Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Ok. Today I was happily writing a text about creativity. A subject I love. But well, while I was writing a thought was nagging at me. Some time ago I saw a great video from a man called Sir Ken Robinson, about “schools kill creativity”.

And although I quite like how I write, I think today I should put down his speech about education, creativity and talent.

He tells us some very peculiar things about the educational system, things that really make you think, and stories that are very funny and inspirational! I just hope you don’t get demotivated by all those words, because I promise you, this is very interesting. And important too I’d say. Anyway, if you're really not bothered to read; here's the link to the video on Youtube, and to his website ;) http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/ 

"Every country in the world is currently reforming its education system. 2

One thing that strikes me is that there is almost everywhere the same hierarchy of subjects in the school system. It doesn’t really matter where you go. It’s true in America, throughout most of Europe, in Asia, and in Australia.

The hierarchy in every school system is like this: at the top are languages and mathematics and then science and then a bit further down come the humanities and then come the arts. And in the arts, there is another hierarchy – art and music are normally thought to be more important than drama and dance. This is true almost everywhere, in every school system.

There isn’t a school system on earth that teaches dance every day to every child with the same commitment that we teach them mathematics. Why not? If policymakers examine education performance and they find low mathematics results, they get into moral panic and say, “How on earth are we going to improve them?” If they see poor dance teaching, they’re more likely to say, “Why are we doing this in the first place?” Why is this? Why don’t we teach dance as thoroughly as we teach mathematics?

 Dance is as important in human development, as our capacity for mathematical abstractions. In all cultures, dance is present and has a formative influence. But we don’t teach it. Why not? We all have bodies, don’t we? In practice, we tend to educate people progressively from the neck up and slightly to one side. If you asked what the public education system was designed to do, you would have to conclude that it’s designed to produce university professors, because they’re the people at the top of the tree. I speak as a former university professor and I love academics and academic work, but I know it’s a very partial form of human life. Something that’s true of many university professors is that they live in their heads and slightly to one side.

They’re in a sense, disembodied. They look upon their body as a form of transport for their head. It’s a way of getting their heads to meetings.

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I don’t believe any politician sits and says, deliberately, we must reform education and root the arts out as soon as we can because they’re causing problems. Nobody does that. What they do is focus on math and science and languages. The arts, especially in times of financial stress, become part of the collateral damage. So there is mounting evidence across the country that arts programs are withering on the branch and that schools are cutting them. Consequently, many school students go through their entire education never lifting a paintbrush, never lifting an instrument, not being in the choir. They’re not in theater companies, they’re not in choirs. All parents hope they will be, but actually they’re not.

I believe that creativity should now be as important a priority for education in America and everywhere else as literacy. I think we really have to grasp this. Creativity is as fundamental as literacy and numeracy. All young children have immense creative confidence. What strikes me is how few adults do. If you ask adults, they mainly think they’re not very creative. All young children think they are up to a certain point.

I heard a great story recently of a teacher who was teaching a drawing class with a group of six-year-olds. There was a little girl in the back who hardly ever listened, hardly ever attended. But she was drawing and feverishly concentrating for about a half an hour. The teacher went over to her and said, “What are you drawing?” The girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” The girl replied, “They will in a minute.” Isn’t that great? How many adults would do that? But children reach a point where they start to lose this creative confidence.

Creativity is a function of intelligence. The reason that adults often think they’re not very creative often is that they haven’t found what they’re creative at. The reason we think we’re not very intelligent is because we underestimate the nature of our own intelligence. And the reason we do this is education, for the most part.

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About ten years ago, George Land and Beth Jarman published a book called,

Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today. They report on research they did over a series of years of divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is not the same thing as creativity, but it is a good example of it. It’s the capacity to think non-logically: to think analogically and associatively. They gave a series of tests to 1,600 three- to five-year- olds. If they achieved above a particular score they would be considered geniuses divergent thinking. Of the 1600 children, 98% scored at the genius level or higher for divergent thinking. They gave the same tests to the same children five years later at the ages of 8 to 10. Then 32% scored at the genius level in divergent thinking. They gave the same test to the same children at the ages of 14 to 15 and the result was 10%. Interestingly, they gave the same test to over 200,000 adults and the figure was 2%. Now this doesn’t tell us everything, but it tells us something, doesn’t it, about the erosion of a capacity that children once had.

Now a lot of things have happened to these children by the time they got to be 15, but one of them is that they became educated. Much of what we teach in education is about not being wrong, about not taking risks, about knowing there’s a right answer and it’s at the back and you’re not to look yet.

The arts are marginalized in education for two reasons. The first is vocational. People marginalize the arts in schools in good faith because they believe that taking courses in the arts will not lead students to a job at the end of school. So teachers and parents will say, “Don’t do music, you’re not going to be a musician, don’t do dance, you’re not going to be a dancer, don’t do art, you’re not going to be an artist.” Young people are steered away from the arts by well-intentioned people looking ahead at their futures. But interestingly, people do not say, “Don’t do math, you’re not going to be a mathematician.” They don’t say, “Don’t do languages, you’re not going to be a linguist.”

The reason is that there’s a second compelling restraint on the arts, which is intellectual.

Like America, every system on earth is attempting to reform education. There are two reasons. The first is economic. Every country in the world is facing an economic revolution. Industrialism in most of our countries has had its day as the major form of employment and wealth. In America in 1965, manufacturing accounted for something like 30% of employment. It’s currently less than 12% of employment. Manufacturing output has increased and is still a very important part of the economy, but it doesn’t employ as many people.

Throughout the world, the real growth era is the intellectual industries, including the arts, software, science and technology. These are areas where new ideas matter most. So, for example, Singapore aims to be the creative hub of Southeast Asia and they have in place the Creative Singapore Strategy. I spoke recently at a conference in Beijing for the Fortune Global Innovation Forum. China, as a compelling priority, is trying to figure out how to educate their people to be creative. Many countries recognize now that the future of national economies depends upon a steady flow of innovative ideas. There is no other way forward if our young people simply are to have jobs to do. So there’s a compelling economic argument here, which I tried to set out in my most recent book Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative.

But there’s a second equally powerful imperative to reform education, which is cultural. People talk a lot about globalization and we should, but we often make a mistake. Globalization is thought to mean that everything is becoming the same. Well, it is to a degree. There is certain homogeneity, but there is also a deep-seated and resilient strain of cultural difference and identity, which we’re all very keen to maintain. One of the great imperatives behind the ECS was to help states maintain their identity against a federal identity. If you look at what’s happening in Europe, it isn’t just that countries want to remain national, it’s that regions are becoming more distinct.

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We’re all trying to work out how to educate our children to survive in a world we can’t predict and to maintain a sense of cultural identity in a world that’s changing faster than ever.

Children who start in school today will be retiring in 2065. Do you have any idea what the world will look like in 2065? I don’t. I don’t think anybody can venture a guess beyond the next five years, but it’s our job to educate them to get there. We won’t do it by looking backwards. Most of our reform movements are based on a misconception: that the way we face the future is to do better what we did in the past. We just have to do more of it and raise standards. Well, we do have to raise standards, but we need to be sure what standards we’re trying to raise.

For the future, we need to recognize that the economic and cultural agenda are powerful drivers of change in education reform and that the arts are central to both– not on their own, but co-equal with other major disciplines. The arts teach many of the things that children will need for the new economies and that America will need: self-confidence, creativity, innovation, flexibility, social skills and a sense of well-being. They’re also at the heart of our sense of cultural identity. Our task is to channel them into the main stream of education.

Creativity is a function of intelligence. We know three things about intelligence on which I believe we should base our planning for education and the place of the arts.

The first is that intelligence is diverse. We think in many different ways and in all the ways that the senses make available to us. We think visually, in sound, in movement, mathematically, in abstract ideas – in a whole panoply of ways. Education has to address the full range of our ways of thinking and there’s a mountain of research to support this idea.

The second is that intelligence is dynamic. The human brain is intensely interactive. Mathematicians often think visually; dancers think mathematically. The school curriculum tends to still these interactions by setting up separate subject departments. So we teach math on a Thursday and we know that music is different because that’s on a Tuesday. Actually, these processes should be highly interactive.

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Third, intelligence is distinct. We all are unique and we all think differently. I once met a physicist who described himself to me as a native speaker of algebra. I don’t speak algebra. I only have phrasebook arithmetic frankly, but he speaks algebra. He said when he was 14 he discovered algebra in school and he loved it – and as a result he became a physicist. He now spends all day speaking algebra, which irritates his family quite a bit because they’re still speaking English.

We know in our hearts and from all our experiences that children learn differently. We all have different learning styles and we need different points of entry. Consequently, our school curriculum should cover a wide range of thinking skills; it should be interactive and it should address individual learning differences.

Now this isn’t a theory. There are great programs happening all over the country. All around the country people are putting their hands to this particular task. Our job is to syndicate the best practice and make it pervasive and not exceptional. To do this we need to rebalance the curriculum to give equal weight to these disciplines and not to live any longer with the hierarchy. We need to make education more interactive internally within disciplines. We need to look thoroughly at assessment because in assessment we marginalize things that can’t be quantified easily. Schools are pressed to teach to the test. The result is known as McNamara’s Fallacy – the tendency to make the measurable important rather than the important measurable. That pressure has to be tackled in a serious and sustained way. Finally education should be seen as a partnership activity, not as a ghetto. Education is not something that just happens in schools. We all have an investment in education – business, industry and cultural organizations, community leaders.

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The best models in America are showing that way. America is in pole position again to show the world how to do this. Britain, I think it’s reasonable to say, dominated the world in the 19th century in terms of industry, culture and the rest. If you had said to political leaders in the middle of the 19th century in Britain, “By the way, this will be over in 50 years,” they would not have believed you. There is no question the 20th century belonged to America. But we should not take it for granted that the 21^st century will belong to America. There are serious competitors coming up on the rails, notably China. Asia may well own the 21st century. America will keep its place only be keeping pace, not by looking back but by looking forward into a world we can’t predict.

I’m working on a new book called Epiphany. This is a collection of interviews and reflections on how people discovered their talent. One of the reasons Governor Huckabee is so committed to the arts is that they had a transformative effect in his life. Epiphany was triggered by a conversation I had with Gillian Lynn. Gillian is a choreographer and she was responsible for Cats and Phantom of the Opera. She’s wonderful. I had lunch one day with Gillian and asked her how she got to be a dancer. She said it nearly didn’t happen. She said that when she was in the elementary school she was a terrible student. Her handwriting was awful, she didn’t concentrate, couldn’t apply herself and was always looking out the window and being disruptive. As a result she was constantly in trouble. Eventually, the school wrote to her parents and said, “We think Gillian has a serious learning disorder.” Well, that’s a big stigma, then and now. I think now, by the way, they’d say she had Attention Deficit Disorder and put her on Ritalin.

Anyway, she remembers being sent to see a specialist with her mother, who’d dressed her in her best frock and her Sunday shoes. She remembers walking into an oaklined study with leather bound books and a man behind a large oak table in a rather impressive suit. She was led in and he took her to the far end of the room and set her down on a leather sofa. Her feet didn’t touch the ground and she sat on her hands so she wouldn’t fidget. For about 20 minutes her mother described to him all the problems she was having at school and all the problems she was causing. All the time he was watching her intently. At the end of it, he stood up and came across and sat next to her. And he said, “Gillian, I have been listening to all the things your mother’s told me – all the problems you’re having at school and I really now need to speak to her privately, so I’m going to leave with her and leave you on your own, but we’ll be back. We won’t be very long – just wait for us.” She said okay and they got up and left the room. But as they went out of the room, he leant across the desk and turned the radio on that was sitting on his desk.

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She found out later that as they got into the corridor he turned to her mother and said, “Just stand here for a moment and watch her.” There was a window back into the room. The moment they left the room, Gillian was on her feet moving to the music, all around the room. They watched for a few minutes and then he turned to her mother and said to her, “Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn’t sick – she’s a dancer. Take her to dance school.”

I said, “What happened?” She said, “I can’t tell you. I walked into this room and it was wonderful. There were all these people like me, people who couldn’t sit still – people who had to move to think.” I said, “What did you do?” She said, “We did ballet, we did tap, we did modern, we did jazz, and we did contemporary.” She was recommended for the Royal Ballet School, was auditioned and accepted. She became a soloist at Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. When her career came to a natural conclusion at the Royal Ballet, she founded her own company – the Gillian Lynne Dance Company. She met Andrew Lloyd Webber. She’s been responsible for some of the most successful musical theater productions in history, she’s given pleasure to millions and is probably a millionaire. Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down.

Now my point really is that there are millions of Gillians. We are all of us Gillians in our different ways looking to find the thing we can do. People achieve their best when they’re in their element – when they do the thing that they love. And by the way, when they do that they get better at everything because their tails are up. When people find the thing that they can do, they get better at everything. It’s true everywhere.

I think the challenge that faces America is one that faces the world just now, which is how on earth do we compose an education system to prepare people for a future that we don’t understand and cannot predict? The only way we can do it, I think, is to have children leave school firing on all cylinders – confident, creative, in their element, full of possibilities and full of hope. The arts are a central part of that solution – sitting foursquare with the sciences, with physical education, with the humanities and with languages. We cannot predict the future, we can’t look above the horizon, but if we raise our children up, if we lift their eyes, maybe they’ll see over the horizon and they will help to create this future and they will flourish in it. And if we do that, I think, we’ll have fulfilled our obligations as the current owners of education. I wish us all well in trying to achieve that. Thank you."

I will... / voy a..

The following text is a text I wrote some time ago. I wanted to write about globalization, but somehow I went off theme. It isn’t very coherent, nor did I express what I wanted to say about globalization. Maybe that’s because in my mind so many things are interconnected; globalization, environmental problems, human dissatisfaction with life… nevertheless, I would like to put this text here. Thank you.

Globality. What does it really mean? Maybe thanks to globality life of many people has already changed for better quite a lot. I’m only 20, so I haven’t seen much change yet regarding that in my life. But to me, globality hasn’t done all the good it was expected to do. To me, it doesn’t immediately guarantee happiness, safety, love, health, prosperity… we’re now a global species, in a globalized society, but nevertheless still miles apart even from ourselves, not to mention others.

How globally connected are we really? Religiously, politically, economically. Only slightly, and it’s mainly the economy which connects the world. Because there are too many differences between people in terms of culture and beliefs. And how globally connected are we as individual humans, as who we truly are? Barely (here putting emphasis on Who we Truly Are). Maybe globalization has helped us to achieve prosperity in a certain measure, but I can’t help thinking about the thousands of millions of people who still don’t see the beauty in life, who don’t receive love, who have to battle each day for their and their families survival… we, as a species, are still too far away from happiness, love and peace. Things that seem to me as the utmost, fundamental right of humanity. Things I will dedicate myself to give, to everyone, always, as much as they deserve. I myself have received the gifts of peace, love and happiness, and now, now it is time to pass it on to others.

I will give love, for everyone deserves it
I will listen, for man needs a listening and patient ear
I will be patient, respectful, a friend, a companion.
I will embrace others and do my very best to see people as who they truly are
I will help, for help is always welcome and no one should be alone
I will be grateful, for live has granted me many beautiful gifts.
I will try to be true of mind and soul, and always let my inner self guide me through life.
I will be a little stone in the river. Little, but nonetheless I will change for better many things.

Not until my work is done will I leave. Whilst there are still souls to awaken, people to cheer up, love to give, ones in need of a helping hand, I will be here.

English: everything that can be changed will be changed until there is no more time to change anything. wake up, respect, value, care for, help, love and be happy.

El siguiente texto es un texto que escribí hace tiempo.  Quería escribir sobre la globalización, pero de alguna manera me despiste del tema. El texto no es muy coherente, ni expresa lo que quería expresar sobre la globalización. Tal vez es porque en mi mente tantas cosas están interconectadas; la globalización, los problemas ambientales, la insatisfacción humana con la vida... sin embargo, me gustaría poner este texto aquí. Gracias.

La globalidad. ¿Qué significa eso realmente? Tal vez gracias a la globalidad la vida de muchas personas ya ha cambiado para bien en muchos casos. Sólo tengo 20, así que no he visto mucho cambio hasta ahora en mi vida. Pero para mí, la globalidad parece que no ha hecho todo el bien que se esperaba que hiciera. Para mí, no garantiza la felicidad inmediata, la seguridad, el amor, la salud, la prosperidad... ahora somos una especie a nivel mundial, en una sociedad globalizada, pero sin embargo a kilómetros de distancia incluso de nosotros mismos, para no mencionar otros.

¿Cómo de conectado globalmente realmente somos? Religiosamente, políticamente, económicamente?  Sólo un poco, y es sobre todo la economía la que conecta el mundo. Debido a que hay demasiadas diferencias entre las personas en términos de cultura y creencias. ¿Y cómo de conectados estamos como seres humanos individuales, como quiénes somos en realidad? Apenas (en este caso quiero poner énfasis en Quien Somos de Verdad). Tal vez la globalización nos ha ayudado a alcanzar la prosperidad en cierta medida, pero no puedo dejar de pensar en los miles de millones de personas que todavía no ven la belleza de la vida, que no reciben amor, que tienen que luchar día tras día por su supervivencia y la de su familia... nosotros, como especie, son todavía demasiado lejos de la felicidad, el amor y la paz.  Cosas que me parecen como el mayor y más fundamental derecho de la humanidad. Cosas a las cuales me dedicaré a dar, a todos, siempre, tanto como se merecen. Yo mismo he recibido los regalos de la paz, el amor y la felicidad, y ahora, ahora es el momento de dárselo a otras personas.

Voy a dar amor, porque todo el mundo se lo merece
Voy a escuchar, porque las personas necesitan un oído atento y paciente
Seré paciente, respetuoso, una amiga, una compañera.
Abrazare a las personas y hare mi mejor esfuerzo para ver a la gente como quien realmente son
Voy a ayudar, porque toda la ayuda es bienvenida y nadie debería estar solo
Voy a estar agradecido por la vida, porque me ha dado muchos regalos hermosos.
Voy a tratar de ser sincera de mente y alma, y ​​siempre dejare a mi yo interior guiarme por la vida.
Voy a ser una pequeña piedra en el río. Pequeña, pero sin embargo cambiara parea mejor muchas cosas 

No hasta que mi trabajo se ha acabado me iré. Mientras que todavía hay almas para despertar, personas para alegrar, amor para dar, gente en necesidad de ayuda, voy a estar aquí.

Friendship / amistad

There is this thing that I find very odd. Well, maybe I’m a little odd too and considering the fact that most of my time I spend thinking about almost everything possible might contribute to my perception that that thing I want to talk about is odd.

Today I want to talk about friendship. About what I consider is truly friendship but that most people don’t even seem to know what that is and are content with “friendship”.

I mean. If you are friends with people, tell me: would you be there by their side? Would you support them with the things they do? Would you show them unconditional respect, love and loyalty? Would you try to cheer them up when they are down, and tell them things that makes their life happier?

Or would you ignore them in times when they most need a person by their side? Would you refuse to help them when they are in need of help? Would you talk behind their back about the secrets they believed were safe with you? Would you deliberately humiliate, depreciate and shame them? Would you take advantage of them?

I’m sure that now you will say: “of course I’m like the description in the first paragraph with examples!”  And “I would neeeever do such things!” and “oh, but I know people who are exactly like the description in the 2º paragraph”

Hmmm. Well. Sure. You know, humans tend to forget the bad things they themselves did, and only remember (and even exaggerate!) the bad things other people did to them. Individual humans tend to be much less strict for themselves then for others. Because individually about ourselves we say: “oh, but I had this and this excuse” whilst when we talk about others it’s often that we say “this and that person did that certain thing because he/she is lazy/bad/takes advantage of everyone etc”.

Honestly! That not very fair, right? But that’s just what humans do.

I confess that I am not perfect, and that in the past I have also made mistakes. Like everyone else has, undoubtly. But I can also say that now, now that I’m learning about fundamental things like love, happiness and inner peace, I am a good friend. At least, I try my very best at it :)

And by being who I am now, it disables me to understand how anyone could ever want to hurt someone they call friend. I can’t understand that people lie by saying someone is their friend but in the meantime all their actions indicate otherwise.  I can’t understand how anyone could deliberately hurt someone and call him/herself a friend of this hurt person.

To me, friendship is a relationship. Of course it is! People tend to relate relationship immediately with romantic relationship, but I just refer to a relation there is between people. (hope I didn’t confuse you!) And to me, in whatever honest relationship, it seems natural to be there, to help the friend grow as a person, to help the friend reach its full potential, to experience life, to see, to learn. Friendship is there to benefit both thanks to social human interaction. To me, friendship is not just something you can “buy” and throw it away when it doesn’t benefit you anymore. Which happens only too often….

Or do I see it all wrong? Should I care less about my friends? I have friends, and to be honest quite a lot, who are people who will always be important to me. To me friends are extremely important, and I couldn’t live without them. Thanks to then I have learnt, laughed, cried. I have talked, and listened. I have helped, and I have received help.  I have grown as a human being, and I have become me.

Maybe to most people it seems like I care too much about my friends. Well, what can I say? At least I don’t hurt and humiliate my friends. At least I don’t spread their most intimate secrets around. At least I don’t ignore them when they are no longer of use to me.

No. what I do is being there for them. What I do is helping them, telling them how to cope with life, how to be happy. Or just simply to have a great time going out, laughing, talking! And I do all of this unconditionally. Do you know why? Because when I was the one who needed help, they were by my side. Unconditionally.

Maybe that has been one of the greatest life lessons to me.

Thank you. thank you with all my heart, my dearest friends.

Hoy quiero hablar sobre la amistad. Acerca de lo que yo considero que es realmente amistad, pero que la mayoría de la gente ni siquiera parece saber y se conforman con "amistad".

Lo que quiero decir es que, si eres amigo/a de alguien, dime: ¿estarías allí a su lado? ¿Le apoyarías con las cosas que hace? Le muestras respeto, amor y lealtad incondicional? ¿Tratarías de animarle cuando tiene un mal día y le dirías cosas que hace su vida más feliz?

¿O le ignorarías en los momentos cuando más necesita a una persona a su lado? ¿Negarías a ayudarle cuando necesita de ayuda? ¿Hablarías detrás de su espalda sobre los secretos que creía que estaban a salvo contigo? ¿Le humillarías, despreciarías y avergonzarías deliberadamente? ¿Te aprovecharías de él/ella?

Estoy seguro de que ahora vas a decir: "por supuesto que soy como la descripción en el primer párrafo con ejemplos!" Y "yo nuuuunca haría esas cosas!" Y "oh, pero conozco a personas que son exactamente como las descripción en el 2º párrafo”

Hmmm. Bueno. Claro. ¿Sabes qué?, los humanos tendemos a olvidar las cosas malas que ellos mismos hacen, y sólo recuerden (e incluso exageran!) las cosas malas que otras personas hacen a ellos. Los seres humanos individuales tienden a ser mucho menos estricto para sí mismos, que para los demás. Individualmente decimos sobre nosotros mismos: "Oh, pero yo tenía esto y esta excusa", mientras que cuando hablamos sobre los demás a menudo lo que decimos es "esta y esa persona hizo esa determinada cosa porque él / ella es perezoso / malo / se aprovecha de todo el mundo etc”.

Honestamente! Eso no es muy justo, ¿verdad? Pero eso es lo que hacen los seres humanos.

Confieso que no soy perfecta, y que en el pasado también he cometido errores. Al igual que todos, indudablemente. Pero también puedo decir que ahora, ahora que estoy aprendiendo sobre las cosas fundamentales como el amor, la felicidad y la paz interior, soy una buena amiga. Por lo menos, intento lo mejor posible :).

Y por ser quien soy ahora, me resulta imposible entender cómo alguien podría querer hacer daño a alguien a quien llama amigo. No puedo entender que la gente miente al decir que alguien es su amigo, pero mientras tanto todas sus acciones indican lo contrario. No puedo entender cómo alguien podría deliberadamente hacer daño a alguien y llamarse amigo de esta persona herida.

Para mí, la amistad es una relación. Por supuesto que lo es! Las personas tienden a relacionar ese término inmediatamente con una relación romántica, pero “relación” simplemente se refiere a una relación que hay entre la gente. (Espero que no te he confundido!) Y para mí, en cualquier relación honesta, me parece natural estar allí para esa persona, para ayudar al amigo a crecer como persona, para ayudar al amigo alcanzar su máximo potencial, para experimentar la vida, para ver , para aprender. La amistad es para beneficiar a ambos, gracias a la interacción social humana. Para mí, la amistad no es sólo algo que se puede "comprar" y tirar a la basura cuando ya no es beneficioso. Algo que por desgracia sucede con demasiada frecuencia ....

¿O es que yo lo veo todo mal? ¿Debería importarme menos mis amigos? Tengo amigos, y para ser honesto tengo bastantes, y ellos son personas quien siempre serán importantes para mí. Para mí los amigos son muy importantes, y yo no podría vivir sin ellos. Gracias a ellos, he aprendido, reído, llorado. He hablado y  escuchado. Me han ayudado, y he recibido ayuda. He crecido como ser humano, y me he convertido en mí.

Tal vez para la mayoría de la gente parece que me preocupo demasiado por mis amigos. Bueno, ¿qué te puedo decir? Por lo menos no hago daño y humillo a mis amigos. Por lo menos yo no divulgo sus secretos más íntimos por ahí. Por lo menos yo no los ignoro, cuando ya no son de utilidad para mí.

No. Lo que hago es estar ahí para ellos. Lo que hago es ayudarles, diciéndoles cómo enfrentar la vida, cómo ser feliz. O simplemente para pasar un buen rato saliendo, riendo o hablando! Y hago todo esto sin condiciones. ¿Sabes por qué? Porque cuando yo era la quien necesitaba ayuda, ellos estaban a mi lado. Incondicionalmente.

Tal vez eso ha sido una de las lecciones más grandes de la vida para mí.

Gracias. Gracias con todo mi corazón, mis queridos amigos.

Womens day/ día de la mujer

If you are a bit updated with international days, or you have been on the internet today, you will know that today its International women’s day.

Why women’s day? I was thinking about that, and knowing others would also want to know about it, I found a text of the United Nations about this:

"Why dedicate a day exclusively to the celebration of the world's women?

The United Nations celebrates International Women's Day to recognize that peace and social progress require the active participation and equality of women, and to acknowledge the contribution of women to international peace and security.

For the women of the world, the Day is an occasion to review how far they have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development.

You might think that women's equality benefits mostly women, but every one-percentile growth in female secondary schooling results in a 0.3 percent growth in the economy. Yet girls are often kept from receiving education in the poorest countries that would best benefit from the economic growth.

Until the men and women work together to secure the rights and full potential of women, lasting solutions to the world's most serious social, economic and political problems are unlikely to be found.

In recent decades, much progress has been made. On a worldwide level, women's access to education and proper health care has increased; their participation in the paid labor force has grown; and legislation that promises equal opportunities for women and respect for their human rights has been adopted in many countries. The world now has an ever- growing number of women participating in society as policy-makers.

However, nowhere in the world can women claim to have all the same rights and opportunities as men.

The majority of the world's 1.3 billion absolute poor are women.

On average, women receive between 30 and 40 per cent less pay than men earn for the same work.

And everywhere, women continue to be victims of violence, with rape and domestic violence listed as significant causes of disability and death among women of reproductive age worldwide."

I quite like this text. Surely, I do not favor one gender over the other. I don’t believe women are better than men or vice versa.  

But I do find it correct to celebrate an international day for woman. Because in many countries, cultures and religions, and in many families and groups, women are still not considered equal to men. Women are constantly discriminated, ignored, mistreated, hurt and used disrespectfully. Surely, those things also happen to men. But it happens even more to women. Much more.

And just like the text of the UN says, women participate greatly in the progress of a country’s development, they see the world differently from men and thus help greatly to solve many problems our society stands before.  We mustn’t forget about the importance that women have in everyone’s life.  Thus, a special day to celebrate it! :)

To me, women and men are equal, but at the same time different, unique. They complement each other, but are and can be totally independent one from another. I think that if in the whole world women and men would live peacefully side by side, respecting each other, and knowing well the strengths and weaknesses of both, that that would be a great step for the human being.

Today I say, in honor of all the women: I wish you a very happy women’s day. To all the mothers, aunts, sisters, grandmothers, cousins, girlfriends, granddaughters, nieces, wives in the world: I desire you the best, and that you may forever live in harmony and peace with men.

Si estas enterado de los días internacionales, o si has estado hoy en el Internet, seguramente que sabrás hoy es el día Internacional de la Mujer.

¿Por qué día de la mujer? Yo estaba pensando sobre eso, y sabiendo que otros seguramente que también quieren saber sobre ello, encontré un texto de las Naciones Unidas sobre esto:

"¿Por qué dedicar un día exclusivamente a la celebración de las mujeres del mundo?

Las Naciones Unidas celebra el Día Internacional de la Mujer para reconocer que el progreso social  y de la paz requiere la activa participación y la igualdad de las mujeres, y reconoce la contribución de las mujeres a la paz y la seguridad internacional.

Para las mujeres del mundo, este día es una ocasión para revisar qué lejos han llegado en su lucha por la igualdad, la paz y el desarrollo.

Quizás piensas que la igualdad de la mujer beneficia principalmente a  las mujeres, pero cada crecimiento de un percentil en la escolaridad secundaria femenina resulta en un crecimiento del 0,3 %  en la economía. Sin embargo, las niñas frecuentemente no reciben educación en los países más pobres que más se beneficiarían al crecimiento económico.

Hasta que los hombres y mujeres trabajen juntos para asegurar los derechos y el potencial de las mujeres, es poco probable que se encuentren soluciones duraderas a los problemas más graves del mundo social, económico y político.

En las últimas décadas, el progreso ha sido muy grande. A nivel mundial, el acceso de las mujeres a la educación y la atención de salud adecuada se ha incrementado, su participación en la fuerza laboral remunerada ha crecido, y la legislación que promete igualdad de oportunidades para las mujeres y el respeto de sus derechos humanos ha sido adoptada en muchos países. El mundo tiene ahora un número cada vez mayor de mujeres que participan en la sociedad como responsables políticos.

Sin embargo, en ningún parte del mundo las mujeres pueden afirman tener todos los mismos derechos y oportunidades que los hombres.

La mayoría de los 1,3 mil millones de personas absolutamente pobres del mundo son mujeres.

En promedio, las mujeres reciben entre 30 y 40 % menos salario que lo que ganan los hombres por el mismo trabajo.

Y en todas partes, las mujeres siguen siendo víctimas de la violencia, la violación y la violencia doméstica, siendo estas causas importantes de discapacidad y muerte entre las mujeres en edad reproductiva en todo el mundo."

Me gusta bastante este texto. Ciertamente, no soy partidaria de un sexo u otro. No creo que las mujeres sean mejores que los hombres, o viceversa.

Sin embargo, creo que es correcto celebrar un día internacional de la mujer. Debido a que en muchos países, culturas y religiones, y en muchas familias y grupos, las mujeres todavía no son consideradas iguales a los hombres. Las mujeres son constantemente discriminadas, ignoradas, maltratadas, heridas, y utilizadas sin respeto. Sin duda, esas cosas también suceden a los hombres. Pero sucede aún más a las mujeres. Mucho más.

Y al igual que el texto de la ONU dice: las mujeres participan mucho en el progreso del desarrollo de un país, ven el mundo diferente a los hombres y por lo tanto son de gran ayuda para resolver muchos problemas ante la cual se encuentre nuestra sociedad. No debemos olvidar la importancia que tienen las mujeres en la vida de todos. Por lo tanto, un día especial para celebrarlo! :)

Para mí, las mujeres y los hombres son iguales, pero al mismo tiempo, diferentes,  únicos. Se complementan entre sí, pero son y pueden ser totalmente independientes una de otra. Creo que si en el mundo, las mujeres y los hombres podrían vivir en paz uno junto al otro, respetándose unos a otros, y conociendo las fortalezas y debilidades de ambos, que eso sería un gran paso para el ser humano.

Hoy digo, en honor a todas las mujeres: Te deseo un muy feliz día de la mujer. Para todas las madres, tías, hermanas, abuelas, primas, novias, amigas, nietas, sobrinas, esposas en el mundo: te deseo lo mejor, y que siempre puedes vivir en armonía y paz con los hombres.

Inner happiness/ felicidad interior

There are moments when I feel so grateful. Grateful for my life, for the things I’ve learnt, seen and experienced. Grateful for love, friendships, and my family. And a veeeery long list that I won’t write down here because then I would be busy writing it during a considerable amount of time haha.

What I want to say is that the feeling of gratefulness is one of the best feelings I know. It simply makes me feel very happy, and I truly believe in the phrases: “The best prayer is not that of begging, but that of gratitude.” And “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them" Just like I believe that by this positive attitude I create a happy life for myself, a happiness that comes from inside me. And as long as I find happiness inside me, I will be happy.

Of course, I have a great life. I have lived in many countries, seen a lot of the world, and learnt a lot of languages, customs, and thinking patterns. I have always had the opportunity to learn, to explore, and to investigate.  I have many good friends. I have a loving family, a safe and nice place to live. I have someone to love with all my soul and who loves me back just as much. I am doing the best possible study there is for me, a study that I love and that inspires me to do even more things.  I have the opportunities to grow as a person and as a soul, to have experiences that I will always treasure.  And, as I’ve said before, a long list of other things

But that’s now that I see what a good life I have. Of course, I have always seen it, but there is a great difference between seeing it and being sincerely, truly grateful for it. During a long time I wasn’t happy at all with myself. I wasn’t happy on the inside, while there was in fact all the reason to be happy. And as long as you’re not happy on the inside, I believe you can’t be grateful for life. The wires are just not there to make it possible. Or something like that!

What’s important is to be happy on the inside dear reader.  Because that gives you so much good things. So much inner peace and joy.

Actually, I want to say that I find it a bit hard to write this last piece, because I think everyone experiences inner happiness slightly different. But I do believe that there is nothing better than that. Not all the material possessions of the world can make you happier then when you are happy on the inside.

I wish you happiness and peace, for every living being deserves it.

Ps: here is a link with a video about gratefullnessI really like :D http://vimeo.com/22100389

Hay momentos en las cuales me siento tan agradecida. Agradecida por mi vida, por las cosas que he aprendido, visto y experimentado. Agradecida por el amor, las amistades y mi familia. Y una lista muuuuuy  larga que no voy a escribir aquí porque entonces yo estaría escribiendo durante una considerable cantidad de tiempo. haha.

Lo que quiero decir es que el sentimiento de gratitud es una de las mejores sensaciones que conozco. Simplemente me hace sentir muy feliz, y realmente creo en las frases: "La mejor oración no es el de rogar, sino de gratitud." Y "al expresar nuestra gratitud, nunca debemos olvidar que la mayor apreciación no es de pronunciar palabras, sino vivir según ellos”. Además,  creo que por una actitud positiva puedo crear una vida feliz para mí, una felicidad que viene de dentro de mí. Y mientras yo encuentro la felicidad dentro de mí, seré feliz.

Por supuesto, tengo una vida muy buena. He vivido en muchos países, he visto mucho del mundo, y he aprendido muchos idiomas, costumbres y maneras de pensar. Siempre he tenido la oportunidad de aprender, explorar, e investigar. Tengo muchos buenos amigos. Tengo una familia quien me quiere, un lugar seguro y agradable para vivir. Tengo a alguien a quien amo con todo mi alma y él me ama tanto también. Estoy haciendo el mejor posible estudio que hay para mí, un estudio que me encanta y que me inspira a hacer aún más cosas. Tengo la oportunidad de crecer como persona y como un alma, a tener experiencias que siempre guardare en mi corazón. Y, como he dicho antes, una larga lista de otras cosas

Pero eso es ahora que veo que buena vida tengo. Por supuesto, siempre lo he visto, pero hay una gran diferencia entre ver y ser sinceramente agradecido por ello. Durante mucho tiempo yo no estaba nada contento conmigo mismo. Yo no era feliz en el interior, mientras que en realidad sí que había razones por las cuales ser feliz. Y mientras que tú no eres feliz en el interior, creo que no puedes estar agradecido por tu vida. Los cables simplemente no existen para que eso sea posible. O algo por el estilo!

Lo importante es ser feliz en el interior, querido lector. Porque eso te da tantísimas cosas buenas. Te da tanto paz interior y alegría.

En realidad, quiero decir que me resulta un poco difícil de escribir estas últimas frases, porque creo que todo el mundo experimenta la felicidad interior ligeramente diferente. Pero si que creo que no hay nada mejor que la felicidad interior. No todos los bienes materiales del mundo pueden hacerte más feliz que ser feliz en el interior.

Te deseo felicidad y paz, porque todo ser vivo lo merece.