Spanish Essay

To understand the youth of one particular moment in history you should analyze all the agents of socialization that are involving that same point in history (political parties, trade unions, media, etc.), as well as the historical background of the country, region or place in which they live.

That’s why although all of us belong to the European Union, the realities change from one country to another and even between different areas of the same country or region.

Young Spaniards have a very special family life which is very different from other places in Europe. In Spain, the most normal thing is to be depending on the parents up to approximately 30 years, until you sure a future employment and a salary with which being able to live independently. It is not easy to study and work at the same time so that makes even more difficult to live away from home and without any kind of financial support. There are very few cases of people that manage to combine work and study.

For our young Spanish, the most important and disputed problems today are: unemployment, their future houses, drugs, education and the crisis.

At the moment, the biggest problem of the Spanish society is the economic crisis that we are experiencing. This crisis will have different consequences in the lives of children, youngsters and adults.

Crisis measures being taken by the State have different readings according to the ages of the Spaniards. Children notice this crisis through the cuts in the salaries of their parents and tax hikes. This means that parents need to limit costs which previously were used to please their children. For example: If before they could please all of their children whims, nowadays this is impossible. If children used to buy the sneakers that they liked without even caring on how much they were, if they could have a next-generation mobile, if they could receive a high pay, etc. Now these costs have to be reduced and it is not possible to give them those whims, so they have to try to understand the new economic situation of their parents.

Young people, who are already finishing their university studies, see the crisis as a problem for their future employment. The nearest future predictions are quite negative: unemployment is very high, about levels much higher than other countries of the EU, the salaries are precarious and the work output is practically non-existent. Every day we are better prepared to be good professionals but unfortunately it is not easy to find a job and much less related to your academic formation. All this situation makes the students raised the possibility of emigrating.

This moment of crisis is helping us to reflect on how we lived so far and the reasons that led us to this situation. Hopefully this will be a lesson for people and the state. This lesson that make us realize that we cannot live above our economic possibilities.

Spain is a decentralized state, there is a central authority that provides general guidelines and establishes the bases from which the autonomous regions may implement their own modifications. Certain powers and competences are transferred from the State to the different regions or territories.

In Spain, each autonomous region has its own competences in very different fields as: education, health, regional budgets, environmental laws, etc. For this reason the reality that you find can be different depending on the region.

In Galicia people with a mental disability or a mental illness are not discriminated or treated differently just because of the fact that they have some kind of limitations.

Since the beginning of 1990s, people with some kind of disability have gained a whole series of rights and freedoms that have helped them to be integrated into the society and to live a normal life.

But this is not always so easy…

It is more bearable during the years of compulsory school. They have a lot of helps but the real difficulties will come once this vital stage ends and the child becomes an adult. At this time they have to start facing the problems of everyday life by their own.

When the disabled kids and youngsters become adults there are just very few public centers of assistance to these issues where places are very limited and there are meet very strict requirements to obtain one. Private institutions and organizations are also very expensive and not everyone can afford them.

All Galician schools have different specific professionals who are in charge of dealing with cases of students who have problems or limitations as: mental disabilities, learning difficulties, social skills difficulties, communication or language difficulties, etc.

These professionals are: the school counselor, the therapeutic pedagogy Professor and the hearing and language professor.

From the Ministry of education it tends to the inclusion and the integration. It is always ensure that all cases of pupils with disabilities, mental illnesses and other similar problems could have a life as more normal as possible, that’s why the first option it is always to make them go to school with other children without such difficulties or limitations. A combined schooling is performed only in the most serious cases of mental disability or mental illness. It consists of this student to attend a few days of the week to the college of special education and the rest of the days of the week to the regular college.

The State and the autonomous region, give them a whole series of helps according to their degree of disability, their family finances and their particular problems.

There are also private professionals. The problem is that not everyone can afford to go to these centers or private services, since the economic possibilities are not the same for all families.

There is no Centre (no private or public) which handles the cases of mentally ill.