This film focused on a teacher who was willing to fight for the students and find ways to reach them with tactics other than just typical pedagogy or academic discipline. Where it is commonly believed that students growing up in poor families seem to be labeled as juvenile delinquents and not much is expected of them, Mr. Dadier tried to change this perception by showing his students that he cared about all of them: “I'm a teacher. My pupils are the kind you don’t turn your back on, even in class!” Through private meetings and much perseverance, Mr. Dadier made a connection with Artie West, which occurred after hard work and many failed teaching efforts. Mr. Dadier finally realized how to breathe life into his lessons so that they became meaningful to his students. He also showed respect for them by allowing them to showcase their talents in the Christmas program. These two strategies combined were enough to earn the respect of the classroom’s gang leader. Artie West, in turn, put the word out to the other students to work hard and behave in this teacher's class. Other teachers shared in Mr. Dadier’s success by stating that the momentum created in Mr. Dadier’s English class had carried over into their own classes. This movie had a positive outcome. Continued hard work would be necessary for the positive change to continue. “Blackboard Jungle” opened and closed with Bill Haley and the Comet’s “Rock Around the Clock”, which helped stir quite a ruckus - so much so, the film was banned from many theatres. But the film’s central point was nevertheless clear: students who we think are aimless and recalcitrant only need the thoughtful guidance of a concerned teacher to make learning meaningful and rewarding.
Twelve years after the release of “Blackboard Jungle”, Sidney Portier starred in yet another film featuring juvenile delinquency in the classroom. “To Sir With Love”, filmed in 1967--a time when there was great hostility in the midst of the Civil Rights movement--takes place in London’s east end, a slum neighborhood, which also reveals a “bad kids come from poor neighborhoods” theme. This time, Sidney Portier played a first-time black teacher faced with a class that has no respect or discipline, who are unruly, immature, illiterate, and bent on getting him to quit his teaching career immediately. Students were dressed according to the times in mini-skirts, go-go boots, beehive hairdo’s, leather jackets, and bad attitudes to match. Viewers get a sense of the activities associated with juvenile delinquency, such as stealing cars, getting into fights, using of weapons, cursing, making sexual overtures, drinking, and carrying on. But most is implied rather than shown in detail. The tactics used by the teacher, Mark Thackeray, were unconventional; for instance, he threw out the academics and began helping troubled teens grow up, learn lessons, and grow into adults. In one particular scene, a demonstration of this is made when Mr. Thackeray, already exhausted after just a few weeks, walks into his classroom and instantly smelled a foul stench emanating from the smoking stove. “All you boys, OUT! The girls stay where they are!” he barked. He waited until the boys exited, and then turned on the girls: “There are certain things a decent woman keeps private; only a filthy slut would have done this! And those who stood by and encouraged her are just as bad, I don’t care who they are!” Most likely it was a boy who did the filthy act, but the accusation was extremely effective against the girls because it instantly drove a wedge between the genders. The girls did not appreciate being humiliated by the boys in the first place, but to then further humiliate them by minimizing the boys’ guilt was beyond what the girls were prepared to tolerate! By the time Mr. Thackeray re-enters after demanding they clear the air, he has found a new tactic in how to treat his students: he junked all their textbooks. Gaining their attention by this most unusual act from a teacher, Mr. Thackeray proceeds to tell his students that he was not going to teach them anything they would find in textbooks. He was going to show them how others interact with each other outside of their normal surroundings. He was going to start by taking them on a field trip. Now this was something that appealed to them! His students begin to trust him - especially the girls who soon found their independence from the boys. Soon the class goes on a field trip to enjoy their first museum experience, which begins the opening of a new world of wonders. Although Mr. Thackeray was faced with many difficulties, his overcoming them leaves the viewers with a renewed look at humanity in the midst of adversity. The viewer no longer sees the students as undisciplined and incorrigible; rather, an interested and devoted teacher uses novel methods to find their virtues and amplify them. The introduction of the hit song, “To Sir With Love”, sung by Lulu, truly brought the meaning of this movie to home and heart.
Subsequently, twenty-eight years later, “Dangerous Minds” (starring Michelle Pfeiffer) was unveiled. A heroine this time, LouAnne Johnson, comes face to face with a classroom of ‘hopeless problem students’ in a tough urban school in Northern California. Fitting with the times, the students were dressed in the usual tough guy leathers, primarily worn by the Latinos, and loose fitting garb, capped dreadlocks - rap style, worn by the blacks. LouAnne, another English teacher, meets resistance from kids and administration alike. Being an ex-marine, LouAnne illustrates her martial art skills and shares them with her students, developing a common interest with them albeit through an unconventional teaching method. Frustrated that her students, whose standardized test scores range from average to excellent, have come to accept failure as a way of life, she cajoles and tricks them, even bribes them, into learning. She hands out candy bars, and conducts a contest in which the winner gets to dine with our heroine at the best restaurant in the city. She used Bob Dylan’s lyrics to teach them poetry. LouAnne felt if she got involved with her students, got to know them personally and help find solutions to their problems at home, she would be able to reach them. LouAnne constantly talked about choices. She showed how everything we do and say is our choice: “We may not have choices that we like, but everything in life is a choice.”
When Emilio, one of the rebels in her class, was in danger of being killed, LouAnne invited the troubled youngster to her home in hopes she could prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, toward the end of the film, Emilio was killed, but his death was clearly a choice the other students did not have to make. After this occurrence, LouAnne almost gave up, but she eventually changed her mind. A fellow teacher asked her how they got her to come back, and her response was, “They offered me a candy bar and told me I was their light.” The teacher’s response was, “That’ll do it.” In this film, the viewer knew LouAnne loved her students and helped them to believe in themselves, in their spirit and in their potential. A compelling and fitting release of Coolie’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” played loudly at the end. Recalcitrant future school drop-outs are transformed by the dedicated and highly adaptive LouAnne.
Although characterized as idealistic moviemaking, many can identify with the issues these films portray from personal experience. Viewers who grew up in an inner-city environment and attended schools during the 60’s and 70’s, were accustomed to the racial rioting, drinking and drugging, peer pressure against conformity, and traumatic home lives these movies underscore. Although I had opportunities other than being a part of this self-indulgent culture, I just did not know it at the time and no one ever went the extra mile to let me know. It was always easier to label students who fail to comport as “problem students” or “juvenile delinquents.” It wasn’t until I got older that I discovered the choices that LouAnne in “Dangerous Minds” kept talking about. In retrospect, these films all have quite a lot in common. They filled me with renewed hopes and dreams and made me revisit my school years. Juvenile delinquency? Generation gap? I wonder if those terms are falsely constructed.
