Modern but problematic times

“Modern Times” is a very good movie, where the great Charles Chaplin made an excellent critic about the problems lived by workers in those times. Chaplin wrote, directed and starred the movie. He did an awesome job. Moreover, he could express and portrait ,in a magnificent way, all the consequences that modernization broth. For example, stress, hard-work, poorness, injustice and big social changes.

Charles Chaplin represents a man of the working class, who works in a factory with large and new machines. He suffers terrible consequences because of the hard-work he has to do. This situation make him feel so stressful and depress, that he drop out work. Here is when he decides to go to the doctor, who tell him to be the calm and relax, but how could he be relax if people of his town are living a terrible period. This process was well known by the Great Depression. This was an ideological system of work that was focus more in productivity than in the workers needs. The consequences of this situation were terrible, because people never thought that this would bring economical and social problems.

The film is a good way to realize how modernization worked in those times. Besides, it gives you a vision of the bad conditions that workers had to face to continue working and don’t lose their jobs. The movie has a lot of shots, which express the difficult moment that people had to live. But, even this events are very terrible and sad, the hilarious Charles Chaplin could catch and represent them in a funny and interesting way. Modern time is a silent movie, even tough you can understand everything very clear.

Charles Chaplin masterpiece, is a good and meaningful movie to watch. I recommend this film to everybody who wants to learn and understand in a better way The industrial Revolution period. It shows all the problems that workers had to deal with and how, in way, the power of love is involved there. You would also see, the consequences that technology has in that period, and how some of that chain problems have continued in our times.

I was very delight watching the movie, and I really recommend it. It’s amazing how Charles shows the positive side of life, because, even he was living a difficult time he never gave up. He continues doing what he though was correct. Apart of learn a lot about industrialization you would enjoy the great performance of Charles Chaplin and the co-star Paulette Goddard. They create a nice atmosphere meanwhile they are acting. Personally, I think that both show how important is to have a clear view of what you want for life, and obviously fight for that, no matter what the consequences will bring. You should see the movie and prove that all what I said is true, and at the end you would have a similar view, or maybe a different one. It depends on the perspective that you’ll watch it.

The Industrial Revolution: Social Changes and Education

The Industrial Revolution started, not with the industrial machine installations in England, but with trade agreements. The bourgeoisie wanted that their activities were governed by themselves, and obtained that the government couldn’t have so much intervention. They believed that this will bring a prosperous and virtuous society. Moreover, they wanted to eliminate the privileges of corporations, the tariffs and barriers to the traffics of goods and eventually the differences in legislation, languages and customs.

This indicates that the freedom of trade was an essential issue for the bourgeoisie, as it also was the free trade of beliefs and ideas. That is how, the domination of the bourgeoisie was consolidated over the other social classes. Whit this situation, “armies of free workers”, who has just their hands to live, were forced to offer their hands to the bourgeois.

With all the acceleration in production and trade expansion, The Capitalist Appropriation appeared. This means, that the capitalist gave a salary to the worker, for what he did in the labor. Several times, less than the value of the produced by him. Obviously, the capitalist earned thanks to the hard-work of others.

With all these sociial and economical changes, a new educational system started. In that time, there should be two classes of schools, “The Big scchools” for poor, and the “Small Schools” for rich. With this, we can realized how huge was the gap in differences and habits between classes.

High class’ children were forced to begin their education process early, because, as rich boys they should go farther than poor children, that’s why, they have to study more. However, children of the “Big Schools”, were taught to learn how they should work with the brain and not with hands. Capitalists knew that in few years machines and tools would became more sophisticated and they would need people with high quality of labor to operate the new machines.

This situation favored the technical education, which quickly became in a vital condition for capitalism. Polytechnics schools began. Thanks to this, the student who entered in hig school institutes, were able to start earning and living as citizens at the age of 22 or 23. But, these students could only come from the better classes.

Thus, education was defined by the needs of the dominant classes and the vision of the future in the world. In twentieth century, the Bourgeoisie found how to disguse the contradiction of classes in conflict gave in the educational field. This way, they brought the school into a technical criteria, based on the psychology of; the poor has to learn to produce and the rich has to learn to order and manage.

It’s incredible how, this situation is still working in our times. It’s clear that our educational system was design to rich and poor in different ways. However, we can not see this clearly, because the government would never recognize that they implemented this underneath the curriculum of schools. Richs, have to order poors and poors have to obey them. I could observed this very close, because I was in a private school in Vitacura and in a social risk school in Pedro Aguirre Cerda. In Vitacura children are educated to go to University, to travel and to think that they are in the top of the society triangle. They are teach to think independently and to criticized what is not fear for them. In terms of English, most of them learned it without problem, because they know they will use it. Maybe in their future job or just because they have to travel to an English speaker country. In the other hand, Pedro Aguirre Cerda’s school is educated in a completely different way. First, teachers have the wrong idea of that students cannot be more than bus drivers or garbage collectors, and so on. Students here, are educated to obey and not to discuss if something is wrong, they have to comply with what is ordered. With English, they are not very interested in learning it, because they think, when am I going to use it? But, the saddest thing here is, that our society works like this. I think our role as future teachers is to change that gap and give the opportunity to every student. This way, they could dream with go to university, with traveling and have a better life, because they CAN DO IT!

Sourcess: - Pinilla de las Herreras, Esteban. Reacción y Revolución en una Sociedad Industrial, Ediciones Signos 1970, Buenos Aires Argentina.

- http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html

Industrialization

Outline

• Introduction: What is industrialization?
• Social impact (changes)
• Political impact
• Consequences to the people, children
• Educational consequences
• How that consequences affect our society.
• Conclusion

The industrial Revolution: Social Changes and Education

The industrial revolution processes had a big impact in society. The way people live or work changed considerably.