HW 49

First of all I didn't realize that I sounded like that which made me very uncomfortable to say the least. I thought that even though the message got accross there could have been more done to emphasize the alcoholism and the sad undertones instead of the outward rage and indifference displayed to the class. Furthermore I wish that we had more time to show some of the personal lives of the students and theacher and the school atmosphere.
The message of the film is a little confusing to me. I'm not sure if it's trying to humanize the teacher and show how the teacher connects and then rebels against his students, or whether the movie is trying to point out how the students are either academically resilient or dependent on the teacher. Another possibility is that the film is mocking the "teacher savior" genre and trying to show through the plot the rediculous nature of the education genre.
The movie had some things in common with the films we've watched in class. For example the teacher when inspired to teach the kids was able to connect to the students and overcome the "badass" who's attempt to disrupt the class was overcome. Also many of the characters overlap. For example the bad kids talked about how the material the class is learning wasn't relavent in their life. The movie was different however in that the teacher ends up loosing it and the future of the kids in the class is unknown and not promising which is quite different then any of the teacher savior films we watched.
In conclusion I think that there is a clear connection between teachers acting as saviors and the students responding positively or quite negatively. I think that no matter where the school is or what the demographics are there are kids that for whatever reason need something extra to perform well. But something that these movies point out but in a very stupid way is that students want to be saved or inspired by someone they can relate to. The relation can come in many forms whether its racial, political or whatever overcoming that boundry I think is close to impossible for a lot of teachers because as much as someone can read about or live near a certain culture they will never be one of them.