, but never went to the restroom. On the other hand, 'Desayunos Escolares' were a blessing. When the school started to serve hot, just prepared breakfats, it was extremely good for those children who used to wait until 10 am to eat a taco. Even thought the breakfast was served from 7 am to 9 am, they were excellent. They served hot cakes, molletes, oats, cereal, arroz con leche, and others. Also, they just costed 1 peso, while a taco costed about 6 pesos.

Finally, I want to write about the principal. She was very exaggerated; my sister told me that when she visted her classroom, she criticized everything about them and told them that they were the worst group of all the school(she used to tell that to every group). Also, when my sister was in her last year, the principal made a escort with the people who had the best grades, she obligated them to practice like two or three hours during classes, and she gave special attention to the daughter of a teacher. Most of the time, she was complaining about us and used to visit each classroom and ask for money to buy an air conditioner or to paint the classrooms. She never did. Well, she fixed some things in the school only when 'an important person' was coming, such as the mayor or someone from SEC or SEP. She really didn't care about missing classes because she always wanted to meet the teachers during classes. Sometimes, her meetings lasted from 10 am to 11 am (or later). That is a huge problem in public education: Teachers do not worry if students lose classes. When there was a huge event, they took us. Sometimes, it took one day. Also, when the kermess was coming, some students lost classes because they needed to practice what they would perform. It also took about one day. Some teachers did not come sometimes, and the principal never send other person to take care of the group, we just stayed fooling around.
But, after all, I keep good memories. Attending public school made me appreciate more private education.

Public Schools (Part 1)

I really can write about this topic since it is kind of a personal experience. I studied elementary school in a public school, and I can say that public education in Sonora has both advantages and disadvantages.

First, let's talk about education itself. As in every school, there is a variety of teacher: The one who does everything she/he can to help the children, the one who never is with the group, the Christian one, the one who reads newspaper instead of giving her/his class, the strict one, the old and bitter one, among many others. Fortunately, I always got the strict teachers and that is why I did good at Taes and Tec. But, what happens to the children who got the other teachers? For example, my little sister went to the same elementary school and in her last year, she had this teacher who was about to retire, but never NEVER attended the classes. Well, a couple of classes, but it was only to sermonize the group, and my sister had a friend who sometimes didn't wear the school uniform (which is not obligatory at public school), and the teacher always threatened with sending her back home. My sister had also this funny teacher who was metrosexual and said weird things all the time, such as that culture wasn't important. He also was kind of obsessed with Bours being a drug dealer, and that Fiestas del Pitic were made to 'move the drugs'. And, she also had this Christian teacher who taught the group Creationism instead of the other theories about how the world was created. We had also a physical education teacher who was very rude. Once, she called 'fat'a little boy.
I, on the other hand, got really good teachers. Especially, I remember a teacher who was truly strict, but I learned many things. But, sometimes she was very mean and rude. "Niños del Teleton"and "Cerebros de hormiga", were as she named us a couple of times. However, I would like to believe she was just kidding.

Piracy in Somalia

Believe it or not, piracy is a big problem that is affecting Somalia nowadays. It is not like it is pictured in the movies, of course, since they have to deal with reality were inequality and the survival of the fittest exists. I never thought that piracy was still practiced until I came across this article. In this article we can see how some retired pirates talk about their hard life in Nairobi. It is very difficult to get information about these types of activities, so I think this brings more curiosity to know how they lived. First of all, this people are uneducated, that's the main reason they become part of the crew were they will receive money by participating in stealing ships containing a good cargo. The pirate told that he had no other choice, since he doesn't have education. If he would, he would have taken another path. Here I think that education makes the difference in our lives. Every day we see a lot of people in the street that didn't take the opportunities or weren't given the opportunities. Now, it is crucial to be educated to survive in this world in order to have a decent life.


The pirate also mentioned about the inequality they lived day by day. The people who act and steal are only the puppets of the real pirates who hide behind them. They control the entire situation and just sit behind giving orders. They also are the ones who take all the money and invest it in real estates or businesses. They receive only the third part of what they are promised, like $10,000 to pay the "expenses". They are abused to live in cruel conditions and they are the ones who take the risk. However, this is a way they can gain money from the easy way. Their dreams of being rich are crashed with their hard work and low payment. Now, the pirate has abandoned that type of life and decided to look for a new beginning with more opportunities.


This is only just a news report that really depicts the life in Somalia if you don't have an education. Besides living as a puppet, it's really sad that people are still practicing piracy around the world. Stealing is just a shortcut to get what you don't deserve. Why can't people work for what they want and need? This is just unfair for the ones who really go to work and break their backs. But, there's also another side of the coin. Somalia is a poor country that still is struggling with his own economic problems. People will get whatever they want in order to live just one more day. It's a country with a lot of issues to solve from the civil war that leave the country divided in a lot of different states without a government that can't handle it all.

"I AM GOD AND I DO WHAT I WANT"

Did you know that power abuse is a serious social problem ?

Well yes, power abuse is always present. Sometime we don't notices it or we don't want to accept it. We can se power abuse present in every social circle. We are all victims and abusers. Power abuse limit us to think, express and act. Keeping quiet something that bothers you, nos saying what you think, or simply not think and only do what you are told to are things we permit and ar signs of power abuse.

You can find power abuse every where, one place is at school. Power abuse at school can be present when teachers feel that just because they are teacher and adults they have the right to do what ever they want. Some teachers think that they have the right to shout to a student and disrespect them just because they are teachers. "I¿m the teacher and what i do is correct" "I'm the teacher and my grade is correct because i said so" Those are some tipical phrases of an Abusive teachers. Being a teacher doesn't give them the right to disrespect a studen or to grde their work as they want. Teachers are there to teach us and to help us. We are ask for respect toward our teachers but teahcers can disrespect us ? i don't think so!

As students we have the right to be respected and treated in a good way. At Tecnologico de Monterrey we have the right to be respected by everyone in the campus and at the same time we have the obligation to respect others. We also have the right to complain i we are not ok with something, obviously in a propper and respectuful way.

We shouldn't be afraid of saying a teacher that they are wrong, we shouldn't be afraid of complaining and most importante we shound't be afraid of demmanding respect. I really hate when teachers think they can shout us, disrespect us humilliate us or grade our work as they want and that we students' won't do anything. And this might be truth, many students keep to theirselves. In school they teach us to respect others, to treat others i we would liek tobe treated, teaches the concept justices equiality, respect and many other things. school demands students to practice every single sing mentioned before, but how do they expect for us to do it if our teachers don't do it ?

Sexual Education

Is it really amazing to see how this generation, my generation, is sexually educated, or much better.. uneducated. I have some friends of mine about sixteen, seventeen and eighteen years old who are pregnant or have already had a baby. Isn’t this impersonating!? They are still teenagers and they are living a life that does not correspond to them just because they committed a mistake. These kinds of mistakes are usually because kids are not being well informed about the sexual relations and their consequences within being a young.

Parents play a very important role in this topic. Me, for example, I have an extremely good communication with my mom and my daddy, and because of this, I am aware of a lot of things that kids who don’t talk with their parents completely ignore. Especially my mom is who gives me advice and alerts me of everything. I am neither afraid nor ashamed of talking with my parents about sex or topics related to sex. I consider this very useful because being well informed, especially by parents who have already passed through adolescence, helps us to avoid becoming pregnant after a sexual relation or think two times before doing the sexual act.
It is very disappointing looking to friends of your age who have a baby. Why? Well.. because they use to drop school and leave friends, hobbies, likes, etc apart, start working and stuff in order to take care of another human being. It is an enormous responsibility for adolescents because there is too much in danger.

I beg you my friends.. think about it twice and consider having an open communication with your parents. Abstinence is not that bad!

"Mexico Low-level Education"

  I found that of 15 years old students in Mexico, 44% have the lowest possible level in reading comprehension. This doesn't only reflects the deficient education system, but also means that 44% doesn't have access to advanced information. They cannot read they text books effectively, they cannot read a laboral contract and understand most clauses, they are in a huge disadvantage.

  I also found that in countries like Belgica, or Australia, people is expected to study around 19 years, while in Mexico young lings are expected to study only 12 years.
 This is a problem not only because it affects our capabilities and competitive as a whole country, but also because the people inside this 44% are in a huge disadvantage that will most likely create an even greater social and economical gap.

The positive side of learning

As students, most of us are always complaining about our situation; we have a lot of things to do. We have a lot of homework, we have exams and we are always busy.

We are used to see the negative side of everything; we are unable to see that we are having an opportunity that no all the people can have.

Going to school has a lot of benefits like learning about sciences, spelling, grammar, you can develop your social skills and the most important thing: you are being prepared to succeed in most of the aspects of our lives.

It is true that education starts at home; the first thing that your parents teach you is a set of values that will be present every day of your life.

This education is the base of your knowledge, and as you grow up, you start mixing it with everything that you are being taught, and that is how your education at school becomes crucial.

We have to take that chance, I know that we can get tired of everything that we are constantly doing; homework, projects and a lot of things, but if we analyze, we will be able to get a lot of knowledege; we will be able to learn a lot of things through experiences, and at the end, we will have the satisfaction that we worked hard and we got what we wanted.

Global Issues

First of all, what is a global issue? It is a broad description that is commonly used to explain all the things that our soceity gives a great importance since it affects all of us locally and also they are being shared with all the cultures and societies within our global community.

The principal issues that the list of group 3 had were:

• scarcity of oil and water


• polution


• poverty (hunger)


• cime


• discrimination


• overpopulation (less jobs and distribution)


• drugs


• endangered species


• corruption


• immigration


• totalitarism


• economic crisis


• lack of education


• nuclear weapons

As I was going through this list again, I noticed that all of them were linked together. For example, because their is a lot of poverty, caused by the ecnonmic crisis, people do not have the recources to pay for a school causing the lack of education. Yes, there are public schools nowadays, but some of the families are so poor that the children have to work at a very young age to help their parents pay for food and the things needed at their home and that does not give them the time and opportunity to go study. Also, the lack of money and education cause people to take extreme decisions leading to crime and drugs.

Also, for the fact the the population is growing in a really high rate, over population comes up. This causes that there are a lot more people without a job and the distribution is getting a very poor quality. This causes people to want to move out of the country looking for better job opportunities, causing immigration. But, is immigration the best solution? For some people it might be, for others it won´t. Most of the mexicans who leave to the United States, immigrate illegaly. Think about it. Thousands of mexicans have been killed across the border. Some people, decide just to not immigrate and find a way to get money here. We see those people everyday and everywhere. Whether we are at the supermarket, on every street light, the parking lots of big stores, at the gas station, etc,etc. That brings us back to the poverty topic.

Where is this taking us? Think about it :.

Economic Inequality and Education

Economic inequality is the differences in the distribution of economic assets and income. This term usually refers to the equality of outcome and equality of opportunity. Economic inequality has existed since a lot of time. There are a lot of causes for this inequality. But, I think that education is the most important. Not all people have access to school, because they can’t afford it. Even though there are public schools, for some persons it’s more important to work to get money so they don’t go to schools. Also children if they want to school sometimes they can’t, because they need to help their family economically. As we know we need education in order to have a good job, and get the enough money to eat and supply the basic needs. This makes inequality bigger!

Many economists believe that a major reason of the increasing level of is an increase in the demand for highly skilled workers in high-tech industries. They believe that this has resulted in an increase in wages for those with an education, but has not increased the wages of those without an education, leading to greater inequality. Nowadays, there are special systems were adults that work receives food, but I don’t that this can make inequality to decrease. We should have the same opportunities.

Economic inequality also has a lot effects in society. When people don’t have anything to eat, they try to get food wherever they can like in trash. So, they get malnourished and sick. Unfortunately, people die because of this. I think this is very disappointing that some people have everything they want while others are suffering. But I think that people that have this problem can solve it, by trying to make their best effort.

Kowing How to Identify Priorities

We as a society need to start learning how to make and identify our personal and common priorities. For example, regarding to the accident happened days before to one of the most important football players of Mexico and the America Football Club, Salvador Cabañas, we know that he received a gun shot on the head by a strange guy with actually no “good” reason. The football player was just having some fun in this local bar. It is said that the culprit pulled the trigger of his gun just because Cabañas challenged him making him really mad telling him that he was not able to do it, but indeed he was… Salvador Cabañas was at death’s door for a while. Thanks God he is no more in danger, and he declares that he will be as soon as possible playing at the court.

But… what about Haiti? Haven’t you think about it a little? Everything here is important, BUT one thing is much more important than the other one. Suppose that the accident that happened to the football player is really bad for his family members, friends and fans, but all those people who died in Haiti and those ones without a home, without something to eat, without family… WHAT?

We noticed of the natural disaster that destroyed Haiti much before than the accident of Salvador Cabañas. Right away, when the gun shot was published in newspapers and television, the Haiti disgrace was forgotten, not entirely, but it had no more the same impact, or the impact that this notice deserves in our society. This situation is shameful for us as a solidarity society.

So… now what? Just think about it people…

AIDS: What can we do to solve this problem?

As we know, AIDS is a sexual transmitted disease that concerns everyone worldwide since it kills millions of people every year. Currently, many scientists are looking for a cure, and ways to extend and improve the life of people with AIDS, but we as society can also help.

First of all, we must be conscious and know the topic well. If more people know about this issue, they can teach the ones who does not know, and when they know they can teach others and so on. Also, we must keep in mind the do's and the dont's, such as having ONLY ONE sexual partner, use condom, making tests before having children, do not sharing needles, respecting people with AIDS, among others.

Politics can help as well, improving education may be the best way to prevent AIDS. Making education available for everyone, especially poor people who are far away from cities, is also a way to help since these people are usually the most affected by AIDS.

There are many ways to help with global problems, we all can do something to help this world to be better place.