Final Task

While reading the different comments on the sites, one which called my attention is a comment which said: "Frank cannot see any more and Rita is starting to see things now".

This comment awakened a thought in my mind about how the two characters developed.

On the one side, Rita. By taking the course and being educated she starts to unfold a sort of bandage she has on her eyes. She starts to see the world around her and the different opportunities she has. She has options and she is delighted to be able to choose what to do with her life and how to move on now. She can choose if she wants to travel to France, have a baby or go on at college. It;s not she didn't have these possibilities before, however she was blind, unable to see them clearly and starting to be educated helped to find these options out.

Frank, on the other hand, has always been able to see different possibilities and choose among them in his life. For instance, improve in his own carrer, grow as a professional, have a permanent relationship. Even though he knew all this, he's always chosen to sink in his own frustration. He has no intention of stopping drinking and although he can see how he 's been able to serve as a tool in Rita's education, he did not change his attitute towards choosing a better life, he just "stopped seeing", he did not want to see beyond his own present, he chooses not to choose anything else.

As a conclussion, from the educational point of view, how important the role of a teacher is having in mind Frank's role in this play!!! He was able to help his student, though he is not able to help himself. How much influence a teacher has on a student! We have seen a positive result out of Frank's professional support in Rita's education. However, taking into account Frank's reality, as all teachers have, I believe it is important for a teacher to be professional enough so as to be able to facilitate and guide his or her students. For Rita willingness to "know" was also of great importance in her own growth and development, but Frank's attitude was not good enough to be able to help other students as well.

All in all, we as teachers should always bare in mind the consequences our influnce might have on our students, after all we are involved in human being's education for a moment of their precious lives and no matter how long that time might be, it should be used appropriately for their and our benefit and never be misused or wasted.

Act 2 Scene 6 & 7

In this last part of the play the new Rita who successfully has passed her test goes to tell Frank about it and about what she feels after all her learning process.

On the one hand, Rita tells Frank about her flatmate's trying to commit suicide. She criticizes this question of spending her eating healthy food for a better life quality and on the other hand spending time trying to kill herself. As a result of this, she mentions the word "choice". That was Trish's choice, she chose that contradictoy path of taking care of herself in a way and trying to destroy herself at the same time. Rita thanks Frank because thanks to his help she had a choice. I think she had different choices since the moment she decided to start studying and as she said, she chose "her". She might have chosen to go on her life just as it was.

Secondly, as regards her view of the other students, I think Rita at the beginning idealized them, later on she realized they were just like her, people with different options in life. She realized whether better educated or not they were not people who could make better choices than the ones she could make. All in all the most important thing was she realized she also had choices.

Act 2 Scenes 4 & 5

In these scenes Rita shows herself up as a totally different person from the beginning of the play. Her vocabulary is richer and she doesn't make grammar mistakes in her speech.

Her point of view has also changed. She has changed her job and makes a point of the topics she talked about at the hairdresser's and the ones she can discuss now with other students. She feels self- confident and glad of the personal growth she's achieved.

On the other hand, Frank does not show the same joy as Rita . He seems not to like the new person who has learnt and grown and can do a lot by herself without his help. He might feel jealous in a way because at this stage Rita has discovered much more in the world than Frank's poetry and advice.

I believe that as a teacher, Frank's attitude is totally unexpected and painful for a student. A teacher should feel proud of his or her students' achievements and not challenge them in a negative way, as Frank challenged Rita with the new essay. With this attitude he will probably cause her to get away from him and not continue enjoying his teaching and experience. He is showing her his own frustrations instead of celebrating with Rita the outstanding results of her continuous effort and dedication.

We should question ourselves what exactly we transmit to our students, for not only do we transmit knowledge every single day in our classes but also our own beings with our asserts and mistakes. I believe that when we teachers sometimes work with real devotion and pour out our feelings at work, students sense the good as well as the bad things we may feel and we do need to be aware of this...