Stand and Deliver
Thought for the day: teachers watching movies about teachers is an excellent example of poetic learing. (Poetic learning being learning by experience/intuition.) By watching these movies, one is able to slip into their experience--to walk in their shoes a little--and thus learn from them.
At any rate, I watched Stand and Deliver Tuesday. Outside of just the sheer beauty of the performances in this movie, there is much to dig out. This is the story of a teacher (Jaime Escalante played by Lou Diamond Philips) who believes in his students when no one else does. The faculty at the school are either just filling in time because they don't have anything else to do; or else they are burnt out, disillusioned and filled with an "us vs. them" attitude that cannot see potential anymore. Escalante comes in an stirs the pot. He believes something no longer popular in education circles: that "students will rise to the level of their expectations." Imagine that. So he teaches his basic math students Algebra. Then he decides that they can indeed master Calculus. So he offers summer school courses in Trig and Higher Math to prepare them for Calculus their senior year. No one really thinks these barrio kids can do it. But they do. All 18 pass the Calculus AP test. And because they've done something so unexpected, ETS thinks they cheated. Here we see another amazing quality of Escalante--his passion for his students. He believes in them enough to risk his career and stand up for them. In the end, the students must retake the AP test under the scrutiny of the ETS investigators. They all pass again.
I found this man's faith and passion inspiring--and so against this modern educational idea that if you can get "underpriveledged" kids just to read and pass through, that's all you can expect. Baloney. That is true discrimination. Students will rise to meet their expectations.
A small gem of the movie--Escalante gets his kids to memorize formulas in a simple, now considered "outdated" manner--class repetition. My confidence is renewed that I can get 6th graders (who are starting to feel too cool for grammar jingles) to stick with class repetition as a means to an end. Maybe we can even rap a little. :) At any rate, that is what I learned from this movie.
On an aside: I will probably post this on my main site also, but I wanted to say a brief thing that really has nothing and everything to do with Christian classical education. This morning I watched a movie called Pitch Black. I will give the brief disclaimer that it is rated "R" because the language is profuse and there is some gore. (However, anyone who has watche a Robert De Niro movie--language in this isn't nearly so bad.) That said, this was a great movie. But here is my point. As Christians, we should be able to see the hand of God everywhere and in all things. As a Christian classical educator, I especially want to be able not only to see His hand, but also to convey to my students that they should see His hand in all things. Even in secular works of art/film/fiction. This movie has such a heart-stopping Christ-figure moment. And I would never have expected it. Unfortunately, I do have to somewhat spoil the end to give it to you. But knowing the end doesn't really spoil the movie. And I'll try to be vague enough. . . . Riddick is about to make his getaway, leaving some people behind on this planet. He is stopped by one of the characters who has braved the incredible danger to follow him. There is a scuffle and this character ends up immoblized with Riddick's knife at his/her throat. He/she is refusing to leave the others behind and he asks "Are you willing to die for these people?"
"I'm willing to try."
"That isn't what I asked. I asked if you were willing to die for these people."
pause. "Yes."
"Interesting."
They return for the others. When they are almost to the ship, Riddick is stopped by two of the creatures. While the rescued ones get into the skiff, the character returns to help Riddick, finding him wounded by the creatures, but alive. He/she begins to help him back to the skiff encouraging him with "I said I would die for them, I didn't say I would die for you--now come on. Let's go!" Suddenly, as they struggle back you realize this character has been stabbed. For a moment, as the camera switches between their eyes (eyes being a huge theme in the film) you fall back on your ealier opinion of Riddick and wonder if he has stabbed he/she. Then he/she is ripped away--stabbed and grabbed by one of the creatures as Riddick cries "Not for me! Not for me!"
At the end, Riddick escapes with the others--free because he has "died" on the planet. I was stopped. I sat focused on the fact that this man--who admittedly believes in God yet hates Him--received mercy by the death of another. Even he felt himself unworthy of the sacrifice. Yet beyond that, the death was even more vicarious--because his identity was able to die in that instant. He did die on that planet--as someone else.
Admittedly, I don't think an unbeliever would rush to church over that one. But for me, the literary Christ figure was haunting. Another example of seeing God in even the most unlikely of places.