The Modern Charlie

Modern Times is one of the greatest films that I have ever seen. Those times were too difficult, especially if you wanted to express yourself or claiming for dignities. It is really amazing when you see this movie and then you realize that Charlie is sending many messages about what was happening in those times, in the capitalism industrialized, and while, he was making it tragicomic. He realized that people were suffering because of the injustice of those times, what the modernity was doing to the people. He represented the real life of thousands of workers who suffered the same that Chaplin did, as an example, he became mad because of work conditions, he was sent in jail without any claim about what really happened as a result of he was unvoiced, he and his girlfriend depended on work and they were as marionettes because they could do any job for necessity, and as they could not be part in this world they went to unknowns place; moreover, it was real for people, especially, poor ones, whose every one had it own pursuit of their happiness. This tragicomic film marked a new era of showing how the way people were living and seeing the world, how the progress made dehumanization. On the other hand, Chaplin belonged to freedom, and he did not want politics positions and any ideologies, because they make you a slave. In this movie he pretended to replace the human beings’ dignities. However, in those complicated times, many countries had banned this film because it was against the modern progress. According to those countries, this movie was the evidence where the protagonist, Charlie, did not belong to the way of thinking that everybody had, in terms of society. Modern Times is a very good example to know this past of our history, where the protagonist, Charlie, is an excellent model to act this.

Children’s life during the Industrial Revolution

Children’s life during the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution is a very important part of our history. This is the meaning of Changes, but those changes were sometimes good and sometimes bad. So, were those changes a progress or decline? What are the first things that we think when we have heard about industrial revolution? We always think of Industrial Revolution as it is the meaning of modernity, progress, industries, jobs, factories, easier life, and so forth. However, in this era has had been many things that we do not know about, such as long work hours, unemployment, illegal work, children work, etc. In fact, Industrial Revolution is a real change, but it has had its dark side.

In this new era of industries, world started to live the Capitalism. Therefore, for some people, most rich people, and for some countries it was very positive in terms of economical issue. Thus, there were a high demand for labor, so society created a new social class, the working-class; every family migrated to industrialized cities, because they wanted to have jobs due to most of them were living in a high poverty level in country sides. So each member of the family should have had worked in mills. So far, the concepts of workers rights had changed; everybody, with power, benefited more the factory than the people who worked in one. Besides, in the cities, people did not live in a good way, for instance, in cheap and small houses or rooms could be habited by many people; families lived in tenements without bathrooms, etc. Those were such unhealthy houses. It was extreme poverty where everyone needed to work to survive. In deed, even children went to work because it was the main side-effects that Industrial Revolution had. The main reason was that industries needed the cheapest workers so those workers were children who were paid less than adults (men, even women). Also, children were more able to do some works that no one could do so, they were from 4 (or less) or 5 years and so on. Therefore, families’ needs were supported by children, if family’s children were unemployed, the family could not eat, as an example. Then, children worked long hours, between 12 or 15 hours per day and they were often treated badly by their bosses. Factories (textiles, cotton), agriculture, small business as selling food, and mines were the children’s most common workplaces, and, therefore they were so dangerous for them.

Some laws appeared later about children and human rights as a result of work hours, workplaces, illegal work, and working conditions which workers lived in those times. For instance, in 1833 the Factory Act and Mines Act had been trying to down children work hours, because of many facts such as mines were to dangerous, etc. Although they could not put an end to it at all, they could reduce the children and women work hours and they could mark an age when children could work, as an example, children 9 to 13 years could work 8 hours per day, others 14 and 18 years of age could not work more than 12 hours per day. Here, in this era of trying to limit human work, started to appear. Children’s parents could almost do anything to solve their children from slavery. They had to accept because they needed incomes. However this change took long, it was too difficult to change the context that people lived. There were conflicts with the benefited people from the Industrial Revolution who were ambitious and did not want to change it, with people who did not have the tools and power to abdicate the illegal issues in this time and who were suffering as slaves in factories. Politics took time for deciding that working children ought to be protected by laws as a lot of people who did not see anything with this design of children earning their keep. Children were living an extreme sacrificed life also in one of the poorest conditions in the modern age. Thanks to children, Industrial Revolution was a successful age of changes economically. After all, there are many reasons where talk about the decrease of children labor. Some reasons are: that parents started to be interested in education, so they began to send their children to schools voluntarily, and also they wanted that their children should be in their homes; and another reason is that about advances technologies, such as new machineries more heavy and complicated that they were impossible to be worked by children. On the other hand, finally this period of sacrificed life ended for children in the Industrial Revolution era.

Nevertheless, as a teacher how we can teach this difficult time to children. There are many ways which we can teach this theme to the today’s’ children, teenagers and adolescents. Showing to students some pictures or videos (documentaries films) of children in mills and factories working to earn some money to survive with their families, and at the same time we can tell them about what happened in this period of time. Or maybe, it part of our history can be played by themselves. Besides, we can connect those children’ stories with students, asking them how students would be working 16 hours a day in a factory or mine to earn almost nothing to survive, we need that this class, History classes, should be so interesting to students, as well as dynamic which encourage students to be informed about our world . The most important thing is that students acquire the knowledge about human rights and what they can do and can not. Moreover, making them to understand that if they work in a place, as students, they are going to earn less than adults, but why if both of them (students and adults) would be doing the same work, and what happened economically with this context. I think that it is important to be understood.

In conclusion, this period of time is not known very well because almost every school is focus on progress and they do not mention about the declines that were lived to reach those progress, and how much time people had to live in a decline way to reach the progress in human rights. In this case, there were children who did not know about it was happening and if what they were doing was fine or wrong, they could not say any word. Now we know that thanks to thousand of children who worked in Industrial Revolution, we can get what we have now. However, nowadays, that child labor is still doing in many countries; thousands of children are working, under 14 years, with a huge work hour and troubles in workplaces, working for all our needs. This idea started in Industrial Revolution and it has kept until today. So, is it really a Change for the better?

Sources
web sites:
http://www.google.cl/
http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/Baker_00/2002_p7/ak_p7/childlabor.html
http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/IndustrialRevolution/womenandchildren.htm
http://webinstituteforteachers.org/~bobfinn/2003/activity1.html
http://www.learnhistory.org.uk/cpp/1750gal.htm
http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/victorian/vindust.html
http://www.cottontimes.co.uk/childreno1.htm
http://asms.k12.ar.us/classes/humanities/amstud/97-98/childlab/childlab.htm
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/hist8.html
http://formaementis.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/industrial-revolution-and-child-labor/
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01419/workingconditions.html
http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/tuttle.labor.child.britain

A New Age...

Throughout history we had have a lot of changes called new ages. But this was a really new age, perhaps, the most important one, the Industrial Revolution. This new era brought changes as in modernity as political one (I call political everything that means to govern a country or land), especially in the Victorian Age. At this time, the economic and social changes were the most relevant that marked the English history until today.

Industrial Revolution signified that mills (now, factories) did not need the handwork at all. Thus, Europe started to have a lot of unemployed people. Years later, those industrialized companies built that we named factories. They needed workers to guide machines. Although, on the other hand, this was a big change, industries began to need more people to work, such as children and women. This was a big deal, because having children as workers and women and men working more hours that a human being could work, it’s illegal. Therefore, kings, queens, ministers, etc. had conflicts among them as a result of the discussion if they should had have this deal illegal or legal. Meanwhile, thousands of workers moved to towns where had factories that could give them jobs. As a people context, they lived in really poor conditions so they were capable to sacrifice more hours in works and taking their children to work. So, these many changes were good or bad, it was the initiative of progress or decline? As an example, the creation of public railroads, in 1825, as a way to near towns and communication, could be a good progress; it was a new era, where in few years later each town in England had one.

Railways helped to grow towns in poverty. People could be transported. News could be transported. Then, information of where there were jobs, where the problems were, what was happened with rights and illegal issues about people, and so forth. However, while, the public railroads were being constructed, politics were discussing about legal and illegal issues, about who was going to be the king or the queen of a land, who was richer than others, and so on. Between 1800 and 1900 there were many internal issues about power that it becomes to get confused sometimes. If politics had not been focus on who is who, what is for whom or standing by themselves, maybe, this time could be a good progress, and not a bad decline. it was new age in our history, and it is always called as modern progress and it was like this, but with powered people worried about materials things and , on the other side, poor people, workers, that had to put up with them and their contexts of hard work with illegal norms and strict morality.

In short, do you think that when Shaftesbury’s Factory Act made illegal to employ children below the age of 13 more than 48 hours per week, I mean, more or less 8 hours per day, is a real low or decision? When did those kids could study? Were the progress and the ambition so big that no one did care what people were living? This is a shame but it is the history, our history… and we should change it!

Elizabeth, more than a name...

When Roman Catholic in Spain was the most powerful Empire in the World, Felipe II, King of Spain, wanted to take over the English land to join it with Spanish land. So his daughter, Isabella, could be the Queen of England. On the other hand, Elizabeth, Queen of England, one of the smartest women in the whole History, was alone without family, and with no child. The thing was if she does not have family or a child, the throne was going to be for her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. Then Elizabeth began to look for a man who could be her husband. But every man that was presented to her she refused.

However, she met with Walter Raleigh, a man from a New World, who offered her some American’s riches. He was attractive to Elizabeth’s eyes. Meanwhile, some people (Jesuits) conspired with Felipe to kill Elizabeth, so, in this way; Mary could have the English throne. But those people were killed.

Walsingham, Elizabeth’s best advisor, knew about what Spain wanted to do, kill Elizabeth. He knew this because his brother was a papist, so Walsingham sent his brother in jail. Besides he told this Elizabeth, who angrily confronted Spain. Nevertheless, she noticed that almost everyone was against her. Therefore, she wanted to suicide. But she could not. Elizabeth was in emotional, psychological and physical crisis. Later, Mary, queen of Scots, was beheaded. With this, Felipe obtained approval from the Pope to go to war.

While, in England, Walter asked to Elizabeth leave for the New World but she did not accept it. Moreover, the best ward of the queen, Bess, discovered that she was pregnant of Walter. Although, this was betray for Elizabeth and therefore she sent him in jail, queen of England forgave them. Besides, the War between Spain and England had almost started in English lands…

I really like this film. How actors and producers could interpret and make the atmosphere of this story in that way. I looked Elizabeth as perfect, she was so smart. It was amazing. She never fell down from her beliefs and thoughts. The way she looked like was as a magnificent Queen. Reading and watching this story it is like and invented one, but it was real. In the film, details show the real life that they had at that time. Even film’s music stays on your mind for days.

On the other hand, before I read it I wanted to know more about Elizabeth’s thinking, perhaps, know a little bit more about her (I know that it would be very difficult to know) but only appears facts, decisions and movements among empires. Before I watched the film I thought the same, but it was more emphases in the love side, and no in the whole context. So, it is necessary to read about England history before watch it. However, we know that some things in the film are changed to make it more artistic or maybe for not doing a high controversy with Catholic religion, I think. Nevertheless, reading about Elizabeth I, the mood was the same that I imagined when I read it. Although, each characterization was really good, the main character, Elizabeth I, acted by Cate Blanchet was amazing. In a moment, I felt that I was watching the history of Elizabeth through this film.

The Norman Conquest 1066

When I read this I learned that this conquest made for William of Normandy was very good to English Language because he enriched this language. First of all, he was from France, so that language was very order and clear; it used (and uses now) many auxiliars, and so on. Then, in this Norman conquest he introduced a lot of things to English Language. He was enphazised into each word meanings, so he could give an order in sentences that were used in old English. Besides, he included auxiliar such as "Have" and "Shall". It was very important due to the sentences has new order and meanings. I think that with this English started to be much better than before. But at that time people had to learn this and at the same time they kept writing in old English. Also, at this time was very difficult to speak an language because England began to be a Trilingual country. It had: English, France and Latin. they were divided on: School, church and politic.

The mystery of Stonehenge

Stonehenge is the greatest monument who has remained for many centuries in the world, but What was the propouse of this incredible monument? Is it a temple? Is it a tomb? We do not know what it is the propose of this magnificient structure. It is too difficult to know about its intrigants secrets. Nowadays, we know a little bit more than before about it. New excavations can show some secrets that are hidden for a long time ago. Some investigations in the bodies found can help us to search the best way to find the answer. Specialists say that this was made for people who wanted to be well, but they had to cave there. However this is a radical theory of Stonehenge meanings. The only concrete answer now is Stonehenge is still a big world secret that no one can discover yet. And, perhaps no one can never discover it, but we can appreciate the humanity with this greatest monument.

Ways of Seeing

This book, Ways of Seeing written by John Berger (et al.), is a great book which shows us some parts of the world's culture. In the first chapter, appears some words that can explain why humans being pay more attention into pictures than reading words: "Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak." (page 7) Everything outside of us affect our perspective to see the life. Besides, some persons, as painters and artists, wanted to show what time they were living and what the people thought and did in those times. They were, and they still are great people who reflected the moments in a peace of cloth or in music, etc. If every body says that one person knows how he or she is, it is thanks to others, in this case is the same, we supposedly know about the people in the past -how they were, their thoughts, beliefs, and so forth- because of the art and art's movements of them.