Hw 49: Savior/Teacher film Reflection

     My class had the pleasure of having Gavin and Esther as our director and film maker, so of course our video came out really well. A mix of Gavin's script and Ester's nearly professional edits helped our film encompass everything we were aiming to achieve. With Will as the highly distressed teacher who just "snaps" one day, and Aja as the observant student, the storyline became a plot that told the tale of how not all teachers can be saviors like they fantasize about.

      In the video, I was one of many disobedient students in the class who helped instigate altercations between the teachers and the rebellious student, played by Evan and his lil brat pack of followers. Like many schools, there are the students who wish to excel by being the apple of the teachers eye, and those who couldn't care less about anything. Like we've been reading from Gatto's 6 Lessons, its the teachers job to get the kids to like, or at least endure, being stuck in the classroom. He's expected to enforce authority over a classroom of various differing personalities and somehow have them all act the same by being engaged in his lectures.

     I think our film shows that this is a rather unrealistic expectation that not every teacher can fulfill. What makes our film different, though, is that rather then the teacher letting his personal life affect his teaching tactics like displayed in most other movies, this teacher gives into impulse.
He no longer sees his classroom as a place of learning, rather he turns it into his own personal domain. He lets his true colors show and doesn't put on a fake fascad, since clearly no student was doing such for him.
He indulges in a drink while his class is in session, and takes the time to give his most difficult students a piece of his mind. He goes off about where he really sees them going with their lives, I think in order to give them a dose of reality. I really enjoyed Will's performance in this part of the film, he did a great job of being a hard ass who meant every word he was saying to Evan's character. I also think the lines were brilliant, because its true that most kids care too much about meaningless crap rather then trying to appreciate the education they're being offered.

     In this culture, in order to get by you have to follow the orders your given or else you'll be seen as a trouble maker. Not to say that this is the only way to succeed, or that its right, but never the less without obedience nothing will get done. I think you have to somehow be apart of the system in order to truly fight the system. But the kids in our film just flat out resisted the system, rather then using it to their advantage to get by, but was pretty ignorant of them. Will's character was right to share how he saw them in their futures, because thats whats can happen for most of the students who don't put any thought into their school work.

     It seems the teacher just wanted to get through to his students, to share some knowledge with them that might help them become more then the superficial robots they currently were.  By only being engaged in their digital devices all the time rather then engaging in something intellectual or meaningful, they were passing up an opportunity to have good careers and fulfilling lives.

     In the end, the teacher kind of just gave up on his students, which I think made him a bad teacher. Like we've been learning, when a teacher cares the students to better. But when a teacher gives in and shuts down, whats left for the student to do but believe that they can make any adult go crazy. The teacher is supposed to set an example for the students who rely on him for guidance. All he taught them now was that when the going gets tough, the though gets drinking.



     The moral of the film, to me, was that you must want to learn in order to truly learn. Your can't force change onto anyone who doesn't want it. But when enough people express how little they  care, it can ruin the hope for others. By the students not caring the teacher just lost faith and all hope in them, which is a quality a teacher should NEVER have.
There can only be salvation if all parties want it. 

Wills character seemed like the villain in one sense, and human in another.