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 form 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.).
I watched Freedom Writers and I found it really interesting, I definitely enjoyed it. I think we should discuss the role that class and race plays in schooling. It seemed to really have an impact in this movie. I also think individualism played a role in this movie because all the students were able to share their life experiences in their notebooks and really highlighting the individuality of each student and how that affected their education.
I watched the Freedom Writers and I cried at least 6 times. But I absolutely loved this movie. It gave me Dead Poet's Society and Remember the Titans vibes. This movie had a lot of impact on me, especially with racial strains that are heightened even more nowadays. It made me feel like this is a movie that everyone needs to watch. The entire time I was watching the movie, I was thinking about the purposes of school and the impact schooling has on the students. The school serves as a home for them to feel safe. It teaches them to interact with each other and know that they aren't that different regardless of their race. They were finding ways to relate to each other even though there was a clear divide of racial tensions between them. I absolutely loved the scene where she made them step up to the line when she made a statement that they could relate too. It felt powerful to me that they were looking into each others eyes and faces and seeing that they're not all that different.
I watched the Freedom Writers and cried almost the entire time, this is such a great film that everyone needs to watch. I think this movie has a lot to do with what we've been learning in class, especially the aspect of the "teacher" role we have been talking about. The teacher in this movie really went above and beyond all others because she believed in the kids when no one else did. These kids were successful because of that. It just goes to show that sometimes "unconventional" teaching (in the teacher's eyes from the movie) can lead to great outcomes. I love the way the teacher brought all the kids together she kind of showed them that they are all their own person but they are great as one.
Jaeline Perez: Freedom writers is a great movie that talks about education and the lives of those students. I'd like to talk about how the school doesn't put enough effort to make their students learn, and also the racism amongst the teachers. The students lack individualism due to them being racially divided and beings in gangs. Ms.Gruwell does a great job making the students come together, due to them relating to each others experiences. I'd also like to talk about how Ms. Gruwell never gave up on the students because she knew she saw something in them, unlike the other teachers who didn't like integration.
I watched Freedom Writers and it was truly an amazing movie. I thought it captured really well how their can be cliques in school and I think that is something we could discuss about in class. Seeing how everyone had their respective group reminded me of high school and how all the hispanics would hang around each other and speak spanish because it was basically code around non-spanish speakers. This relates to class in the form of individualism, but I felt it was broken down by the line game Ms.G used with the students, after that I truly felt like the class was unified and stayed that way. This broke most of the cliques in their class and they all got along. The students also felt cared for because unlike the other teachers she was putting her own money into the class and getting into their personal lives through the use of their notebooks. It was really an influential movie.
Freedom writers was a great movie it truly touched my heart. I think we should definitely talk about how race, and class play a big part in our education system. It was great to see how schools limit students potential in school because of their home lives, and how Mrs.G was able to create a safe space for the students.
Freedom Writers honestly might be one of the best movies I have ever seen. This film really opened my eyes further to the reality that some kids grow up living in fear, and how things like high school are just not that important in the grand scheme of what they are dealing with. I basically cried throughout the entire movie, constantly heartbroken by the diary entries, the strong bond each student formed with Ms. Gruwell, as well as the connections they made with their classmates that they had previously despised due to a strong racial divide in their community. It also made me very angry the way the other teachers talked about the kids who came to their school because of the integration system, and how they treated Ms. Gruwell poorly because of what she was doing for her class. I think that we should discuss the racial aspects of the film in class because these issues are extremely relevant today and the film does a good job of presenting these problems. I also think that discussing Ms. Gruwell’s unconventional forms of teaching and how she bonded with these kids is relevant to class. On a side note, I cried so hard when they showed a picture and included information at the end about the real Ms. Gruwell and the Freedom Writers. I ordered the book so I can read the real diary entries of the students!
From Desea: Freedom writers is a great movie it really highlights different aspects of highschool students lives and shows how school systems are poorly structured. This movie relates to what we have been discussing in class because of the teacher student relationship,race and purpose of education systems. Ms. Gruwell went out of her way numerous times during the movie to earn her students respect and provide them with education that they deserve. I believe that schools need more teachers with her kind of mindset. She cared about her students and genuinely wanted to see them succeed, she believed in them and didn’t give up.
A lot of the reviews for this film are favorable. It reminds me of the praise that The Blind Side received. I think this film hit on all of the stated topics from the list above. Race obviously stood out and how that affects teacher and/or student agency. This might go to further our argument's in disagreeing with Bulman removing race from his analysis of high school films. This film touched on race and class, with both being so linked they can't be separated.
As for the topic of individualism, this film covers it. They all have individual voices, which is a good part of the emphasis on individualism in our world. They used art to expressive themselves (which we discussed isn't always available for students like them), and Mrs. Gruwell really went out of her way to help them find that space. That only added to the overall message: the system failing poor kids of color. That message wasn't ever lost in the film, in the same way others are. I chose this movie because from the trailer it was a little obvious that the criticism of the system would be there ( I just wanted to see how it would be carried out in the film). It's incredibly important to not have the message be that failure is individual when there are entire systems working aghttps://203-002f21.blogspot.com/logout?d=https://www.blogger.com/logout-redirect.g?blogID%3D8680167593477352998%26postID%3D6191680713467063915ainst literal kids.
Phong: I watched Freedom Writers my freshman year of high school. The movie covers topics such as race and class in the education system. It gives us a variety of perspectives through the journals of each of the students. Teachers should always strive to make a connection with their class as Mrs. Gruwell (Or Ms. by the end of the movie). I have a few criticisms however. The first one being how it portrays a white person as the "hero" saving and bringing kids out of trouble. The second one is how the movie portrays the students of color as troubled and somewhat aggressive in the beginning. I understand the ploy of this, but it just makes it seem like colored students need a white person to save them. That's why Coach Carter is goated.
When I started watching Dangerous Minds, I had a solid idea of where the plot was going to go and how the story was going to proceed within the first ten minutes. The movie follows the standard trope of "teacher starts at a new school and helps underprivileged kids" perfectly. However, even though I knew what the plot points were going to be, that didn't change the fact that it was an enjoyable movie to watch and it broached some difficult topics, especially during the 90's. It covered racial issues, classism, death, and economic disparity between demographics in a fairly easy way to understand while at the same time not holding back on a lot of the issues. The one part that I hadn't expected was when the grandmother pulled her two grandsons out of the school so they could find work. It added an element of realism to it.
I wanted to get the chance to talk about the white savior trope in the movie. The grandmother uproots the subtext about this telling the teacher "find another poor boy to save" and this suggests that the white woman is out of place for attempting to 'make it right' and hand out opportunity in the opportune moments. But the movie Dangerous minds does a good job of nuancing the idea of white saviorism especially in school. The grandmother doesn't believe poems and deeper education is valuable, and I think the movie was showing that the grandmother herself wasn't ever given the opportunity to learn the value of education (causations possibly being poor schooling environment, teen pregnancy's, needing to work and dropping out of school, essentially necessity had to come before education).
I was surprised to find out this movie was based on a true story. However loosely based, I still find it difficult to imagine these measures taking place in real life. This film was slightly different from the other school-based movies I’ve seen because it focused on the school as a collective with a dramatically polarizing main character. Usually, high school films take the perspective of a teacher and their classroom. Whereas this movie placed Joe as the principal in charge of the student body and the faculty. This variation allows the audience to sympathize with Joe because he took on a difficult position while seemingly getting to know his students. It seemed that no matter what “Crazy Joe” did, he could always be redeemed because of his passion and relationships with the students. Race and class play an instrumental role in the story of Eastside High. The student population consisted of mainly African Americans with some small groups of Latinx and Caucasian people. Although the latter groups could not be seen or were not as villainized as much as the African American groups. For example, towards the beginning, the school is being shown with graffiti and completely trashed with mostly black students in the camera frame while; “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses plays. This scene makes the audience think the students are too animalistic in behavior and can no longer be helped. In the same scene, a black student can be seen pounding a teacher's head into the ground. Not only was the student body comprised of predominantly minorities, but they were also lower-class. This implies that only students of minority groups and lower class can only perform this way and need such extreme help. Like many of the movies from the 80s, Lean on Me leaned into an abundance of stereotypes ranging from the angry black man to the corrupt politician. If this movie was made today, it definitely would not be received well.
Annalise: I agree with what Tykia said about how Lean on Me included a bunch of racial stereotypes that would not pass in today's society, but overall I enjoyed watching this movie. Something we talk about in class a lot is social classes and race, and in this film their distinctions were very evident, as the they tapped into many racial stereotypes, such as corrupt white men in politics and "savage" students who happen to be mostly POC. I enjoyed watching the character development of Joe Clark and how he slowly builds bonds with his students and faculty. Usually, movies set in a school focus in on how the teacher is changing the students' lives, so it is nice to see how the students are also changing Joe's life.
Since I was young, I had always known of the movie 'Lean On Me'. It seemed like it played on and on on a channel called 'Bounce TV' but until now, I never actively sat down to watch it. The reason I bring up this specific fact is not just for a sense of nostalgia, but to use this memory to highlight the important thing about this movie.
Bounce TV is a television network inherently geared towards African-Americans. They air many movies and programs specifically featuring black stories. Race played a very vital part in Lean On Me. You can clearly see this when the movie opens up with Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman) teaching at a then well-off Eastside High which minutes later turns into an Eastside High filled with rowdy rebellious kids...(this fact is very much drilled in as Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" is played while showcasing said kids.) It is important to note that the well-off version of Eastside is filled with white students where as the run-down Eastside high is filled with mostly black, hispanic, and poor white students. Mr. Clark even highlights this towards the end of the movie when he tells the white students at an assembly to stand in the crowd of all the other students and states that if they could have, they would have abandoned the school. All throughout the movie, Joe Clark would use what we call 'tough love' to help shape the students to not only become academically but also ethically sound. The movie is a bit cliché in this sense and it plays into the 'bad guy turned good' trope, but nevertheless I loved it; despite the clichés and traditional views shown in the movie it was comforting. Joe reminds me a lot of my family and a few other teachers I've had. He lets it be known that at the end of the day, everyone deserves an equal opportunity to get somewhere in life and he even speaks of achieving "The American Dream" we all know and love. Joe lets the teachers, students, and parents know that even though many of the kids chose to cope with personal problems in negative ways, it is not their fault when they score low on tests, drop out, and skip class; it is instead the adults who are responsible.
Diamon Patterson: One of the reviews I read about Lean on Me mentioned that the movie took an approach of tough students vs. tougher teacher. Mr. Clark had to be stern in the beginning to show the students that he was force. He probably believed that was the only way the students would take him serious or abide by his rules. The beginning of the movie, in my opinion, was not a good contrast. Mr. Clark is shown teaching a predominately white class who are very respectful. Then, twenty years later the school is now predominantly black with latino culture and the children are depicted as hoodlums/animals. I may be over reaching, but this contrast made it seem like Caucasian students more discipline than minority groups. However, the director did a great job by allowing the teachers to take some accountability for loosing control of the school as well as the students educational disadvantages. Throughout the movie you could still see how Mr.Carter still attributed a lot of the failures of students to their individuality. In addition, the movie did show how Mr.Carter was an agency or "savior" to the students and bring them out of their troubles. During the scene where Mr.Carter went to Kanesha house, I felt like that was an attempt to show the social class that most students in the movie were classified.
"Lean On Me" is a kind of movie you watch as a kid not knowing what how significant the message is but you still end up loving the movie solely on the energy. Its a movie that portrays the stereotypical life of minorities and how just one person can completely change the mindset of many when faith is involved. When people feel as though they have no other options or anyone who cares, you become unmotivated to apply yourself to anything you see doesn't fit the life you're dealt. In the movie Morgan Freeman was the light the school needed to restore the will to want better. It wasn't just the students who were slacking and didn't care but also the staff that gave up trying to establish push the students. Just like real life, everyone needs at least one person who believes in them and pushes them past comfort to simply have a positive mindset. Throughout the movie, you gradually see hope coming back to life with just a simple "yall belong to me" attitude Principle Joe Clark had towards his students and staff.
I had a lot of problems with this movie both in how it was structured as a film and the message it sends. The biggest thing is plot holes and unfinished storylines. Not only are incomplete narratives frustrating for the viewer but in this film the lack of elaboration leads to some dicy conclusions. For example: In the first scene of the movie we see Joe Clark teaching a class in a very clean, nice building. The students are actively participating and invested in the lesson. And the students are all white. However when Clark gets moved to another school (throwing a tantrum that definitely should have gotten him fired) we see a still shot of the pristine hallway fade into a shot of that same hallway 20 years later, now grimey and graffitied. The song Welcome to the Jungle plays as we see students terrorize each other, teachers, and staff. A girl gets sexually harassed, a man gets his head smashed into the ground, and drugs are being used and sold. And the kids are predominantly black or latinx. There is no explanation for this shift besides Mr. Clarks departure. The film makes it look like the diversity in the school is what ruined it. That black and latinx peoples brought in drugs and violence and don’t care about education like the white students 20 years prior did. It’s an unnerving transition that plays into harmful racial stereotypes. Even though it claims to be a movie that is trying to break those.
Another of my issues is how the movie constantly takes Mr. Clarks side. He is right in every action he makes. I agree that tough love can be a good way to establish order and balance. However, Clark crosses a line and endangers people in doing so. His first action as principal of East Side was to kick 300 students out of the school. They are kicked out for being drug dealers, violent, or for having been at the school for more than 4 years without making any academic progress. Yes, if someone is violent and/or has a drug problem then public school may not be the healthiest option for them and their peers. Yet as much as Clark preaches about getting children off the streets he does not make any sort of effort to help these 300 students that he just abandoned. He doesn’t recommend them to any services that can rehabilitate them or find jobs or anything. They are his students but since they cause problems he turns his back on them. Yet the film repeatedly reinforced this action as a good, bold move. The only pushback he gets is from Ms. Barrett, who is portrayed as irrational and corrupt, despite the fact that she makes many valid criticisms of Clark.
Mary Davis: In Lean on Me, there was a little bit of everything. It definitely has a strong teacher/ student relationship. At the beginning of the movie, the school is a broken school full of misbehaving students. Mr. Clark (the new principal) comes in and has to “clean up” the school that’s full of drug dealers, drug abusers, etc. Mr. Clark never really took one student in, it was more like the whole school. I noticed some individualism in it also. Before Mr. Clark threw out the “older” students, everyone followed them around. No one was themselves, no one had creativity, and no school spirit. Everyone followed on another, leaning on each other for guidance. Mr. Clark changes that, giving students their voices back along with opportunities in the future.
Rachel Ruble: I really enjoyed Stand and Deliver and would definitely recommend to watch it. The movie was based on a high school math class in a lower class Hispanic community in Los Angeles. The class gets a new teacher who helps them all pass their AP calculus exam. Similar to what Bulman says, the teacher serves as a savior in the film and helps the students focus more on school. In Bulman, he says that in films where the students are lower class, the teacher plays the hero, which is true in this movie. I also think the movie touches on individualism a little bit. Each student is a different school stereotype and it shows how students of different interests can come together throughout the film. Overall I thought the movie had a great ending and it definitely reflected a lot of what we have talked about during class.
This film was good overall and had many lessons and scenes worth talking about. Focused on a lower class Hispanic school in LA, they got a new teacher. This was a class that was most likely used to teachers who were just there to "do their job" as in teach what they are there for, get payed, and go home. Every student had their own story and a couple of them had their own learning moment. Over the course of the film their were many moments where the teacher would show he cared deeper than just teaching the students by telling them things such as "dont you want to be the one designing the cars instead of repairing them?" He showed he wanted more for the students than just to teach them and he did it in an understanding but strict manner. The teacher was definitely the hero in this story, at the end almost all of the students past their math exams which had never happened before in that school. There was clearly a lot of doubt towards the future of the students in that school and he recognized that it subconsciously or consciously affected the students and their goals for themselves. He set a standard for the students and expected just as much from them as if they went to a private school. An example of individualism is one of the students who was involved in gangs but he decided to go his own direction and involve himself with school and his studies despite how he would look to his friends or other classmates.
I enjoyed the movie for the most part. I like how it examined race and class while still managing to leave it tasteful through a hollywood lens. I also liked how it gave agency to the teacher and the students. It gave agency to the teacher to give agency to the students
Walter Garrison: This movie is very entertaining. I thought it was a little bit idealistic but also very dated taking place in the 60s. Mr. Thackeray clearly does care about the kids in the class regardless of the respect they show him and the classroom. Race seemed to play a strange role in the movie but I guess that's to be expected in a movie from this age. Mr. Thackeray's skin color seems to have no impact on the movie until one moment in the movie where it comes up with the kids in the class. This moment doesn't get acknowledged at all later in the story so I wonder what it was meant to do in the movie overall. It seems as though it is good that the movie has a strong black lead that carries the plot. Mr. Thackery's classroom is certainly full of important lessons and he achieves this by letting the students decide what they want to discuss. He does well as a teacher and has incredible patience. The speed with which the students changed may be a little unrealistic but the movie is still a solid concept overall.
Luke Headley: Stand and deliver is a timeless example of what an exceptional can do. Even with no budget, and everyone doubting him and his class they managed to pass the AP calc test. However, because of their ethnicities and socioeconomic background, the legitimacy of their test scores were brought into question. The class knew that know one believed in them, and when they managed to do what everyone said they'd never be able to, they were met with accusations of cheating. While it is such shitty thing to have happen, this only motivated the class more. They wanted to show the doubters what they were capable of.
Freedom Writers (2007)
ReplyDeleteI watched Freedom Writers and I found it really interesting, I definitely enjoyed it. I think we should discuss the role that class and race plays in schooling. It seemed to really have an impact in this movie. I also think individualism played a role in this movie because all the students were able to share their life experiences in their notebooks and really highlighting the individuality of each student and how that affected their education.
DeleteI watched the Freedom Writers and I cried at least 6 times. But I absolutely loved this movie. It gave me Dead Poet's Society and Remember the Titans vibes. This movie had a lot of impact on me, especially with racial strains that are heightened even more nowadays. It made me feel like this is a movie that everyone needs to watch. The entire time I was watching the movie, I was thinking about the purposes of school and the impact schooling has on the students. The school serves as a home for them to feel safe. It teaches them to interact with each other and know that they aren't that different regardless of their race. They were finding ways to relate to each other even though there was a clear divide of racial tensions between them. I absolutely loved the scene where she made them step up to the line when she made a statement that they could relate too. It felt powerful to me that they were looking into each others eyes and faces and seeing that they're not all that different.
DeleteI watched the Freedom Writers and cried almost the entire time, this is such a great film that everyone needs to watch. I think this movie has a lot to do with what we've been learning in class, especially the aspect of the "teacher" role we have been talking about. The teacher in this movie really went above and beyond all others because she believed in the kids when no one else did. These kids were successful because of that. It just goes to show that sometimes "unconventional" teaching (in the teacher's eyes from the movie) can lead to great outcomes. I love the way the teacher brought all the kids together she kind of showed them that they are all their own person but they are great as one.
DeleteJaeline Perez: Freedom writers is a great movie that talks about education and the lives of those students. I'd like to talk about how the school doesn't put enough effort to make their students learn, and also the racism amongst the teachers. The students lack individualism due to them being racially divided and beings in gangs. Ms.Gruwell does a great job making the students come together, due to them relating to each others experiences. I'd also like to talk about how Ms. Gruwell never gave up on the students because she knew she saw something in them, unlike the other teachers who didn't like integration.
DeleteI watched Freedom Writers and it was truly an amazing movie. I thought it captured really well how their can be cliques in school and I think that is something we could discuss about in class. Seeing how everyone had their respective group reminded me of high school and how all the hispanics would hang around each other and speak spanish because it was basically code around non-spanish speakers. This relates to class in the form of individualism, but I felt it was broken down by the line game Ms.G used with the students, after that I truly felt like the class was unified and stayed that way. This broke most of the cliques in their class and they all got along. The students also felt cared for because unlike the other teachers she was putting her own money into the class and getting into their personal lives through the use of their notebooks. It was really an influential movie.
DeleteFreedom writers was a great movie it truly touched my heart. I think we should definitely talk about how race, and class play a big part in our education system. It was great to see how schools limit students potential in school because of their home lives, and how Mrs.G was able to create a safe space for the students.
DeleteFreedom Writers honestly might be one of the best movies I have ever seen. This film really opened my eyes further to the reality that some kids grow up living in fear, and how things like high school are just not that important in the grand scheme of what they are dealing with.
DeleteI basically cried throughout the entire movie, constantly heartbroken by the diary entries, the strong bond each student formed with Ms. Gruwell, as well as the connections they made with their classmates that they had previously despised due to a strong racial divide in their community. It also made me very angry the way the other teachers talked about the kids who came to their school because of the integration system, and how they treated Ms. Gruwell poorly because of what she was doing for her class.
I think that we should discuss the racial aspects of the film in class because these issues are extremely relevant today and the film does a good job of presenting these problems. I also think that discussing Ms. Gruwell’s unconventional forms of teaching and how she bonded with these kids is relevant to class.
On a side note, I cried so hard when they showed a picture and included information at the end about the real Ms. Gruwell and the Freedom Writers. I ordered the book so I can read the real diary entries of the students!
From Desea:
DeleteFreedom writers is a great movie it really highlights different aspects of highschool students lives and shows how school systems are poorly structured. This movie relates to what we have been discussing in class because of the teacher student relationship,race and purpose of education systems. Ms. Gruwell went out of her way numerous times during the movie to earn her students respect and provide them with education that they deserve. I believe that schools need more teachers with her kind of mindset. She cared about her students and genuinely wanted to see them succeed, she believed in them and didn’t give up.
A lot of the reviews for this film are favorable. It reminds me of the praise that The Blind Side received. I think this film hit on all of the stated topics from the list above. Race obviously stood out and how that affects teacher and/or student agency. This might go to further our argument's in disagreeing with Bulman removing race from his analysis of high school films. This film touched on race and class, with both being so linked they can't be separated.
DeleteAs for the topic of individualism, this film covers it. They all have individual voices, which is a good part of the emphasis on individualism in our world. They used art to expressive themselves (which we discussed isn't always available for students like them), and Mrs. Gruwell really went out of her way to help them find that space. That only added to the overall message: the system failing poor kids of color. That message wasn't ever lost in the film, in the same way others are. I chose this movie because from the trailer it was a little obvious that the criticism of the system would be there ( I just wanted to see how it would be carried out in the film). It's incredibly important to not have the message be that failure is individual when there are entire systems working aghttps://203-002f21.blogspot.com/logout?d=https://www.blogger.com/logout-redirect.g?blogID%3D8680167593477352998%26postID%3D6191680713467063915ainst literal kids.
^^ cindy
DeletePhong: I watched Freedom Writers my freshman year of high school. The movie covers topics such as race and class in the education system. It gives us a variety of perspectives through the journals of each of the students. Teachers should always strive to make a connection with their class as Mrs. Gruwell (Or Ms. by the end of the movie). I have a few criticisms however. The first one being how it portrays a white person as the "hero" saving and bringing kids out of trouble. The second one is how the movie portrays the students of color as troubled and somewhat aggressive in the beginning. I understand the ploy of this, but it just makes it seem like colored students need a white person to save them. That's why Coach Carter is goated.
DeleteDangerous Minds (1995)
ReplyDeleteWhen I started watching Dangerous Minds, I had a solid idea of where the plot was going to go and how the story was going to proceed within the first ten minutes. The movie follows the standard trope of "teacher starts at a new school and helps underprivileged kids" perfectly. However, even though I knew what the plot points were going to be, that didn't change the fact that it was an enjoyable movie to watch and it broached some difficult topics, especially during the 90's. It covered racial issues, classism, death, and economic disparity between demographics in a fairly easy way to understand while at the same time not holding back on a lot of the issues. The one part that I hadn't expected was when the grandmother pulled her two grandsons out of the school so they could find work. It added an element of realism to it.
DeleteI wanted to get the chance to talk about the white savior trope in the movie. The grandmother uproots the subtext about this telling the teacher "find another poor boy to save" and this suggests that the white woman is out of place for attempting to 'make it right' and hand out opportunity in the opportune moments. But the movie Dangerous minds does a good job of nuancing the idea of white saviorism especially in school. The grandmother doesn't believe poems and deeper education is valuable, and I think the movie was showing that the grandmother herself wasn't ever given the opportunity to learn the value of education (causations possibly being poor schooling environment, teen pregnancy's, needing to work and dropping out of school, essentially necessity had to come before education).
DeleteJake bosak
DeleteLean on Me (1989)
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to find out this movie was based on a true story. However loosely based, I still find it difficult to imagine these measures taking place in real life. This film was slightly different from the other school-based movies I’ve seen because it focused on the school as a collective with a dramatically polarizing main character. Usually, high school films take the perspective of a teacher and their classroom. Whereas this movie placed Joe as the principal in charge of the student body and the faculty. This variation allows the audience to sympathize with Joe because he took on a difficult position while seemingly getting to know his students. It seemed that no matter what “Crazy Joe” did, he could always be redeemed because of his passion and relationships with the students. Race and class play an instrumental role in the story of Eastside High. The student population consisted of mainly African Americans with some small groups of Latinx and Caucasian people. Although the latter groups could not be seen or were not as villainized as much as the African American groups. For example, towards the beginning, the school is being shown with graffiti and completely trashed with mostly black students in the camera frame while; “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses plays. This scene makes the audience think the students are too animalistic in behavior and can no longer be helped. In the same scene, a black student can be seen pounding a teacher's head into the ground. Not only was the student body comprised of predominantly minorities, but they were also lower-class. This implies that only students of minority groups and lower class can only perform this way and need such extreme help. Like many of the movies from the 80s, Lean on Me leaned into an abundance of stereotypes ranging from the angry black man to the corrupt politician. If this movie was made today, it definitely would not be received well.
DeleteAnnalise: I agree with what Tykia said about how Lean on Me included a bunch of racial stereotypes that would not pass in today's society, but overall I enjoyed watching this movie. Something we talk about in class a lot is social classes and race, and in this film their distinctions were very evident, as the they tapped into many racial stereotypes, such as corrupt white men in politics and "savage" students who happen to be mostly POC. I enjoyed watching the character development of Joe Clark and how he slowly builds bonds with his students and faculty. Usually, movies set in a school focus in on how the teacher is changing the students' lives, so it is nice to see how the students are also changing Joe's life.
DeleteSince I was young, I had always known of the movie 'Lean On Me'. It seemed like it played on and on on a channel called 'Bounce TV' but until now, I never actively sat down to watch it. The reason I bring up this specific fact is not just for a sense of nostalgia, but to use this memory to highlight the important thing about this movie.
DeleteBounce TV is a television network inherently geared towards African-Americans. They air many movies and programs specifically featuring black stories. Race played a very vital part in Lean On Me. You can clearly see this when the movie opens up with Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman) teaching at a then well-off Eastside High which minutes later turns into an Eastside High filled with rowdy rebellious kids...(this fact is very much drilled in as Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" is played while showcasing said kids.) It is important to note that the well-off version of Eastside is filled with white students where as the run-down Eastside high is filled with mostly black, hispanic, and poor white students. Mr. Clark even highlights this towards the end of the movie when he tells the white students at an assembly to stand in the crowd of all the other students and states that if they could have, they would have abandoned the school. All throughout the movie, Joe Clark would use what we call 'tough love' to help shape the students to not only become academically but also ethically sound. The movie is a bit cliché in this sense and it plays into the 'bad guy turned good' trope, but nevertheless I loved it; despite the clichés and traditional views shown in the movie it was comforting. Joe reminds me a lot of my family and a few other teachers I've had. He lets it be known that at the end of the day, everyone deserves an equal opportunity to get somewhere in life and he even speaks of achieving "The American Dream" we all know and love. Joe lets the teachers, students, and parents know that even though many of the kids chose to cope with personal problems in negative ways, it is not their fault when they score low on tests, drop out, and skip class; it is instead the adults who are responsible.
Diamon Patterson: One of the reviews I read about Lean on Me mentioned that the movie took an approach of tough students vs. tougher teacher. Mr. Clark had to be stern in the beginning to show the students that he was force. He probably believed that was the only way the students would take him serious or abide by his rules. The beginning of the movie, in my opinion, was not a good contrast. Mr. Clark is shown teaching a predominately white class who are very respectful. Then, twenty years later the school is now predominantly black with latino culture and the children are depicted as hoodlums/animals. I may be over reaching, but this contrast made it seem like Caucasian students more discipline than minority groups. However, the director did a great job by allowing the teachers to take some accountability for loosing control of the school as well as the students educational disadvantages. Throughout the movie you could still see how Mr.Carter still attributed a lot of the failures of students to their individuality. In addition, the movie did show how Mr.Carter was an agency or "savior" to the students and bring them out of their troubles. During the scene where Mr.Carter went to Kanesha house, I felt like that was an attempt to show the social class that most students in the movie were classified.
DeleteDiamon Patterson: Also, Lean on Me used the mayor to exemplify how school is viewed as a political gain or loss and it is seen as a financial benefit.
Delete"Lean On Me" is a kind of movie you watch as a kid not knowing what how significant the message is but you still end up loving the movie solely on the energy. Its a movie that portrays the stereotypical life of minorities and how just one person can completely change the mindset of many when faith is involved. When people feel as though they have no other options or anyone who cares, you become unmotivated to apply yourself to anything you see doesn't fit the life you're dealt. In the movie Morgan Freeman was the light the school needed to restore the will to want better. It wasn't just the students who were slacking and didn't care but also the staff that gave up trying to establish push the students. Just like real life, everyone needs at least one person who believes in them and pushes them past comfort to simply have a positive mindset. Throughout the movie, you gradually see hope coming back to life with just a simple "yall belong to me" attitude Principle Joe Clark had towards his students and staff.
DeleteI had a lot of problems with this movie both in how it was structured as a film and the message it sends. The biggest thing is plot holes and unfinished storylines. Not only are incomplete narratives frustrating for the viewer but in this film the lack of elaboration leads to some dicy conclusions. For example: In the first scene of the movie we see Joe Clark teaching a class in a very clean, nice building. The students are actively participating and invested in the lesson. And the students are all white. However when Clark gets moved to another school (throwing a tantrum that definitely should have gotten him fired) we see a still shot of the pristine hallway fade into a shot of that same hallway 20 years later, now grimey and graffitied. The song Welcome to the Jungle plays as we see students terrorize each other, teachers, and staff. A girl gets sexually harassed, a man gets his head smashed into the ground, and drugs are being used and sold. And the kids are predominantly black or latinx. There is no explanation for this shift besides Mr. Clarks departure. The film makes it look like the diversity in the school is what ruined it. That black and latinx peoples brought in drugs and violence and don’t care about education like the white students 20 years prior did. It’s an unnerving transition that plays into harmful racial stereotypes. Even though it claims to be a movie that is trying to break those.
DeleteAnother of my issues is how the movie constantly takes Mr. Clarks side. He is right in every action he makes. I agree that tough love can be a good way to establish order and balance. However, Clark crosses a line and endangers people in doing so. His first action as principal of East Side was to kick 300 students out of the school. They are kicked out for being drug dealers, violent, or for having been at the school for more than 4 years without making any academic progress. Yes, if someone is violent and/or has a drug problem then public school may not be the healthiest option for them and their peers. Yet as much as Clark preaches about getting children off the streets he does not make any sort of effort to help these 300 students that he just abandoned. He doesn’t recommend them to any services that can rehabilitate them or find jobs or anything. They are his students but since they cause problems he turns his back on them. Yet the film repeatedly reinforced this action as a good, bold move. The only pushback he gets is from Ms. Barrett, who is portrayed as irrational and corrupt, despite the fact that she makes many valid criticisms of Clark.
Mary Davis:
DeleteIn Lean on Me, there was a little bit of everything. It definitely has a strong teacher/ student relationship. At the beginning of the movie, the school is a broken school full of misbehaving students. Mr. Clark (the new principal) comes in and has to “clean up” the school that’s full of drug dealers, drug abusers, etc. Mr. Clark never really took one student in, it was more like the whole school. I noticed some individualism in it also. Before Mr. Clark threw out the “older” students, everyone followed them around. No one was themselves, no one had creativity, and no school spirit. Everyone followed on another, leaning on each other for guidance. Mr. Clark changes that, giving students their voices back along with opportunities in the future.
Stand and Deliver (1987)
ReplyDeleteRachel Ruble: I really enjoyed Stand and Deliver and would definitely recommend to watch it. The movie was based on a high school math class in a lower class Hispanic community in Los Angeles. The class gets a new teacher who helps them all pass their AP calculus exam. Similar to what Bulman says, the teacher serves as a savior in the film and helps the students focus more on school. In Bulman, he says that in films where the students are lower class, the teacher plays the hero, which is true in this movie. I also think the movie touches on individualism a little bit. Each student is a different school stereotype and it shows how students of different interests can come together throughout the film. Overall I thought the movie had a great ending and it definitely reflected a lot of what we have talked about during class.
DeleteThis film was good overall and had many lessons and scenes worth talking about. Focused on a lower class Hispanic school in LA, they got a new teacher. This was a class that was most likely used to teachers who were just there to "do their job" as in teach what they are there for, get payed, and go home. Every student had their own story and a couple of them had their own learning moment. Over the course of the film their were many moments where the teacher would show he cared deeper than just teaching the students by telling them things such as "dont you want to be the one designing the cars instead of repairing them?" He showed he wanted more for the students than just to teach them and he did it in an understanding but strict manner. The teacher was definitely the hero in this story, at the end almost all of the students past their math exams which had never happened before in that school. There was clearly a lot of doubt towards the future of the students in that school and he recognized that it subconsciously or consciously affected the students and their goals for themselves. He set a standard for the students and expected just as much from them as if they went to a private school.
DeleteAn example of individualism is one of the students who was involved in gangs but he decided to go his own direction and involve himself with school and his studies despite how he would look to his friends or other classmates.
JT Holeman ^^
DeleteI enjoyed the movie for the most part. I like how it examined race and class while still managing to leave it tasteful through a hollywood lens. I also liked how it gave agency to the teacher and the students. It gave agency to the teacher to give agency to the students
DeleteTo Sir, With Love (1967)
ReplyDeleteWalter Garrison: This movie is very entertaining. I thought it was a little bit idealistic but also very dated taking place in the 60s. Mr. Thackeray clearly does care about the kids in the class regardless of the respect they show him and the classroom. Race seemed to play a strange role in the movie but I guess that's to be expected in a movie from this age. Mr. Thackeray's skin color seems to have no impact on the movie until one moment in the movie where it comes up with the kids in the class. This moment doesn't get acknowledged at all later in the story so I wonder what it was meant to do in the movie overall. It seems as though it is good that the movie has a strong black lead that carries the plot. Mr. Thackery's classroom is certainly full of important lessons and he achieves this by letting the students decide what they want to discuss. He does well as a teacher and has incredible patience. The speed with which the students changed may be a little unrealistic but the movie is still a solid concept overall.
DeleteLuke Headley: Stand and deliver is a timeless example of what an exceptional can do. Even with no budget, and everyone doubting him and his class they managed to pass the AP calc test. However, because of their ethnicities and socioeconomic background, the legitimacy of their test scores were brought into question. The class knew that know one believed in them, and when they managed to do what everyone said they'd never be able to, they were met with accusations of cheating. While it is such shitty thing to have happen, this only motivated the class more. They wanted to show the doubters what they were capable of.
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