Webs’ Random Ideas

I have seen at least a half dozen of these movies where a young idealist teacher tries to save the world by taking underprivileged children and giving them hope. Well the movie “Freedom Writers” is this type of movie, but a little different… well and the same.

It’s a great story of an LA school that used to have only the best and brightest, A-List. But due to the school district’s integration program suddenly lower class children of different races and backgrounds get thrown into the mix and we find a teacher struggling to cope with the whole issue.

The movie ties together many different issues such as race, gang violence, learning, teaching, and the public school system. All of which is something a teacher at this high school has to cope with and face. Before the movie even started I probably could have given a fairly concise description of what was going to happen, but good acting and great writing kept me watching the movie.

One scene that grabbed my attention was when the teacher took a note that was being passed around in class and made sure to talk about it. The note was a picture of a black kid in class and was making fun of how black people have big lips. The teacher made the point that what the students were doing in class was no different than what the Nazis did during WW2. Justifying their racism by humiliating the other race, and showing how they are inferior.

What was the reaction of the students? Well the token white kid in the class was the only one that knew what the Holocaust was. I would go on and explain more, but I would rather you read the book or see the movie than have my explanation ruin it.

The movie had two scenes that were completely unnecessary in my opinion, but besides that I really didn’t have any beef with the film. Just the usual Hollywood over-dramatization of a heart warming story of at-risk teenagers. I think rather than seeing the film I would recommend reading the book, but I can’t technically say that till I have read it.

Besides my personal thoughts on the movie I really liked what I believe is one of the major underlying ideas of the film. If we spent just a little more on education we really could make a difference. In the movie, the main character takes on two other jobs to pay for the activities that she feels she needs to use to be able to grab the students attention. She didn’t use the two jobs to pay for her personal activities but to pay for her student’s activities.

What kind of school system do we have when teachers are funding their classroom? There are so many issues with our school system I don’t even know where to start. But rather than turn this into a ridiculously long post about our public education system I leave you with this… Once the Indian students in my program graduate they are going to take their families back to India for their kids to go to school, rather than stay here and have the US educate them K-12.