Good handwriting may be the clue to success!!!

Technology is designed to make our lives as easy and comfortable as possible.Thus, we use it for the most basic things such as writing. It seems that we have left handwriting behind and that having a beautiful letter is not a useful skill anymore. But is that true though?

On the one hand, we are used to seeing university students carrying their laptops around and typing very fast pages and pages of notes. First of all, a clear advantage from typing is that it is the fastest method. Not only that but it is also more understandable and easy to read than handwriting.
Besides, some people might say that it gives the impression that you are more professional, implicated and even "updated" with technologies, and I agree with that, because, for instance, when you are submitting a CV, a project or any important document you type it, no matter how nice your handwriting is.

On the other hand, there are also many pros in having a good looking handwriting, especially at school, where sometimes laptops are not allowed and you must write down everything. In that case, handwriting is useful and should be practised, due to that it is important to write as fast as possible while keeping in mind that you have to reread it later, not an easy task! Also the way you write may influence your mark in an exam because the teacher always takes into consideration how the test is structured and if it is visually appealing, which are factors where your handwriting influences.

To sum up, I firmly believe that both methods can coexist together and that handwriting will never die. Even if school decides to allow the use of new technologies in their classes many people would still rather use paper and pen, and there's nothing wrong with that because typing doesn't have to be for everybody. 

NO CHEWING GUM, but shoe soles!!!

Chewing gum is a well loved snack for many people, it is said to reduce anxiety and to help to concentrate. So, if that is the case ,why do schools usually forbid them?


Well, a good reason is that most of those gums will end on the floor! It is very difficult to clean them from the floor because of their stickiness and that you need special equipment to do so, in fact the UK spends £50m every year to remove them. Moreover, who doesn't find annoying stepping on a gum? It surely means one afternoon cleaning your shoes. But what is worse is that they remain in the place for hundreds of years, that being bad for the environment and also for the cities, which are left with ugly streets not very welcoming for new tourists.


However, the UK, tired of this problem, has come with a new creative idea. They have placed special chewing gum bins to collect them and send them to Anna Bullus, an artist who creates all sorts of objects from them. She researched the gum chemical composition and realized that most of it was polymer, which is a versatile material, and thought that she could give it another use and recicle it.

This idea has been a success and has saved the UK over £6,000 in cleaning costs. Besides, you can buy the objects produced, like coffee cups and boots, and if you asked me they are pretty cool.



In conclusion, there are many reasons not to allow chewing gums at school and personally I am glad because I'm fed up with the situation. Moreover, I believe that the UK had a great idea , it is creative, eco-friendly and the items are cute, there's nothing else you can ask for.

Bubión on fire, but...

Every year, around summer season, many wildfires appear as the heading of the news. They are becoming more and more frequent as well as bigger. Moreover , this is a catastrophe for us, humans, but also for the animals, plants and overall the whole planet where we live.

On the one hand, many of these fires are caused by a human action. Either intentional ones or accidentals (due to the rubbish we have thrown there), they are still our fault. As far as I am concerned, we are not doing enough to prevent them ,so we ought to apply harsher measures. For instance, in those cases where the fire has been intentional, there should be no other solution, but a jail sentence. And in the other case, a great solution would be creating a fine for any kind of rubbish thrown, even if it is just a cola can.

On the other hand, sometimes they happen because of natural reasons. Lightnings sometimes reach the top of a tree and burn it down, unluckily that cannot be prevented, but we could pay more attention to the forest when a electric storm starts, as it is easier to stop a fire when it is little.

Also, a wildfire can begin because of what they call "rule of 30" (+30º temperature, -30% humidity ,wind of +30km/h and +30 days without raining),conditions which are given more often because of the global warming.

All in all,  wildfires should be at the spotlight during all summer. Quite recently we have seen fires in Bubión, a really big one in Huelva and yesterday one in Motril. Because of that we should invest more money in developing the existing technologies to detect fires before they occur.

Are school exam results always fair?

There is no doubt that Covid-19 has challenged our education system in so many ways. One of them relates to the exams. Our grades rely very heavily on them and with the impossibility of doing them the government has struggled trying to decide how to mark their students in a fair way.


On the one hand, there has been a huge downgrade in the UK. Their government has developed an algorithm which takes into account factors such as the number of students of each class and the pass result of other students to formulate their grade ,with the aid of their teachers' estimations.
This has caused many protests by the students, who believe that this system has been very unfair. Specially the students who live in poorer areas claim that they had suffered a much drastic downgrade than the people from private school.


On the other hand, Spain is the exact opposite case. Here we were based on our teachers' reports and we added one or even two points to our grades if we had done correctly all the assignments during quarantine. Also it was more difficult to fail a subject and we were given many opportunities to pass them by doing projects. This is also unfair but the students didn't seem as bothered with the issue and most of them accepted happily the upgrade.


In conclusion it could be said that we ought to learn from this experience and find another fairer way to evaluate, because we don't have a clue of how much this situation may last.