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.