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WORDS, WINDOWS AND TIME
“WORDS, WORDS, WORDS”, as you
may recall, those were the witty
words repeated by Hamlet in the
fictionalized historical castle of
Kronberg in Elsinore, Helsingør in
Danish. Curiously when you go and
you visit this little fishing town the
guide of the castle will let you know
that Shakespeare never stepped on
that castle, he was told about it by
travellers of the time.
Words travel from country to country
or in time and they change and give
birth to new words, letting the other
ones die as if they had a complete
life cycle, the same as silkworms
becoming butterflies.
“WINDOW” is one of my favourite
words, originally comes from “wind”
and “ow” which in old English meant
“eye” so windows became the “eyes
of the wind”, isn’t it beautiful?
Other words are invented by the
need of giving meaning to a new
object or concept, in this case we
have “internet”, “software” or
“smartphone” in the case of objects,
or “NEET” in the case of concepts.
If you’re wondering by now what
a NEET is, I’ll tell you it’s a newly
coined acronym for a contemporary
sad stereotype of person, a NEET is
someone who is Not in Employment,
Education or Training. This term
appeared officially for the first time
in the report
Bridging the gap: new
opportunities for 16-18 year olds in
education, employment or training
, in
the UK in 1999. That is to say, our
well-known “NINI” in the Spanish or
Catalan languages.
According to the OECD (OCDE
in
Spanish),
the
Organization
for Economic and Co-operation
Development, Spain is the second country
with the highest number of NEETs by a
25,79%, just overtaken by Turkey with a
29,19% of NEETs.
These numbers are taken from the yearly
report called
Panorama de la Educación
2014,
the latest we have by now.
According to the same agency mentioned
above, up to a point the reason for this
high percentages was the golden times of
the “brick sector”, young people attracted
to fast and easy money.
But regardless to the comparison with
other countries, -does it make you feel
better if we are the worst or almost the
worst or one of the worst countries in
this aspect?- what calls my attention are
other facts such as the evolution of these.
The Spanish and Catalan young people
have better educational levels than their
parents although the difference at present
is not that remarkable -keeping in mind
that many of these parents never had the
chance to access education or that they
were forced to work at very young ages. In
spite of these better levels 36% of people
in Spain between 25 and 34 years old did
not study the two last years of Secondary
School. In conclusion, time and better
conditions have not improved that much
the levels of quitting school studies.
The other issue pointed out in the report
is the lack of excellence in the results of
the assessment of the different levels of
students, that is, even if people study and
pass, very few master the subject.
And more and more numbers with which I
wouldn’t like to bore you, also keeping in
mind that all the readers of this magazine
have been great students and have
reached probably the highest standards of
education.
But still it makes me think why? Is it the
crisis situation? Is it the high prices of
education? Is it bad teaching? Is it the good
weather we have and which is to blame
for everything? Or is it simply lack of
motivation?.
Maybe we forgot about motivation. I think
there should be a subject at school for young
learners called Motivation, so if you’re
not born with it, to get to learn it at very
young ages. Motivation is more than doing,
more than rewarding your children with
countless gadgets, motivation is teaching
them the pleasure for learning, for being
curious and making them understand that
learning makes you more open-minded,
more tolerant and so a better person and
citizen. Money will come later, without
searching for it.
Gandhi said “The greatness of a nation
can be judged by the way its animals are
treated.” This is not about animals, it’s
about education.
And when I sometimes wonder, is there
any hope for our NEETs and society? I
always recall Shakespeare again and smile
at his title All’s Well That Ends Well, and
believe that in order to improve we should
look back and never forget “ The inaudible
and noiseless foot of Time.” (5.3.50)
MANAL ZAHRAA MURAD