HW 49: Film Analysis

Esther's "super teacher" movie was interesting and realistic. It explored the super teacher as a fantasy, and realistically students aren't so easily inspired and their problems can't be fixed with poetry. The teacher fantasizes about a disruptive class where he teaches them about poetry and exposes their inability to communicate naturally. In this scenario the teacher teaches the students about poetry and exposes a flaw in their lifestyle, truly educating them. However in reality the teacher is really just a drunk who teaches a group of well behaved, but uninterested kids. The fantasy of the teacher is to take the worst possible group of kids and turn them into educated adults, subconsciously showing his excellence as a teacher.

In the other films most of the teachers actually had a class full of uneducated and misbehaved kids. The teachers did however, use these kids to solve their own problems. In "Freedom Writers" the teacher uses her students to get over the fact that she can't have a child with her husband and treats her students as surrogate children, in "Hamlet 2" the teacher uses his students as a way to make up for his failed acting career. In each of these movies the teacher-student relationship is romanticized by showing that there is learning on both sides, the students affect the teachers and the teachers affect the students.

I also noticed in Esther's film that the students in the real life scene suffered from a lack of interest and not a lack of obedience or discipline. this idea isn't addressed in many other films but is vaguely addressed in "Dead Poets Society". The students are very obedient and well behaved but they lack the passion for learning and the passion for poetry. In the fantasy and in "Dead Poets Society", all it takes is a charismatic and passionate teacher. However the one realistic quality that both of these movie's have is inspiring the students through learning real world applications. The teacher in Esther's film exposes the student's flawed lifestyle, teaching them that through poetry you can improve your life. In "Dead Poets Society" the teacher reveals life lessons to his students through poetry.

These films reveal several things about education. For one, teachers see students as a way to feel important and valuable in society, the students have an impact on the teacher as well as the student having an impact on the students (if any). Realistically there may be no impact on either side, but it is important to note that these life lessons are learned by teachers and students alike. Secondly, teachers have a certain expectation from their students, in Esther's video the teacher wanted a disruptive class to tame, so he could feel good about himself. The teacher expects a certain class and teaches them based on their perception of that class, it's important to consider the goal of the teacher and what they want their students to learn and what they think their students need. One realistic aspect of these movies is the super teacher connecting the student's subject to their own lives, in my own experience I feel more willing to do school work when it is convincingly applied to an aspect of my own life.