Analysis of the Movie “Dangerous Minds”
Many movies involving teachers and tough students have been produced over the years. The objective of most of these movies is to show that even tough students, who are considered hopeless by the society, can change their ways and mature to be responsible. The teacher in the movie ends up finding some hidden talent within the students, which the student did not know they had. In most of these movies, minority communities such as African-Americans and Latinos are usually the target. These communities are targeted for their apparent tough attitude towards life and the harsh conditions that they endure. The movie Dangerous Minds is no exception. It shows how a teacher struggles to change the students in an inner city school and how she succeeds in the end. Concepts such as adolescent development, their identity, morality and ego development, the teacher’s role, parental style, juvenile
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As the teacher and the student are having dinner in a restaurant, the student reveals that he may be wearing a stolen jacket. He does not seem disturbed by that fact, showing that it is a common occurrence in his neighborhood. He also reveals that he can do anything, including stealing, to earn the money needed to pay for the jacket. The concept of killing as a way of defending oneself is also prevalent in the movie. The police do not seem to play an active role in protecting the people in this community and the people are used to taking matters into their own hands. When Emilio is threatened by someone who has been released from jail, he says that he would rather deal with the situation himself rather than ask for help. According to him, the only way to solve the problem is if he killed the person who was threatening him first. Students are also involved with dealing drugs. Emilio reveals that the person who is threatening him is of the same age as him and that they go to the same
Bulman is based on why Hollywood films represent students and education in constant way that can be predicted by the actors/plot social class based on American culture. The difference among urban, suburban, and private school genres are separated and compared to find their consistencies in films. Bulman uses Durkheim’s theory of individualism (utilitarian and expressive) to indicate how individuals are dependent on one another and although it is a product of social life, it can restrict some from recognizing their connection to the social life. This foundation of individualism guides the reader as the book further breaks down how the films ‘choose’ their plots to portray a stereotyped social class. Urban schools are in need of a savior, suburban schools have student heroes and do not need education, and the private school that challenges the culture of privilege are the three sections
Students these days are shielded from real world issues. There is a misconception that young people are fragile, so reality is sugar coated. The truth is, life can be a test for survival. Jeannette Walls knows this all too well. Walls experienced a far-from-normal childhood with far-from-normal parents.
Therefore, students can infer that not all people can be “superhuman heroes.” For example, students of color might not believe that they can accomplish or be recognized for doing something incredible as a “white” student or an European person.
Many of the boys pretended that negative interactions and stereotyping did not affect them, but their bravo personas only masked the fear inside. Fear made the boys feel weaker and less masculine, so they would deviate from social norms to regain respect and dignity among their peers and for themselves. Routine patterns of punishment eventually lead the boys to develop an altered view of thoughts, beliefs, and ways of behaving in order to survive the tough life set them. Chapter two concentrates on the history of Oakland, incarceration rates, youth systems of control, and the boy’s resistance to punishment and brutalization. The Oakland ghetto consists of a multiracial community, predominantly African-American and Latino, that are equally targeted and brutalized by police
As I read this article 15 times or more trying to fully understand it all, my mind is taken back over, and over again to the movie, “The Blind Side.” In this movie Michael Oher has to overcome being taken from his mother at a young age, becoming homeless, adapting to a new life with a “family.” He has to try to fit in, in his new school, make decent grades. The school is predominately white, Christian school, and Michael is a black kid from the wrong side of the tracks. With help from his new family, friends, and the community Michael overcomes many obstacles and goes from a not so smart homeless kid, to high school graduate with college football in his future.
The boys lack a sense of humanity and passion, they are pushed deeper into social exclusion because of the punitive social order among them. Black and Latino males are seen as criminal risks, and as a generation are brought to social and physical
The decision to attend a white school is a tough one and Junior understands that for him to survive and to ensure that his background does not stop him from attaining his dreams; he must battle the stereotypes regardless of the consequences. In this light, race and stereotypes only makes junior stronger in the end as evident on how he struggles to override the race and stereotypical expectations from his time at the reservation to his time at Rearden. How race and stereotypes made
Geoffrey Canada does an excellent job of bringing his readers to the streets of the South Bronx and making them understand the culture and code of growing up in a poor, New York City neighborhood in the ‘50s and ‘60s. In his book, Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun, Canada details, through his own childhood experiences, the progression of violence in poverty plagued neighborhoods across America over the last 50 years. From learning to be “brave” by being forced to fight his best friend on a sidewalk at six-years-old, to staring down an enraged, knife wielding, “outsider” with nothing to defend himself but nerve, Canada explains the nightmare of fear that tens of thousands of children live through every day growing up in poor neighborhoods. The book
Censorship is an extremely debated topic in America, with people saying it contradicts with what the Bill of Rights has allowed the American people and how it may deny people use the Freedom of Speech. Yet, the censorship of books in American public schools is one of the most controversial topics today because of the use of racial slurs in classic literature, this is the case with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Opinions on this topic vary, with some of them being: schools should have the right to censor books because they have racial slurs in them, schools should have teachers open up a conversation about race and the use of racial slurs with these books, or schools should not have the right to censor any book. I firmly believe that schools
Victims of TV violence are rarely shown experiencing serious harm, and few programs condemn violence or depict other ways of solving problems (Center for Communication and Social Policy, 1998) (Berk 2006). It is imperative to keep up with children of all races during their development because they are sponges. Positive role models within their community can help with this. “Growing concerns about the experience and achievement of Black pupils (especially Black males)
Moreover, demonstrate consequences are taken to oppress racial and ethnic minorities to keep them in a subservient position. Overall, this film has provided me with a visual depiction of how stereotypes are a mental tool that enforces racial segregation and self-hate. The label of “White” became a necessity for Sarah Jane to achieve in society. To attain it she needed to move to a new city, change her name and deny her mother.
The diversity of student backgrounds, abilities and learning styles makes each person unique in the way he or she reacts to information. The intersection of diverse student backgrounds and active learning needs a comfortable, positive environment in which to take root. Dr. King continues by explaining, “Education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.” From back then to today’s society, kids are failing because they lack those morals that they need to succeed.
This film is mainly intended towards the three previously mentioned groups;students, teachers, and parents. The intended message of this film is that improving the educational system will better the lives of children and young adults. The thesis statement for this film is that the documentary Race to Nowhere, directed by Jessica Congdon and Vicki Abeles effectively argues about the flawed educational system by providing real life examples, statistics and credible sources to convey how students are negatively affected mentally and physically by the educational system. Throughout the film the directors are trying to persuade parents and teachers not to put so much stress on students and to understand that they are just kids and they can only take so much before it starts to
2Shortly after the Rodney King riots in L.A., new school teacher Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) wants to experience the difficult freshman class of Wilson High School, made up of some ethnic groups’ kids that the system has given up on. The optimistic young teacher Erin comes up with her confidence to try her best to get the kids to learn more about themselves and the world around them, finding the meaning of their lives in journals, while fighting with fellow teachers and the school principal about her techniques. Erin tries her best to break the ice between the people with love and understanding, while school including dean keeps on racism and regard students as hopeless people. More generally, Basing on racism, on the one hand, some people that are
Erin places a line of red tape along the center of the classroom floor, asking students to step on the line if the question asks applies to them. Initially the questions are lighthearted, questions on music and film, the questions develop into more serious question about correctional facilities, drugs, gang violence and death. Cognate and sociocultural learning theories argue ‘that people construct new knowledge and understandings based on what they already know and believe’ (National Research Council, 2000, p.10). The students in this film are reinforcing racial stereotypes about each other that they believe to be true. In order to change these beliefs ‘preconceptions must be addressed’ (National Research Council, 2000, p.10 - 11).