Self Evaluation of My Academic Year

There are many things to say about this academic year. This year had good and bad things, but it was a good year in general. To make a self evaluation of this year we have to consider different topics, like the grades, the quality and requirements of the subjects and their teachers. But this essay is about mi self evaluation, for this reason is important to focus in this question: Has my performance been satisfactory? In first place, we have to consider that the year is not over yet, we have a lot of things to do yet…

How I said at the beginning this year has been good in general, but it had good and bad points. Some of the bad points have been the bad subjects, like quantitative methods and social theory II. These subjects were very bored, and the teachers are not very good. I have to recognize that in the first term, to quantitative methods, I went to class only a few times, because the teacher did her class with PowerPoint presentations. Theory II has not finished yet, but in my opinion, has not been a good subject, because the teacher, is very “dispersed” and she talks all the time about the “body” and things like that.

About the good subjects we can to mention Theory I and Social History of Chile. The first was a very good subject, the best of the first term, principally because the teacher is a very good teacher, and the matter of the subjects were very interesting. And about the second, social history of Chile, was a great subject, because the teacher is the best in his field. He was decorated with the national prize of history and he has written a lot of books. But both subjects were very hard, and we have to study a lot to approve them.

I had three subjects of English, and I think that I have learned a lot about it. This is my last year, and I would like to continue learning English, to someday travel to another countries and can communicated, or study without problems. Now I have a good basis in English.

Mi performance in the year has been good, I have not had any red grade in all the year (at the moment) and the career is good for my. But I have to make a big effort and study a lot. Sometimes I have been very tired, particularly at the mornings, but I have learned a lot. In summary all the subjects were difficult, but I could to pass everything without many problems. Now I hope that the year finish good too.

Actually there are many challenges for the sociology. These problems have to be resolved by the sociology to continue developing as a science. First, about the technology, the sociology and the social sciences in general, have developed a lot of instruments technologies to make investigation, like the statistic softwares . These programs have mean great developing and facilities to make investigation, increasing the speed and precision of the investigation. But there are many challenges about this. For example, the actualization of the softwares, the high cost and the complex use of them. You have to be an expert to use them, and the licenses to use them expired in a very short time. The solution is the expanding of this kind of programs, a deep teaching in the universities of them, or the piracy…


About social matters is important to develop a real integration of the people, decrease the inequality in the society, in the education, the health, the opportunities. The sociology has to give answers to this kind of problem. There are many others problems like the poverty, the discrimination. Some of these problems are reproduced in the education in the university. Differences between social classes played in education in university. People who get more social level have higher scores on the psu and therefore have easier access to university. This inequality can be seen also in materials that are available for study. Actually is necessary to generate more discussions in the career about social problems. I think that this is the solution, make more spaces to discuses about themes that are in the social context. This is similar to the education. Is important consider new theories and discuses about the sociology. This is apply in the last years of the career, but I think that is important do it in all the career, since the first year of study. Also, is important to include more Chilean theory, closer to our reality, not only European and north American sociology. For this reason are important the congres that are being developed in Chile and latinamerica.

A Piece of new

The piece of new that I have chosen is that the pope´s sculpture that the university of San Sebastian and Recoleta´s municipality want to stand in Bellavista neighborhood was rejected by the monument council. The reasons are principally because the monument is too invasive in the area. This is a problem that comes a few months ago, when the residents of the neighborhood criticized the installation of the sculpture. But the problem happened since long time ago, and for other reasons. The residents are organized to defend his neighborhood of different “devil” strengths, like the economical power. The problem is that the University of San Sebastian installed a big building in the middle of Pionono Street. The new faculty means an increase of the people that walk by the neighborhood every day. To that we have to add the problems of criminality, drunk, and noise that the residents have to support every day and night.
The proyect of the University means a big chance in the structure of the neighborhood, demographic and visual effects, and the municipality permitted this project without the consent of the residents.
I liked to heard this kind of news because it means that in some way the asking of the people are being heard by some authorities, and the rights of the citizen are being respected. The people, like the residents of Bellavista neighborhood, have to express their problems and the authorities have to hear them. In the same way, the people is not alone, because are institution dedicated to help and developed the citizen participation, like Ciudad Viva. This institution is working with the neighborhood´s committees to make that the authorities help and heard them.

Faculty facilities

The current situation in my faculty is better than last year, but this does not mean that it is totally good. There are some things that should be improving by the authorities, in a serious way. For example, last year we didn´t have a decent computer room. There were only a few computers and they were very slow. If there were a free computer, you wasted much time because the internet was very slow. If you didn´t find a free computer you could use the computers in the room of post degree and only before four o´clock. But now it is different, we have a much better computer room, with three different rooms and the computers are very good, they are very modern and fast, and you can always find a free computer.

Another better thing is the microwaves. Not long ago we had only two of them, and you had to wait in a line very long time. These microwaves are broken and now, there are four new microwaves. Now you don´t have to wait a lot of time. But the bad thing is that the authorities have to wait for the old microwaves to break down to replace them, they could have replaced them before, if they knew the real conditions of the faculty. For example the library. There is a lot of noise and you can´t study. We don´t have a real study room, where you can talk or discuss with your work group about a homework for example. This is funny, in the beginning of this term, the authorities told us that we will have a new study room. But it is the dining hall! Only with more connections and with Wi-Fi. This is shameful! And this show us wich is the real intention of the authorities to solve this kind of problems.

To solve these problems is important because having good tools to help us study better, and things such as better library and a study room, or good classrooms is important, because in this way we can focus only in our studies. For these reasons it is important that authorities can improve the facilities in our faculty, for example a real study room or a real library when we can read and study in a real way.

Election Day

I`m registered to vote in the elections since one year ago. I have already voted for the municipal elections last year. I think that it is very important to vote, because in this “democratic system” the minimal way to show your opinion is through your own vote.

Nowadays I don`t have to decide what my vote is yet, I have two options, ME-O and Arrate, I would never vote for Piñera, because I do not agree with his political option, and his “offer” for the country. And I think that Frei is not a good choice, because the “concertaciòn” hasn`t showed a good job. For these reasons I think that now it is the moment to make a change in the government. And this is the change that Arrate is promoving.

At the same time Marco Enríquez Ominami is an option for me because, he represents the change that the Chilean politic needs. He is a young person, and despite of I do not totally agree with his proposal, the important thing is that he is a different person, not like the others, or this is what he projects.

I have never thought to be a politician, because I think that politics is something corrupted and it`s driven by a little group of persons, and I won`t be one of them. Now, if I have to choose where to work if I were a politician I would like to work in the economy ministry because I would like to make a change in the society and make it more egalitarian. This is one of the problem of the Chilean society, among many others like the low quality of the health, the inequality education, the poverty, and the low opportunities to the citizen participation.

Summary from a career-related article from The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/oct/19/us-death-penalty-bible

In summary, the article talks about a juror in Texas who pronounced a sentence against a man according to the bible. Now the question is how much the bible (and other sacred texts) can provide us laws and moral, or in another cases, sentences. Definitively, can the bible say to us how to live?.

In Texas Oliver Khristian was sentenced with the capital punishment because a murder 10 years before. The judges would have been based in a piece of scripture of the bible. Much of the judges admitted that they take the bible like a reference from where take resolution about many cases. One of the Jurors said: "the Bible is the truth from page one to the last page", in a clear reference to how to make sentences.

The passage in conflict is the next: “If he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death”. Also, this juror, apparently just one of a four-fifths majority of jury members who introduced biblical notions into the jury discussion later made it very clear that he was a firm believer in capital punishment, sentence that was used against Oliver Khristian.

The article finishes with an analysis about the connection between religion and laws and how faith and human rights could be extremely linked, for example how “prisoners the world over have held on to or even developed faith to see them through their mightiest challenges”. But principally the problem is when religion replaces the laws.

Criminal Laws

I don`t think that the capital punishment is something that reduce criminality. In my opinion a real solution to this problem of the society is something deeper than that. A good solution, for example would be a real rehabilitation for the prisoners. Now in the prison they learn new forms to commit a crime, and when they go out of the prison they are worse people than before. I am against the capital punishment, because we (and nobody) don`t have the right to decide when and how a people die (except in case of the euthanasia, that is something different) and this is not a solution to the criminality. I think that a solution is to develope stricter punishments to the criminal, such as more years in the prison (a life sentence) and a real rehabilitation program, from which once they are free they have tool not to fall in the crime again.
But in the middle the problem there is another thing. I am talking about the education and the poverty, these are the principal problems, a bad environment to the child, and in a country where there is a great inequality, and the differences between social classes, and the opportunities to climb to a better reality are very limited. In this context the people is obligated to commit a crime.
I am lucky, because I have never been a victim of a crime, but I have been a witness of some in the transport (pick pocketing), in the pick hours. Fortunately in all the times the passengers have acting by themselves and got out the criminal. But I know a lot of people who has suffered some kind of a crime. I am very careful in all the places and every moment.