What do all these great movies have in common?
On Saturday I attended the National Multicultural Association of Education Conference in Philadelphia. It was a three day conference but only went for two days because of class but I am so glad that I went. I sat in some great sessions such as a differentiation instuction session where teachers from Chicago, New York, sat in too and afterwards had a meaningful discussion as to other examples of including DI in the classroom. There were other sessions going on at the same time as the DI one, but I knew that I was still having trouble coming up with ideas on how to include DI in my unit plan so it was the one I had to sit in. Another session I went to was on movie clips to include in your lesson plans that will enhance student discussion and learning. So the presenter started off by showing us three 40 second clips from the Blindside, and then we had a discussion based off the topic of the clips. The questions were pre-made by the presenter which was nice because it gave us a focus of what angle to see the clip from. From a 40 sec. clip from the Blindside answers varied but were so debatable. Some teachers in this session loved the idea but not everyone. One teacher who didn't said she wouldn't show this clip from the Blindside, or Dangerous Minds, or The Help because its teacher our youth (specifically in an Urban school) who their savior is...a white lady. I have never seen it like this ever!!! So it went way past my mind that in all of these great movies that I love so much (except Dangerous minds because I've never seen it) there is a White Lady always saving the minority students. And it keeps on happening. The lady against these movies said it just isn't right that it always has to be like that. There is a lot of research and articles, debates on this issue. Does it mean these Urban students dont have any other people to look to when it comes to trying to get out of their situations to somewhere safer and better? Then when I try to think of movies that do not involve a white lady saving the Urban students, I cant really think of many. Is this an issue?
I think that there is a problem here, a complex one. I haven't seen most of the movies- just Freedom Writers, but I feel like there are two main things going on here. The first is pretty apparent just looking around our block classrooms. There kind of are a large number of 'white ladies' among us, rightly or wrongly there is a societal bias that encourages a stereotyping of teachers as white, middle class, and female. The actual numbers probably don't support it, but the image remains. The second is Hollywood and the story structures. It's an established story structure at this point- the story changes dramatically in the eyes of the media if you simply replace the 'white lady' with another demographic. People would expect a different background, a different motivation, and while the story could easily be as compelling or even more so, there would be the question of whether it would sell. Movies like these are rarely out to portray life as it is or as it should be- they show what the producers think people want to see. It's not good, but it's not really malicious either. It could however be a great way to spark a conversation in a classroom, just as it did at the conference.
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