teachers make the worst students.
Something i've been meaning to watch for a long time but slipped my mind.
Besides the stellar performances by an understated Ryan Gosling and very precociously sublime Shareeka Epps, there was something compelling about the protagonist which had me riveted from the first scene. maybe it was his unkempt appearance, or his unorthodox ways of getting his students to understand history and dialectics. or just the fact that he was presented uncompromisingly flawed.
This has to be the most unromantic version of a teacher-student themed film i've watched in awhile. no 'captain-oh-my-captains', no cued-in soppy 'to sir with love' soundtrack overplaying the sentiment. just an unflinchingly raw portrayal of a high-school teacher trying to sort out his own demons rather than trying to reform his kids. and ironically, as he says twice in the film, "the kids keep (him) focused."
That hit home hard because i think that's really what it's all about. people think that we spend each day trying to 'educate', to make them learn something new when i think often we learn from them, how to get our own lives together while trying to 'fix' theirs. we forget how often it is through them that we sort out our own emotional baggage, and how when we can accept our own shortcomings that they can actually learn from us. haha have i lost you yet?
Here's a teacher with all the vulnerabilities of everyman, who finally 'teaches' his student through his own inadequacies, and who finds redemption in the pure and simple strength of a 13 y.o. only because unlike the grown-up, she suspends judgement and accepts him for his humanity. that's something many teachers fail to see in their frenzied mission to 'save' the children from their impending descent into moral hazards.
i know i went away with a whole lot of self-evaluation. why it's often the kids who can put a mirror to our self-righteous pontifications, calling us on our bullshit. and only when we let go a little and not attempt to be their role-model can the learning begin.
in a word, this is a brilliant film which overturns every narrow-minded notion of what a school should be. i'd definitely recommend this to any potential teacher out there.