Writing

from www.pbs.org


Introduction.
I like to write correctly. I like to be corrected in order to improve my writing skills. I don't like to use pompous words; I say just what I have to say. Sincerely, writing is one of my favorite hobbies. I learned to write when I was in kindergarden. Since then I enjoy writing even my name. I've realized I've learned a lot by writing. I love to write stories that I never end or poems that don't rhyme. Besides being useful, writing is a way of keeping stress away and release our feelings.



A New Classmate is Here

I had the opportunity to interview a girl I didn’t know until I entered the third semester; her name is Norma Ballesteros Negrete and she was born in Hermosillo on March 7th, 1985. She told me a bit about her life. The first thing she said was that she spends much time with the computer –mainly to chat on line-. Besides that, she listens to music every time she can, and she also watches TV very often. Some of her favorite programs are series such as Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, and CSI. Norma said something about the weather: she hates summer because it makes her get angry, but she loves winter. When talking about pets, Norma said her favorite ones are dogs but she feels special attraction to puppies. In fact, she said all the animals – but reptiles- are adorable. When she’s hungry she thinks of her favorite food: Italian and Chinese food. A food she’s never going to think of is seafood. She just doesn’t like it. After having a great dish is good to have a good time and, for that, Norma needs music, any kind of music but cheras and banda –she hardly can stand them-. When I asked her about shopping, she answered me, among laughs, that she spends all the money she gets on buying stuff that she doesn’t even need and that she will end up throwing them away. And finally, the sports section took a turn. It’s unbelievable: Norma loves eating junk food as often as possible but she also loves sports; it’s like committing a crime and then paying for it. That’s really good because it’s the best way of burning all the calories she gets from junk food. Getting back to the sports section, Norma practices kick boxing and aerobics but her favorite sports are baseball and basketball –she doesn’t practice either of them-. To finish this interview, Norma said she was happy to be in our class because it has a good environment, and that she had enjoyed being interviewed.

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Well-educated People

Thanks to history, we know that women were not allowed to study in the past; only men had the right to do so. However, with the pass of the years, many brave women decided to stop this situation and ask for the rights they also deserved. That’s how both women and men started sharing a treasure called “education”. Even though the benefits of this achievement are for most of the cultures in the world, there are differences regarding educational systems all over the world; two of those examples are Mexico and France.
First of all, according to French teacher Clotilde Barbier, “education in France began in the 6th century” –much earlier than in Mexico, - but only for the privileged classes; in Mexico the official education began after the colonial period –after the 19th century. With the French Revolution in 1789, all the classes were given the right to study –only men- but it wasn’t until 1888 that a man whose last name was Ferry imposed free education, and, in 1968 women were received in French schools for the first time. In Mexico, free education was official when President Benito Juárez made a change in education in the year 1867. The same as in Mexico, education in France is free, as I already said, mandatory, and laical, and people can choose between private and public schools. In France, the difference between private and public school is religion teaching.
Although characteristics of education in France and Mexico are similar, there are some differences in age required to enter the school. In Mexico, two years of kinder garden are mandatory and children must enter primary school at age 6; afterward, children must enter secondary school at age 12; after secondary school, they must enter preparatory at age 15; therefore, youngsters will have turned 18 by the time they finish the preparatory . In France, kinder garden is not mandatory; at age 6, children must enter elementary school (primary) and finish it at 12; then, children must enter collège (secondary) and finish it at age 12; and then, they must to enter lycée at age 15 and finish it at age 18. Supposedly, for people to work in Mexico they must finish secondary school; in France, for people to work they must finish the baccalauréat. In Mexico the school is from Monday to Friday, at morning or afternoon. In contrast, French students go to school from Monday to Saturday at morning and afternoon when they’re in lycée. With regard to money, Mexican government allocates little money taking into account the amount of students in school. On the other hand, France has fewer students than Mexico but the French government allocates more money to education. Another difference between Mexican and French education is the uniform, “French students do not wear uniforms since it is seen as authoritarian,” Clotilde Barbier stated. On the other hand, in Mexico uniform is seen as very practical clothing since it’s the same –in most of the schools- every day for everybody. Besides the uniform, relationship between teacher and student in France is strict; the opposite in Mexico, relationship between teacher and student is friendlier and most of the teachers are “bearable”.
Education is a right for everybody; it’s something that will last forever. It doesn’t matter the educational system but the way we give and receive education. Mexico and France share some aspects of their educational system and also differ in some of them. The most important thing here is that both of them are forming educated people.

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Space is Taking Over our Space

Even though human being likes mystery, there are many phenomena he has wondered about and tried to find an answer for each of them. Human beings have discovered cures for many diseases, causes of certain facts, and even clues about the formation of Earth. Precisely, the latter is one of the topics that the human being is more concerned about lately. Many spacecrafts have been sent to space for the past few years. In spite of having valuable information about Earth’s and Solar System formation, is it worth spending great amounts of money on those investigations? We are passing through a hard stage in which the most important thing to do is to save our home, Earth.
The countries that are involved in space investigations are the US, China, The European Union (ESA), Canada, Japan and India. The country that spends the greatest amount of money on space investigations is the US (NASA). Just in 2005, NASA had a budget of 16.2 billion dollars for spaceflights, engineering projects, and science. The new space policy of the Bush administration has been criticized by several politicians who argue that the money spent on space can be spent on better things on Earth. There are many people dying of hunger; there are many people dying because they have no money to buy medicaments; there are many animals that are in danger of extinction; and the Earth’s pollution is a huge problem. A scientist from NASA argues that 976.3 billion dollars are spent in US on pets, gambling, toys, alcohol, and tobacco every year; this amount is 63 times the amount that is spent on space and, he argued, “… with the difference that NASA has not destroyed lives as the alcohol, tobacco and gambling did.” That’s completely true. However, if we really want to do something to save our home, we can quit doing things that affect us and contaminate Earth.
Many people from all over the world disagree with this way of spending money. For example, some people from UK spoke to this respect: “It’s cool to know about space and all but I think they should stop spending more money on finding out HOW we were made and more on keeping us alive,” as Natalie, a fifteen-year-old girl, said. Another boy, Coco, stated, “Ok, it’s nice to know when we are going to be invaded by little green men- but come on?! Save our planet and stop the killing of innocent lives due to malnutrition first!” The governments are willing o spend on wars, industries, and space, and other silly things; however, they find spending on Earth a waste of money and an impossible mission to accomplish. Is it more important to know about “little green men”, as Coco called them, than to know about our own people who lives here, on Earth, and need us? Is it easier and faster to travel hundreds of thousands of kilometers to unknown places on space than to travel just a few hours and few kilometers to places already known on Earth? Is it better to spend money on missions that may fail or to spend it on missions that are going to improve many people’s lives? We are not acting as human beings, then. If we think of knowing other places out of Earth despite people’s suffering, then we are acting as machines with no feelings or awareness of the real life on Earth.
As I already said, the US spent 16.2 billion dollars in 2005; besides the US, the ESA, 3.5 billion dollars; Russia and India, 800-900 million dollars; Japan, 1.8 billion dollars; and China, 1.2 billion dollars. Those amounts of money are enough to start doing something about any problem on Earth. It’s not easy to begin and neither is it quick to end but if we never begin we’ll never end.