Extra Credit - The Class

"I rejected the idea of making us fit in with the system." - the gothic boys mother. I think the teacher in 'The Class' was trying to reach each student individually within the whole class. Not every student though wanted to be reached. I think that is the case in many situations though, people don't want to be looked down on. In the final scene of the movie one of the students comes up to the teacher saying she hadn't learned anything. She was ashamed by the fact that all her fellow peers had at least a little bit of knowledge in one of the subjects but she had nothing. Essentially I think that was a cry for help and she was reaching out for the teachers guidance.

Souleymane was an example of a student who didn't want to be reached. This was made very clear by his outbreaks in class and lack of preparation for class... However when the students were typing their self-portraits when the teacher didn't directly reach out to him it was obvious something sparked within Souleymane. During the parent teacher conference his mother and older brother were oblivious to his behavior and attitude. It may have had to do with the language barrier though. Unfortunately though by the end of the movie the problems escalated and he ended up being expelled. Maybe if Souleymane had tried to figure out his problems out independently his future would of turned out differently.

Continuing with the issue of the teacher student relationship... I am going to contradict what I just said but in some ways it seems as if there really was no solution for Souleymane. I think the only way change could of occurred is if he wanted to change. It seems as if change was being forced upon him. I think with situations like this one it really depends on the student. How much they are willing to push themselves to succeed.

The scene that I mentioned before with the making of the self-portraits really seemed like it might of been a turning point for him. It looked as if he finally had discovered the feeling of accomplishment but I guess the events that took place after were sparked by things going on around him. There was no way to necessarily avoid these situations and the way he chose to deal with them had a negative impact on him.

Something that seemed very crucial to the schools philosophy was the number grades and the attitudes of the students. Whenever the teachers had a meeting and discussed the students these two concepts kept being brought up. While at SOF grades and attitudes are only a part of the picture. I feel as if the french teacher was more of a SOF teacher while the other teachers wanted to immediately give up on Souleymane. He wanted to hear what the students had to say and his class seemed very discussion based.

I am not sure if any of the ideas from the school in the movie should be incorporated into SOF. I think the fact that the students are able to voice their opinions is another similarity to our school. I think generally speaking though this movie was much more real than 'Blackboard Jungle' and other films based on that. Maybe that's why there isn't anything too much to incorporate within our school. Since a lot of schools are very much like The Class, Blackboard Jungle could almost be considered a fairy tale that always has a happy ending.