'Author’s Thoughts for the Movie Dangerous Minds\r'

'My Thoughts on the depiction Dangerous Minds which was (in truth very loosely) adapted from my book My Posse take’t Do Homework. This was written in June 2007 in response to an email from a grad student: Thank you for contacting me for scuttle stillt or else of just using what you bugger off on the Internet or new(prenominal) resources. Let me be clear: I call back Dangerous Minds has its good points †it animate a lot of kids to stay in school, it inspired many volume to employ their dreams of becoming instructors, and it inspired the brilliant song, â€Å"Gangsta’s Paradise. I just wish that people would realize it’s a movie and non real life when they save about(predicate) me. I had very minuscular input to the movie and much(prenominal) of it is fiction, at condemnations so far upstage from fact as to be ridiculous. My students neer called me â€Å"white bread” for example †I had only one rule in my classroom and that was: respect yourself and the others in this room. I didnt disrespect my students and they didnt disrespect me. The producers couldnt believe it could be so simple — that if you treat kids with certain respect, they may not love you immediately, but they forget learn to respect you.\r\nI used rap lyrics to initiate lessons about poe humble out (not a DylanDylan contest). Instead of a sappy contest, we learned to write and try out various forms of poetry, beginning with songs and windup with Shakespearian sonnets. Yep, they actually liked them, too. I never threw fuckingdy bars at my students to trigger off them — I encouraged them to eat legal foods. I didnt fight with my administrators all the time — it was my principal who gave me the support and encouragement I needed to become an effective teacher.\r\nSo, I would simply take up that you view the movie as a movie and not as a reflection of my personality, dogma techniques, teaching philosophy, and definit ely not as a reflection of my attitude toward students. I didnt teach for one semester and then try to quit — I taught in the at- chance program for five years, starting as a part-time teacher and ending as a full-time teacher and department chair -and then I went back to grad school.\r\nI oblige with Bulmans contention that the movie industry seems to see that white middle-class people can walk into a ghetto and ‘save the children. ‘ Thats a very very simplified mutant of his theory. But I would argue that whether the temporary teacher is middle-class, white or disgracefulen, manful or female — the key is in that persons motivation. If you believe you are superior to somebody and you are going to save them, they will resist you, even if they are drowning, if they didnt ask for your help.\r\nBut if you truly respect and accord other people as they are, and your motivation is to encourage them to develop their talents and skills to pursue any(prenomi nal) goals THEY know strike off (or encourage them to set goals if they swallow none), then they will be interested in what you have to say. state concenter far too much on race, gender and money when they should focus on heart, soul and intention. Its been my experience that when you have self-destructive or apathetic students, instead of trying to teach them lessons, you will cook up much more progress if you try to find out what they find of themselves.\r\nAnd when they have negative perceptions, you tell them what you see — a new perspective that they cant see themselves. If this is an open communication, it will change the way they think of themselves. Instead of thinking of themselves as hopeless, powerless, stupid, lazy, or any(prenominal) they have been taught or told to think — they begin to see themselves as tender universes, separate from the school system labels, piece beings with talents and abilities that will be valued by the world, if they can just survive school. Thats enough.\r\nIm physical composition you a book! Sorry for being so long-winded. Oh, wait, I take that back. whizz more thing. I dont think the Hollywood film makers are intentionally perpetuating stereotypes and simplistic plot lines. I think in some cases they genuinely believe their stories, in some cases they are trying to bring out a feel-good story to attract an audience, and in some cases they just dont have a clue because they never attended human race schools and their worlds are so insulated that they believe whatever expert they have hired.\r\nI was told, for example, when I protested the racial stereotypes in Dangerous Minds (all black kids are raised by crackhead case-by-case moms, all Hispanic teens are gangsters because their parents dont care, black parents resent effective white teachers), I was told in a very sneering voice that the â€Å"gangologist” on their staff apprised them that their movie was an accurate depiction. I l aughed myself silly before I cried.\r\n'