Hw- 49 Oh, Cry Me A River...

The message that we have been getting about savior teacher films are that the teachers always have something to offer that the kids never knew they needed. Which is fine, but it confuses me on how the teachers know what the kids need and how they will come to need this knowledge in the future. Of the films that we have seen it has become a trend, a new teacher being told to teach a 'helpless' bunch of kids.

What isn't highlighted is the affect that the kids have on the teacher as well. Which I think is just as important as the savior teacher role. In Ester and Gavin's film the beginning is pretty much the same as the other films, a bunch kids that would much rather spend the class talking. Not to mention the brand spanking new teacher who thinks that they are capable of handling a bunch of teenagers as well as the class who thinks that they know everything and are above direction.

Since their film stared out very typical I was expecting the ending to be hopeful and the kids would all rejoice and love their new teacher for all the knowledge that they have learned. But the ending surprised me. The teacher returned back to old habits and lost hope before the kids did. This was also a nice twist. It makes me think that the film is saying that there is no hope or that hope is short lived. Eventually your life will catch up with you.

I think that the film is saying that there is a fantasy land and then there is reality. It was a dream, or wishful thinking that brought the new teacher to believe that he could tame a group of students who were already grounded in their ways. But the reality of his problem was too much to handle, and the reality caught up to him quicker than he realized. It was quick as well.

In the other teacher films the teacher never gave up, they kept pushing for something within the kids. They did things that caught the attention of the hopeless kids until one class they didn't have to try anything else to gain attention or respect. In our society teachers are looked up to. Other adults look up to teachers to help to save their kids from the dangers of other teens and magazines. I think that in film a teachers job is very much exaggerated.

I have been in school for 13 years and I plan to be in school for at least 4 more years. So far I have yet to encounter a teacher who has had a class like the one in Freedom Writers for example. I think that savior teacher films are desperate pleas for teachers so that students will look at these other students and realize that they dint want to be compared to gangbangers and with therefore strive to be more than that. These films are lies and exaggerated stories. Man up teachers, life isn’t that bad.