Share something about the film you watched that you hope to discuss in class. Reply to the comments that name your film so that all of the comments for each film are grouped together. Try to include something from what we have discussed so far in this course (e.g, purposes of school, individualism, opportunity, class and race, teacher and/or student agency, the limits of the art form, etc.).
Lean On Me
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that stuck out to me in this movie was the teacher's agency. The main teacher who is in charge of fixing the school comes into the school demanding the other teachers listen to what he says. He seems to expect them to listen to whatever he said without question which seemed a little unrealistic in a real school setting. We don't really see Mr. Clark's origins, maybe he's well respected. But seeing him yell at the teachers made me wonder where he thinks he got all that authority from. Another choice in this movie that I thought was strange was the fact that they talked about religion. Mr. Clark talked about God when he was first sent to the school. There is talk about religion in schools but for some reason his speech about God felt out of place and weird.
DeleteOverall, I really enjoyed the film. It definitely followed the trope of the teacher as the hero which can be difficult to watch as it can get very cringey and forced very quickly. There was also a weird gender dynamic that seemed a bit hidden throughout most of the film until towards the end. Mr. Clark has a very authoritative leadership style, but a lot of his yelling and angry seems to be directed at the female staff, especially his vice principal. He also is very clearly nicer to the female students over the male students. I don't know if this was intentional but it definitely stood out to me as a weird other plot point or statement being made.
DeleteI heavily enjoyed "Lean on me". While it did seem cliche in some parts, It overall was such a good watch. One of the points I really liked in the film was Mr.Clark could admit when he was wrong and too authoritative, but I do feel like this isn't for every instance, like with the music teacher. He fires her on a whim for disrespect and cancels the show the students do every year which I felt was a bit much. But I also feel like some strict authority was what that school needed. Overall the film was very interesting and a good watch when not watching from a critical perspective.
DeleteI enjoyed watching Lean on Me and I believe it is a well-put-together movie for its time. I personally liked Mr. Clark because of how disciplined he was and his dedication to do everything for the students. Some things I could critic were just the fact that all the bad kids just got kicked out of school with no chance of redemption. But all in all Lean on Me is a great watch and I would definitely recommend it.
DeleteLean on me has been talked about in my family for years. My aunt her self was a principle at a high school and we have always called her "Joe Clark" by the way she interacted with the kids and did a whole 180 with the school. I watched it at a young age but with the knowledge that I know now and rewatching the movies it just made me realize what impact a teacher can really have on students and a student body. Personally, I loved Joe Clarks' character. Yes, many people may see him as too stern or rude but sometimes to really get through to "troubled youth" that tough love is needed. I will say how he talked to the teachers was a little much because he though he could just do everything on his own but he tends to forget that he has a whole staff behind him ready to help if he needs it. The movie does also touch on a lot of the topics that we have talked about in class. Such as the white savior with the mayor, giving kids the education they deserve and provide everybody with equal opportunities for all just being a few. To me, the movie is a great watch and will always be a gem to me.
DeleteTo Sir, With Love
ReplyDeleteMarshall C.September 20, 2023 at 12:14 PM
DeleteThe movie I chose for this week was To Sir, with Love featuring Sidney Poitier. In this film, Mark Thackeray is an aspiring engineer who finds a job as a teacher to fill the void of the job he couldn't get at the time. The school he joins is known for its children's rowdy nature and delinquency. Throughout the film, he tries many ways of teaching to no avail, until he starts to teach about life rather than regular school subjects. As time passes, he wins over most students, but one student, Denham, isn't buying it and stands out in sort of a negative way. It takes him getting hit hard in a boxing lesson by Thackeray to eventually gain some respect for him. Thackeray and the students illustrate many topics discussed in class. The purposes of school, like preparing children for life and creating a baseline for knowledge on fundamental subjects, is one of the most prevalent things in the movie. The kids go from borderline juveniles to respectful and courteous young adults. Another is individualism in a way; Thackeray deviates from the run-of-the-mill style of teaching to focus more on true-to-life matters like manners, respect, and prepping for the workforce. Another example is Denham's defiance against Thackeray, which shines a more negative light on being individualistic. Those are just a few of the many topics portrayed in the movie. The movie is definitely a rich source for the topics we discussed.
I chose to watch To sir, with Love. There are many aspects in the film that can pertain to things discussed in class. Things such as democratic equality are touched upon, It is shown through Thackery's emphasis on preparing the children to be adults soon. He prepares them through teaching them proper manners and etiquette. The film shows the importance and influence that teachers have in the worlds of their young students. I think this is mostly demonstrated through Denhams character. I think this as initially he begins as the most hostile student towards Thackery, however near the end of the film its shown that they both have a very admirable sense of mutual respect between them, with Thackery even offering a part time job for next year towards the end of the film.
Delete**- Joseph
DeleteThe teacher, Mark Thackeray demonstrates a strong sense of agency throughout the film; he takes on the teaching job as a temporary means to an end, but as he interacts with his students, he becomes deeply committed to their education and well-being. Thackeray's agency is evident in how he challenges traditional teaching methods and tries unconventional approaches to connect with his students. He seeks to understand their backgrounds and problems, treating them with respect and empathy; furthermore, agency is also seen in how he stands up to school administrators and challenges their prejudices and expectations.The students in Thackeray's class initially exhibit low levels of agency, often engaging in disruptive behavior and showing little interest in their education. However, as Thackeray gains their respect and trust, the students start to take agency in their own learning. They begin to appreciate Thackeray's efforts and respond by improving their behavior and academic performance.
DeleteStand and Deliver
ReplyDeleteIn Stand and Deliver there is the usual teacher who comes into a rowdy classroom and makes the kids care trope, but something different I found interesting was the very brief mention of the effects of overworking teachers. Mr. Escalante has a heart attack after taking on many classes to help improve test scores and keep the school’s accreditation. Instead of resting for a month under his doctor’s orders, he leaves the hospital a couple days after his heart attack to go back to the classroom in order to get the kids ready for their AP tests. I think this brings up a common idea of teachers needing to be the one and absolute thing to save students, when resources within a school need to be vast and under many different faculty members and departments. However, I think this speaks very appropriately to the times that we are currently in, where short staffed schools have to rely so heavily on teachers alone because of they aren’t given much choice.
DeleteI think that Stand and Deliver can connect to multiple things we’ve discussed in class so far. For example, it very obviously sheds light on how class and race impact the students’ (and the teachers’) opportunities and learning experience, especially because the movie is based on a true story. However, I’d like to discuss a less obvious movie stereotype that was portrayed in the movie, the idea that anyone can decide to be a teacher and instantly be great at it. The main teacher in the movie, Mr. Escalante, doesn’t come from an education background and has no prior experience or training in education. The movie made it seem as though the other teachers in the school weren’t as skilled or devoted to the students as Mr. Escalante was. The movie also made it seem as though ‘anyone can teach’ and that it’s an easy job that anyone could do without any training. I think that while the overall message of the movie was positive, this Hollywood stereotype of teaching being easy is harmful to teachers.
DeleteDangerous Minds
ReplyDeleteDangerous Minds follows the typical teacher movie arc, out of place teacher comes into a rowdy classroom, the kids don't listen, over the course of the movie the teacher gains the kids trust and by the end the kids love the teacher. I think something different than most teacher movies with rowdy kids is that she was talking about leaving at the end which caught me off guard; though it was a perfect way to showcase the students in turn rallying to get her to stay. Class and Race is brought up quite a lot in this movie as the kids themselves bring it up frequently when first pushing back against the teacher. This was I think one of the main points that we talked about in class that was discussed/shown in the movie.
DeleteDangerous minds is a movie that follows a white teacher hired to be a teacher in a suburban neighborhood. LouAnne, the teacher, takes a different approach to normal schooling. This is because of her background the military as well as her understanding of the challenges and setbacks that the kids she's teaching have faced. The movie shows that even with different backgrounds, class and race, different types of people came together to better themselves. It also shows that the more traditional and by the book methods of teaching and order aren't always the most effectifve.
DeleteWhen I first started watching Dangerous Minds, it felt like a movie I've watched a hundred times. However, after watching it, I can say that it was nothing like I had expected. It does have the usual teacher hero trope, with students whose misbehavior is a result of trouble at home. It dives into race issues and briefly goes into issues with the economic class system and how it affects minority students. But it's different from other similar movies because it's self-aware. The teacher in this movie is not the typical "white savior". Her race doesn't have any impact on how she helps the students. She's portrayed to help them because she genuinely cares. The teacher's determination to help her students doesn't come from some self-serving interest, it comes from her seeing what the world is doing to kids who are struggling in school and wanting to make a difference. I think the way that the movie went about depicting the students and their home lives wasn't super stereotypical like some other movies. The issues the students faced both in and out of school were handled in a realistic way. The teacher "hero" wasn't able to save everyone, but she tried. I think that's what made this movie feel more life-like and interesting. The movie also touched on one of the purposes of school that we mentioned in class, getting ahead in life. The teacher explains to the students that the more you learn, the stronger your brain muscle is, and the tougher you'll become. I guess that's why the movie is called Dangerous Minds because as these students learn to value education, they can start to see it as a weapon against the system that tries to discourage them or leave them behind, giving up on them. One of the biggest takeaways, in my opinion, about the movie, is to not give up.
DeleteDangerous Minds is about a teacher named LouAnne Johnson who starts teaching in an underprivileged neighborhood. She has unusual methods of teaching her students that in the end, creates a bond between her and the class. One thing that stood out to me throughout this film is how the kids talked about their education system and how it works against them. This school is underfunded and understaffed, which is unfortunately many schools within the public school system. This movie talks about real issues and how unfair it is that not everyone has access to quality education.
DeleteDangerous minds was just like the stereotype we discussed in class. The teacher is portrayed as a savior of a non-white high school where she fights against the education system to bring these kids justice. She changed them and they changed her. It was interesting that she was a marine, like I thought that to be a random addition to Ms. Johnsons story, but then I researched it a bit and saw that the movie is actually based off a real women's autobiography, the teacher in the story. Pretty interesting. Also, after reading the reviews of the movie on letterboxd, I saw a lot of people saying they were surprised how it wasn't as violent as other movies in the same genre with the same character types, which I then agreed with. The story was sweet though, and I did tear up at times. ha.
DeleteFreedom Writers
ReplyDeleteTony CortezSeptember 20, 2023 at 12:37 PM
DeleteI watched the movie Freedom Writers and honestly what a movie, it displayed various objectives that we learned in class. What stood out to me in this movie was how the teacher Mrs.Gruwell was a home to her students. Many of her students did not have a home because most of them lived in dangerous areas or got evicted. The film also displayed how low-income schools lead to students dropping out but that wasn't the case in this film the students were shown more in life and wanted to change and most stayed in school and graduated.
I watched Freedom Writers which displayed high school students dealing with gang violence and racism. The movie showed the true violence that some people have to deal with on a daily basis. It may have been exaggerated by the filmmakers by only showing the bad side of the environment that they are in. Filmmakers tend to show the problem and not the full story of how they also have good times with the people around them (in their own groups) because they see them as family. The film again revolved around race. There were the Cambodians, Hispanics, blacks, and whites who were all separated throughout the school. Eva (a Hispanic girl) expressed her hate for white people, and how white people have more power than anyone because of their skin color which is true. The teacher played as a white savior, she sensed as if she “saved” them. The focus was on her and how she saved and helped the kids. Although her help was amazing and actually needed for the students, it only is seen by white people that they can help minorities succeed and get away from issues. The school wanted to reach the goal of democratic equality. The other teachers and professors in the education department expressed the idea that yes, let the students receive an education but not one that makes the students comfortable. Their idea was since the kids “can’t” learn, then the school shouldn’t waste resources on them. Overall I enjoyed the movie and how one sees the real-life situations that happen since this was a true story.
Delete(^ Kat Murillo)
DeleteJaylyne Dizon
DeleteI watched Freedom Writers and it was mainly about high school kids that go through racism, violence, and domestic abuse. Freedom writers most importantly represented opportunity and collectivism. In the movie, opportunity was presented through irony. To elaborate, the teenagers in the film believe because of their race they can't be anything but an athlete or a musician. However, the superintendent Dr.Cohn has proven them all wrong and none of these teenagers realize his superiority for being an African American. Additionally, the movie includes collectivism, the opposite of individualism, collectivism is recognizable through the cliques the teenagers have. One of the themes of the movie could be being reliant on others because the teens from different backgrounds become the closest after discarding an individualist mindset. With the help of Mrs. G, they got to experience new things and talk to people with different mindsets. Mrs. G also gave journals to the students for them to write down their feelings and it shows us different perspectives of the students lives and how different everyone is and what problems they go through. I loved how they started loving the teacher to the point where she was with them throughout their high school lives.
I watched Freedom Writers and it was a really good movie. It showed how more involved Mrs. G is where she funds a lot of the things she wanted them to do in class. Showing how the school is underfunded and race also plays a role in the movie. Where the whole school is generally minority and feel as though Mrs. G wouldn't understand the struggles they went through such as homelessness, abuse and participating in gang violence. She gets more involved with the students and show that she cares and eventually the class starts participating and actually trying allowing them to want to graduate.
Delete
DeleteOne of the things that stood out to me in this movie was the teacher's dedication to supporting her classroom and students even though the administration above her did not believe in them. For instance, she had to use her own money to buy books for her students because the principal did not believe they could read at that level or take care of the books properly. Additionally, the teacher had to work two extra jobs just to buy the books, journals, and take the kids on a trip. The students and teacher had to host a fundraiser to reach their goals of inviting Miep Gies to the school. They highlighted the issue of unfunded schools and race playing a significant role. Furthermore, the movie also portrays the concept of "white saviors."
The movie Freedom Writers explores many topics we have discussed in class. Key themes include racism violence and abuse. Which we have discussed is exaggerated in movies featuring nonwhite characters. The movie somewhat follows the white savior discussion we had in class but throughout the movie, it was more about the teacher Mrs. G trying to understand where the students were coming from instead of trying to solve all their problems. It also surprised me when she went out of her way to get 2 jobs just so her kids could have basic supplies. Her methods of teaching stood out to me as she picked content that the students would relate to and find comfort in showing they are not alone in this. This came as a surprise to me because you don't see that anymore. However, some stereotypical things did catch my eye as I was watching for example the blatant racism from other teachers. But I overall really enjoyed watching this movie.
DeleteI watched freedom riders. It was an amazing movie that showed a lot of the things that students had to go through that werent being discussed about such as gang violence, domestic abuse and homelessness as just some examples. In the movie a first time teacher is determined for her class to start liking learning and school and to feel a sense of community. At first they didnt like her at all but learned to respect her as she opened up to them and they started slowly opening up too. She was willing and eager to take a chance on students that needed her help, she started to work 2 more jobs to be able to provide her class with resources such as new books and trips that she wasnt able to get at the school due to lack of funding. Due to the lack of funds, the class was never able to recieve the supplies they needed, they always ended up receiving the simpler version, resulting in no intellectual growth.
ReplyDeleteI watched freedom riders. I really enjoyed the movie and got to see a lot of new things that I havent seen before. It really opened up my perspective of how I see other public schools. Gang violence is not just a thing you see in movies, it really does happen and a lot of kids are affected by it. The teacher who nobody really liked at first was a key role in these students and she was amazing. She helped them with so many things, she was more of a parent figure to them, someone they can lean on and trust to help them. It showed homelessness, gang violence, abuse, and just a lot of dangerous things that some people never see in their lives.
ReplyDeleteso in the movie I watched which was freedom writers it was basically about a new teacher that got assigned to a school that used to be good but throughout the years it has worsened because of the kids attending being in gangs. I saw a good amount of racism, and some individualism by a lot of the kids that attended the school because they felt alone and they didn't really care about school until the teacher changed their perspectives on school and life. at the end of the movie the teacher had gained their trust and they looked at her like someone they could look up to or talk to.
ReplyDeleteWhoops, lainey ^
ReplyDeleteI watched Freedom writers and there are many big ideas covered like teachers being taken advantage of, the portrayal of the “urban” school system, and the portrayal of education at different ages. Like many films in an educational setting, there is a character who demonstrates the “hero teacher” similar to what Bulman discussed.
ReplyDelete