Hi

Well, I did my presentations, and they went great! I managed to control my emotions well enough, but I have to admit that I think that the waivering in my voice made the students pay more attention than they might have otherwise. As for the pictures, I decided to show mainly pictures of the protests, although I did include some images of the trains after the victims had been removed or covered. I passed around the Newsweek I mentioned earlier, and let the students choose to look at the pictures after I gave them a fair warning. I saw some of their reactions, and I think they were shocked, but I also think it further drove home the issue I was talking about. I did talk about the politics of the situation, but I tried to be fair and un-biased as possible. Also, I ended up explaining the politics more out of necessity than desire, because the students had no idea any of the bombings had taken place! When I first brought up the topic, the looks on their faces were of complete surprise! Finally, I asked the students to start paying attention to politics both in the US and abroad, and tried to explain to them how their future vote will not only effect the US, but will effect Spain and the rest of the countries in the world. In the older students, I saw a relevation of how something unimportant and trival became a little bit more relevant and important, but I'm afraid that the younger students mainly zoned out. I suppose that I at least made them hear it once, and hopefully by they time they are 18, they will have a better concept of the importance of voting. I do know that several of the students had more interest in studying abroad after my lecture, so maybe a few more individuals will have the chance to expand their minds and see how connected we are without realizing it.

Thanks for all the support from those who posted.

Lau

¿¿??

I think EmilioJ has got the jump on me here.
Can you clarify that your high school students did not have any idea of this terrible tragedy in Madrid?

Saludos
jardinero

Well, it's not so difficult to understand. How many spanish sholars will know or remember about the Bali bombings, for instance?

Sorry Ignacio.
I have to disagree with you.
The Madrid and Bali bombings were well covered by both the Spanish and English media.
Both tragedies were extensively covered in both countries.
Bali was discussed in my local primary school in Villanueva de Tapia, a very small pueblo blanco, and for certain all Spanish and British kids are very aware of 9/11.

My question is what is the reason behind their lack of knowledge?
Is it a lack of interest in international affairs on the part of the student?

Or.

Does the US media fail to cover or give proper coverage to news outside of the US.

Regards
jardinero

You have perfect right to disagree.

It is true that the Bali bombings were offered in TV and, I suppose, commented in shools, but I wonder if all schools did, and how many from the guys who received the info remember nowadays the facts without somebody refresh them the news.

We all know that the american education at shool, and the media are more national-centered, but my argentinian friends say the same on ours, after reding our press...

I told them maybe they were being focused too much in the outside news, to make it easy for them to avoid the internal extremely harsh problems of the country. The same with sports. So, which is the right place? For me, it's ours, but I could be biased. Everyone will have his own view.

I am also a high school Spanish teacher and it's a sad fact -- at least in this area -- that most high school students did not/do not know about the bombings in Madrid. I brought it to the attention of my students when it happened and had them read about the event and the aftermath (demonstrations in the streets, protests, election results, etc.).

I'm not making excuses for the students at my high school but they are so involved in their own lives -- school, sports, activities, dating, homework, etc. -- that they are unaware of what's happening in the world. I'm sure that the only time they watch television is to watch music videos or movies. I don't think many of them follow the news. It's a sad commentary on the young people here but as a teacher, I am doing my best to make them aware that there is a "world out there" and they need to know what is going on.

marilisa

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I've reading the argentinian press for some years until now, did you? That press only talks about the rest of the world to justify their own problems or to distract the readers from the government issues.

That's what I said.

But what's the good position? Extreme attention in our country or extreme attention abroad?

Is ours THE good one? Are we being chauvinistic?

No, in any moment I've said that our position is good.

But, for sure, there are countries that don't seem to look at the rest of the world at all. And, for me, that's no good.