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Insurance Intermediary

27.4.2010 ( Independent user - B2) (Writing practice - index)

Today I would like to talk about an article I have just read in El Confidencial, whose title is “We go to school to be happy”. We could think this is obvious but we sometimes forget our most important objective in life: To be happy. To get this aim we have to start working for it since we are children. But, how can we learn at school to be happy? The article says it is important to be able to express our emotions to others, and of course, to be able to listen to others. That’s the only way we can create bonds with others, and only by creating these bonds we can feel as a complete person. Of course it is also important to study our geography, history, maths lessons but, if we feel at ease, if we feel integrated into the group it is much easier to learn all these lessons.

In my opinion, teachers and parents should think more about it. We are so worried about intellectual intelligence that we forget the so called emotional intelligence. And the most important pillar of this kind of intelligence is the self esteem.

It would have been so nice to have a teacher who thought about it!! When I was at school the only thing that counted for my teachers were my grades. I learnt how to read, I learnt the rivers, the verbs, the Spanish history. But I didn’t learn how to tell my friend I was sad, or worried, or happy. So I never did. What I did was to write everything down in my diary. The problem was that I didn’t really feel I had friends. Of course, they didn’t tell me their emotions neither. Many years later, when I was in my last year of school, I met a really extraordinary person (not a teacher) who taught me how to express what I felt. He taught me I was important for him, regardless of whether I was a good or a bad student, a talkative or a quiet person. Then, I forgot my diaries and started talking to him.

Now, I live in a world where it is better not to talk too much about your emotions. “How do you feel today?” is not a sentence I hear too much in my life. The consequence is that we forget the others have feelings, and we treat them as if they were machines. We prefer to put our smile on, and to simulate we have perfect lives.

The conclusion is that I will try, as a mother, to teach my children to demonstrate interest for others, empathy, and to be able to talk about their own feelings, so that they could create authentic links with authentic people.

My suggestions:

Today I would like to talk about an article I have just read in El Confidencial, titled “We go to school to be happy”. We could think this is obvious but we sometimes forget our most important objective in life: To be happy. To reach this goal we have to start working for it from the time we are children (from childhood). But, how can we learn to be happy at school? The article says it is important to be able to express our emotions to others, and of course, to be able to listen to others. That’s the only way we can create bonds with others, and only by creating these bonds we can feel like complete people. Of course it is also important to study our geography, history and maths lessons but, if we feel at ease, if we feel integrated into the group it is much easier to learn all these lessons.

It would have been so nice to have a teacher who thought about it!! When I was at school the only thing that counted for my teachers were my grades. I learnt how to read, I learnt the rivers, the verbs, Spanish history. But I didn’t learn how to tell my friend I was sad, or worried, or happy. So I never did. What I did was to write everything down in my diary. The problem was that I didn’t really feel I had friends. Of course, they didn’t tell me their emotions either. Many years later, when I was in my last year of school, I met a really extraordinary person (not a teacher) who taught me how to express what I felt. He taught me I was important for him, regardless of whether I was a good or a bad student, a talkative or a quiet person. Then, I forgot my diaries and started talking to him.

Now, I live in a world where it is better not to talk too much about your emotions. “How do you feel today?” is not a sentence I hear too much in my life. The consequence is that we forget that others have feelings, and we treat them as if they were machines. We prefer to put our smile on, and to pretend we have perfect lives.

The conclusion is that I will try, as a mother, to teach my children to demonstrate interest for others, empathy, and to be able to talk about their own feelings, so that they can create authentic links with authentic people.