HW #49 Analysis of Savior/Teacher film

April 20, 2010 [Sorry, I did this assignment before Esther's class

video was post up..]

Our class did not finish filming but for the two filming sections we did was fun. Our class film is about a mean teacher who has favoritism on the smart kids and then there are the antagonist who is called Alex who does not like the teacher as the teacher picks on her a lot. The teacher embarrasses Alex in front of the whole class and praises his favorite kids and one of those kids are called Casey, the protagonist. During lunch, Alex and her friends complain about the teacher and Casey comes up to them to tell them that they should work hard themselves if they want anything out of their lives and to get a better life. Therefore Alex chooses to make herself better by studying and tells her friends to do the same. When the test day came, they both aced the test and aced it again when the teacher thought they were cheating. The principle comes to praise the teacher and Alex and her friends just left while laughing/shaking their heads at the situation. That's the whole story but we only got to the first few scenes.

In the film, I was an extra and acting like a student who does work in the math class but dislikes the teacher for his meanness and favoritism. I think the message of the film is that students become their own saviors instead of the teachers becoming the saviors for the students. It is to tell the students to not rely on the teachers that much or go for favoritism. If you want to make a better self, then you have to set the standards for yourself. Similar to Alex and her friends, it was because of their decision to study for the test that they aced it, which shows how the students have save themselves from the humiliation from the teacher, and able to give themselves positive feelings on what they had accomplished. The tone of the film was set in an angry-ish and fighting expression between the teacher + his favorite kids and the protagonist and her friends. Then during in the end, its a humor/happy ending and a whatever tone because Alex and her friends just walk off without saying that its not the teacher's encouragement that got them to ace the tests.

The class film is different from the savior/teacher films because it is not the teacher that is saving the students but the students saving themselves. In the film, the teachers are only nice to his favorite students but as for the other students, he does not treat them as nicely as he does to the favorites and treats/humiliates Alex and her friends. Like the other savior/teacher films, the teacher treats everybody with respect and tries to help them in many things but in our class film, it is the opposite. The teacher in our class film did not tell the students to strive for their own and to think deeply unlike the other films that tell the students to find themselves and let themselves get the education they should get like the "Freedom Writers" and the "Dead Poets Society".

Salvation and education/schooling in our culture does connect with each other in many ways but sometimes salvation does not work for all the education/schooling. I think when we are looking at the super teacher/savior films, we look at it as if the teachers are trying to conform the students or how repetitive the ways of teaching are but I think the teachers, like in our school, does want to make change for students and help the students to realize and be aware of the world. It may not be a big change like the super teacher films but the teachers would give the students a boost. Schools that are strict and have discipline as their top priority is a school that, I think, does not have as much salvation as other schools that have other priorities. I think it is hard for the teacher who is motivated and caring to save the students who have a big rebellion feeling against school. And I think it is depends on how the students decisions and how they want school to help them with because in our class film, the situation is similar. The students have to decide for themselves if they want to get a better life even if by studying for the test is to show off to the mean teacher that they are not going to be trash or anything when they graduate.

I find that not all power goes to the teacher through this class film or how the scriptwriter, Carrie, had written it because it was the protagonists' who bought themselves their own power and was able to pass the tests. I think that's one of the aspect in education is to have the students bring out the courage to fight against the bad teachers or to prove they are not who they really showing and what the teachers are saying about them. Also, to be self-sufficient and to grow with their friends and learning from each other. The learning does not always have to be from teachers and I think that is why we have many class discussions and those discussions were to bring the students together to discuss with one another about the problem/situation in front of them.