Spring is life.

The spring is here and life feels wonderful. The sun is shining, the birds are twittering and the evenings are long and light. All these things make me happy so spring is absolutely the best season of the year.

First and best about spring is that it’s lovely to finally could be able to take out the sun lounger. Just lay there and enjoy the sun, drink a big cup of coffee and dream oneself away in a good book. Everything around you is beginning to grow and the lawn starts to get green. You can hear the snow melting and fall in drops from the roof. That’s life.

The second thing is that it’s time to pick out the barbecue. Clean the terrace and invite friends to a barbecue party. Meanwhile the adult watch after the dinner the children are playing games like “thief and police” and their laughter echoes between the houses. It’s like everyone and everything has awaked to life again and that’s making me happy. In some way it’s easier to spend time together when the spring comes and the evenings are warm and pleasant.

The third thing is that it’s time for gardening. I’m not so found of gardening the remainder part of the summer but in spring I think it’s really enjoyable. I like to saw tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs and other things to put out in the flowerbed and my little greenhouse.

During winter, days are short and dark. It’s dark when you go to work and it’s dark when you arrive at home again. I shouldn’t have said anything if our winters would have been just winters with sun and plenty of snow. But winters in Sweden nowadays are mostly rainy and grey. No skiing and no sun, really boring.

But when we talk about spring there is one thing which is greater than others. When you are sitting there in your sun lounger or have a nice barbecue evening with your friends you know that this is just the beginning. You know that you have the whole summer in front of you. There is plenty of time to spend together with others, go on holiday, swim and bath or just enjoy life. I’m loving it!

Surveillance systems make me feel secure.

Today we are using more and more surveillance system, to protect ourselves against terrorism and other crimes in society. Many people think this has affect on the democratic, and in that way diminish their freedom and therefore make them feel like living in a totalitarian society. I don’t think it has anything with my freedom to do, as long as it works out in that way it is today. For me it’s more about protection and a way to squash criminalities. Since we have problem with different crimes, I think surveillance system is huge help that makes me feel secure.

For the first I don’t see surveillance cameras and other protection system as a trespasser in my life, because we have them in public places. There is no one who is interested in what are recorded if there aren’t crimes committed. And when there is a crime committed, it’s really good to be able to see who is on that tape and other details that are important for solving the crime.

Second, when it comes to more private things like monitored e-mails and such things people have nothing to fear if they haven’t something to hide. I think monitored e-mails are good in that way that they guard against acts of terror. If we can discover plans of terror attacks early the government can get possibilities to prevent them from happening.

The best of all is that surveillance systems obstruct crimes and violence since it scares people. I believe people consider carefully before doing a crime when they know they are watched. If we use surveillance cameras and other safety device I think we can decrease for instance destruction, robbery, rapes, fires, crimes of violence and a lot of other crimes.

As long as I don’t need to have surveillance cameras on my work and in my classroom at the university I think it’s only good things with the surveillance system in the society. I can’t really see how they should prevent me from doing what I want to do and keep me from living the life I want to. Instead of restricting the freedom of a democratic country, surveillance with the purpose to prevent act of terrors and crimes, gives societies secure freedom according to me.

We have to let our children be just children and don´t pressure them with grades already in primary school.

Today children in Sweden have grades from the 8th grade and I think that’s early enough. At the age of 14 they can understand what the grades are about and what they are useful for. They understand that it’s important to get high grades to come in at high school and get the work they are dreaming about. Now the government wants us teachers to grade the children already in primary school. But when you are at the age of seven or eight, the future is so far away that it’s hard to understand what the grades are good for and they can do more harm than good, according to me. I therefore think it’s totally unnecessary to expose our children with grades in primary school.

First of all, there can be huge differences between how children are developed at the age of six and seven. For that reason a lot can happen with children’s different learning skills during their first years in school. It’s really important that we don’t destroy our children’s motivation, engagement and pleasure to go to school by giving grades that makes them feel totally unqualified. If we do that, we run the risk of getting children who achieve less than they actually can, because they feels like they can’t do better.

Secondly it’s hard to give grades that are fair to the children because the criterions we have today aren’t easy to interpret. It’s also difficult to measure children’s qualitative knowledge’s since they have with comprehension and conclusions to do. It should also have been easier to give a fair grade if we have had a larger scale of marker to deal with. Today the teachers often write G+ or VG- for instance, and what is the difference between those two? The government has now put out a proposal on a larger scale of marker and that’s good.

At last I think a teacher at primary school can give parents and pupils glimpse in how it works out in school in better ways than grades. I think it´s important to have a good relationship with the parents there you can be straight, honest and open about things that happen in school. Through discussions about the children’s progress we can give a clearer picture about things than a mark on a paper ever can do.

We all want children who are happy and enjoys going to school. So it’s important that we don’t destroy that through giving grades that makes them feel they can’t do things well enough and puts to big pressure on them. We have to give our children possibility to be just children during their first years in school. Let the children have fun and opportunities to feel that they are good for the persons they are, and not for what they achieve. In this way I think we can increase children’s progress in a better way than with grades.

Why aren´t we doing anything?

Today we got a really big problem which ought to make the whole world anxious. What I talk about is our problem with the green house effect. Emissions happens so fast that neither human beings nor plants and animals have a chance to adjust to it. We are approximately letting out about 54 million ton carbon dioxide each year, which means about 6 ton per head. A great deal has already been made to prevent the problem to grow bigger than it already has, but why don´t people take the warning signals more serious than they do?

Economy is a determining factor that influences the issue about the green house effect. If people use the energy in a more effective way, it could have good effect on the increasing emissions. But people don´t change their oil boilers to district heating or heat pumps if they don´t have to. People change their heating systems if their oil boilers are broken or if they want a more economic way to heat up their houses.

Travelling is another huge climate crook. But both travelling and transportation are important in our ordinary life. If you live in a big city you can take the bus almost every were you want, but in small cities people often need their cars to manage to go to work and school. You can go together with someone or take the bus, but it takes longer time, so people often choose to take their own cars. We are living in a stressed out society today, and people are trying to do as much as possible in a short time. When it comes to transportation we can buy food from producers in our own town but they are usually more expensive, so most people choose to buy meat and vegetables transported from other countries.

People today are aware of these problems, but in some way it´s easy to shut one´s eyes and go on in the same way we always have done. We are all hit by the consumer mentality and buy a new TV, car, clothes, shoes, furniture and so on without reflecting on what we are doing to our climate. But after all we have started doing some things, like for instance sort our garbage, use low energy bulbs, Freon free refrigerators and freezers. Like we say in Sweden, “a little is better than nothing” but I hope people soon are going to wake up and take their responsibilities and starts taking better care of our earth than we are right now. It would be nice if our children, grand children and children after that could live and enjoy all beautiful life on earth.

Tv, good or bad?

All hours each day you can put on your TV and there is something to see if you want to. I don’t think there are many people who haven’t several TV channels to choose among today. The acts in the TV programs today are also speedier than for a couple of decades ago. If we talk about children program for instance, there are more action and violence in the stories nowadays, and what influences that have on the kids are hard to say. In these days we are used to get feed with new and quick impressions all the time, and get bored easily. We are therefore choosier nowadays about what we like to see.

I remember when I was little, and there were just two TV channels and almost no children program at all. Then the climax of the day was, when the five minutes Tom and Jerry animation began in the Swedish program, Lilla sportspegeln. Another big moment was on Christmas day, when we could see the Donald duck show. I think I nearly longed more to see Donald duck, then for Santa Claus to show up. Now it sounds like I grow up in the 1800 century but it isn’t that far ago.

Today when there are several programs to choose among, I don’t really have time to watch TV, because there are other things I prioritize more on my spare time. But if I watch TV I prefer to see romantic comedies, documentaries, and most of all police series like for instance the Swedish series, Beck and Wallander. The other day I was at the cinema and saw the movie, the girl with the dragon tattoo, by the author Stieg Larsson. It is the first part in an exciting trilogy about the journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. There are murders, excitements, love and hate, with other words the movie got it all! It was the best and most breathtaking movie I seen in years, so now I just long for the continuation that most likely is coming as TV series, and I’m going to see them all!

Although I don’t watch TV that much I think it’s god that we have a large selections of programs to choose among and I wouldn’t like to only have two channels again. As long as our kids don’t watch TV all day long, I don’t think we have to worry. I can also see among the younger that they still like to see one of the old nice movies like e.g. some of the Astrid Lindgren. It feels good that children choose to see some of the old movies to, and not only the new speedy ones. Of course many of the today movies are also good, but according to my opinion, the Astrid Lindgren movies are some of the best who have ever been made for children.

Childhood experience.

Nowadays it can´t be easy growing up. There are choices to make from you get up in the morning until you go to bed in th evening. It´s therefore important for youths to know what they want in life.

I think it was easier to grow up just for a couple of decades ago. There were not so many choices then, as it is today. Both in school and in ordinary life children have to be aware of what they want, because there are a lot to pick and choose among. I think all these choices can create uncertainty among the younger's.

There are also less nuclear families today so you cant´t even be sure of how many siblings you have from year to year. In a class I know, the children got an assignment to stand in different corner's of the room, depending on how many brothers or sisters they have. This exercise was unfortunately not so easy for some of the pupils. All of this have influence on the children and that's why it's so important for us as a teacher and adult to create a good and safety childhood for our youths.

Now I don't mean that everything was better before, but I still believe there were less choices in life. If that's good or bad need to be discussed but if we bring up our children to independent and strong persons, I even think it can be fun to have many different things to take a stand of.