Group A, Post 4: Teaching Success by Aly Hernandez

Robin Williams is one of the most recognized names in cinema due to his involvement in Jumanji, Night at the Museum, this list goes on and on.  One of his films, Dead Poets Society filmed in 1989, has touched many people of different backgrounds. The film takes place at a prestigious private school for young boys where the new unconventional teacher Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) has begun to teach English for the academy. Mr. Keating is a unique type of teacher who chooses to stray from the traditional education path that many of his colleagues have taken.

Traditional education as portrayed in the film is teaching students through strict discipline and compliance to the system focused on training students to absorb the material they are being taught. In a way the traditional teaching way is meant to teach students to not question authority and instead accept authority, the rules, and to conform with the way things are and have been. The alternative and unconventional teaching methods were opposite of the traditional. The students, as Mr. Keating portrayed, were free to think for themselves, question authority, and to be individuals.

One of the most memorable aspects of the film itself was the unconventional teaching methods that collided with the traditional teaching methods accepted by the faculty at the school. Both methods attempted to yield different outcomes for what “success” means to various students. One of the questions the film poses for the audience is the following: Does conformity equal success?

Conformity in the film is an important area of interest. In an early scene, the students are seen reciting the school mantra “Tradition, Honor, Discipline, and Excellence”. In a way, the students are portrayed as robots, monochromatic by the same color of their uniforms, and extremely bored by the sound of their dull voices.  Their entire education in this school, by the cinematic portrayal of this scene, is meant to be the same because in this “training” they all share the same concept of what success is, which the teachers and parents identify as being an academically strong student, getting into an Ivy League school, and obtain a great job.

Defying conformity is also prominent, in an early scene where Mr. Keating introduces himself on the first day, the students learn to view life through a different angle by standing on their desks. He then has one of them read from the first page of their poetry page which attempts to mathematically graph good poetry from bad poetry. To express his disdain to this concept, Mr. Keating has the students tear out that page and many more. The students hesitate since the idea of ripping pages out of a textbook is almost “taboo”, but eventually the students begin to enjoy it.  This scene also introduces the idea of career aspiration such as Doctors or Lawyers and introduces the students to the importance of other aspirations such as artistry, poetry, and passion. In its own way, society labels medical and legal careers as superior to artistry, Mr. Keating did not attempt to destroy that idea rather he intended to show them that there is more to the world and themselves than being doctors or lawyers.

(A picture of a scene where Mr. Keating teaches the students to look at life and learn through a different perspective in order to defy the ordinary)

The film also introduces the good side of conformity by introducing the father of Neil Perry. Neil wanted to be an actor, but his father would not allow it and wanted his son to pursue a “real” career. Conformity in this sense was needed as his family was not wealthy and his father only wanted his son to have the financially stable future that he did not. This kind of conformity was honorable and necessary for the family.

Mr. Keating was an anomaly at the school who challenged his students to think beyond what is expected of them and to find their own expectations of themselves. Conformity, in my opinion, does not equal success. Traditional teaching methods do not work for all students and should not be modeled to make everyone alike. In an essay titled “Reclaiming the Social:Pedagogy, Resistance, and Politics in Celluloid Culture”, Henry Giroux argues that the culture of the school does not expect the students to know how to think on their own but rather the parents and faculty there create a culture where the students are expected to be members of the elite. In other words, they are expected to be powerful, privileged, and wealthy leaders of tomorrow. Mr. Keating, disrupts that culture by introducing free thought to the students. Being the minority amidst an entire body of faculty and parents who disagree with his unorthodox teaching practices, Mr. Keating ultimately does not last long in the school.

The phrase Carpe Diem or Seize the Day, frequently used by Mr. Keating is unorthodox and goes against the conformist views of the school and parents. Carpe Diem refers to the spontaneous, and the students are encouraged to worry less on the future and live in the present thus stating that success is only limited to what you allow it to be. Giroux also states that the older generation and the younger generation have different views on what success truly means when interpreted by both. This is true because the older faculty are only focused on teaching their way to the students, any other way is unacceptable. Because of this, the students never considered the idea that there may be different ways to do something, to be successful, or to learn. 

Does conformity equal success? The answer is no but yes. There are many ways in which one can view conformity as a terrible ideology yet in the case of Neil Perry’s father, conformity was essential for him and his family to succeed. I think today in our day and age both traditional and alternative teaching practices are acceptable and can be understood. Both ways can lead to success.  No student is identical, and some are more similar than others. Essentially, success is subjective and teaching to bring out individuality is possible just as teaching conformity is possible as well.

Bonus 8 by Aly Hernandez

This semester has been interesting. I have tried a new system of organization and time management that is different to my usual system. Instead of writing the due date of my major assignments on the actual due date in my planner I mark the due date 5 days before.  This has helped me get ahead and be stress free. It has improved my time by allowing me more leeway to do spontaneous things with friends and family. I am an active person, I work on campus, off campus, I am in a leadership organization, and I also volunteer at a local charity. I am proud of this system because I have actually stuck to it and have been very consistent in my school work and sleep schedule. My grades are excellent but I wish I had more time to myself to think, write, relax, and have fun. It can be difficult without a break and I know one of my weaknesses is that I take on more than I can handle. Luckily, my best friends are my roommates and my other close friends are no more than a 5 minute drive from me. I see them most days throughout the week and it makes for a great support system. While we do not always get to go out and have fun, we make up for it through studying together and making silly jokes. 

My goal for the end of the year is to have studied for the Law School Admission Test. I intend to go to law school to get a Juris Doctorate in Human Rights and Immigration as well as Civil Rights. My dream is to one day be given the opportunity to run for political office to represent my community. 

By May 9 I want to take a quick break and enjoy spending time with friends, which means that I will need to do some planning and focus on more organization to be able to make this happen. In three weeks I want to have registered for fall classes especially the Arabic course I plan on beginning in the fall. In a month I hope to be better with my public speaking skills and communication skills. I met an amazing public speaker at a leadership summit, reached out to him for help with public speaking, and have been practicing those techniques. In 6 weeks I want to have begun the internship with Representative Emanuel Cleaver II if they accept me into the program.  

I have huge ambitions and sometimes I can get carried away which is why I have also been practicing practical goal setting. I hope I am able to fulfill all of my goals and one day make it to my dream law school, Georgetown University. I have been making healthy lifestyle changes to improve my overall emotional and physical health.  Self-care is big on my list of priorities. 

Post 3 Group A: Race as a Dollar Sign by Aly Hernandez

The Bronx Slave Market by Marvel Cooke introduced the topic of racial controversial discourse prevalent before the 1900s, during the 1950s, and significantly present in our day and age. Many who fail to understand the intricate weaving's of American racism often ask themselves “Why is racism even a conversation anymore? With all the programs such as affirmative action in place to help minorities assimilate, why are we still talking about racism?” The question I pose and attempt to answer in this post is this: “Why is The Bronx Slave Market just as important now as it was in the 1950s”?

Here we go…

First, I would like to bring up a book I read a few years ago, The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. This book attempts to address a serious problem in African-American youths - the disproportionately high amount of poverty and crime afflicting black communities. How could two people by the same name, from similar backgrounds and neighborhoods, born within a few years from each other grow to have two completely different lives from one another. One is a Rhodes Scholar the other is in prison for murder other crimes. In one of my favorite quotes throughout the book, Wes Moore writes, “This book is meant to show how, for those of us who live in the most precarious places in this country, our destinies can be determined by a single stumble down the wrong path, or a tentative step down the right one.” In this, Moore seeks to provide his readers with an essential life lesson of precaution and awareness. By reading his book, experiencing his life and the other Wes Moore’s life, the reader is already taking measures into taking a step down the right path, but that is easier said than done. Although Moore does provide the readers with an abundance of resources to help in the end of his book, the choice to do better is often a difficult one than imagined. It is difficult because while we all hate to admit it, money is the fruit to our success in this country. You either have it or you don’t and if you don’t you have to find a way to get it. The American dream is drilled into us and our ideas of success. The means to success are too often difficult for some to obtain. Crime is often committed in the absence of money and providing for the necessities in life often proves to be a challenge for a disproportionate number of minorities.

The same ailments that plague the lives of many impoverished African-American youth affected the women of the “Paper Bag Brigade”. They too worked for a lower wage than the minimum wage, often working below their means; after all some money is better than no money. When jobs ran low, what then? One of the fears that Cooke had for the women of the “Paper Bag Brigade” was not that they would work for less than the value of their performance and worth, but that they would succumb to prostitution. Is this not a similar situation in which many minorities such as The Other Wes Moore find themselves? Again, this is simple survival trying to make it paycheck by paycheck. The Bronx Slave market still exits re-branded under a different face known as the mass incarcerations of African-Americans. Bruce Western and Christopher Wildeman write that “Age, race, and educational disparities concentrate imprisonment among the disadvantaged. Figure 3 shows trends in incarceration rates for young black and white men with different levels of schooling”.  That graph demonstrates the contrast between white and black incarcerations based on levels of education. It is important because while we are having the highest incarcerations, a large portion of our incarcerations are blacks. This is the new American slave market where prisons are literally getting funded by the number of inmates they can get. The motto goes that the darker the inmate is the larger the cash flow and such as system is revolting and sickening.

They take their labor, pay them next to nothing, take their liberty, and their hope for a brighter future. When it gets tough it becomes easier for the children of minorities, the children of immigrants, and the children of poverty, to enlist the help and benefits of the criminalized path to success.

So then…Why is racism still important?

Because it makes white people uncomfortable. We live in a system that steadily gives resources to white people at the complete expense of African Americans. The system that takes their labor, their thoughts, their culture, their rights, their freedom, and their music to re-brand to give to white communities. Almost identical to the Bronx Slave Market where the women were stripped of their labor, their freedom, their thoughts, and their rights. You cannot move on from the past until the same group that is being oppressed is given the necessary resources to assimilate and prosper without fear of any kind of reprisal from others who feel threatened. It is important because a large group of people are being incarcerated and used for money and it is not okay.

Post 1, Group A--The Best Scenes of LION by Aly Hernandez

The film Lion by director Garth Davis revolved around a young boy named Saroo from a small village in India who becomes lost from his family and is eventually found by authorities where he is taken to a local orphanage to be adopted. He is eventually adopted by an Australian couple and raised in Australia. The first part of the film is particularly interesting to me because the director Garth Davis, uses cinematography to draw in the view by allowing them to see through the eyes of a three or four-year-old Saroo. In an interview with Andrew Parker, Director Garth Davis says, “It’s about slipping into Saroo’s experience to a point where you know what it’s like to struggle, become part of a loving family, and then move on into this modern world.” The director does this by placing the camera at level with Saroo’s height, which is about 4 feet above the ground in some scenes. One scene that especially stuck out to me was when he was walking through the crowded train station, the camera is at level with his height and we (the viewers) are overwhelmed and experience the fear of being alone and ignored by the crowd of people in a hurry. This scene is meant to make the viewer feel saddened and fearful for young Saroo. 

A few seconds later Saroo climbs onto a small post to overlook the crowd as he screams for his brother Guddu. The lens shifts from Saroo’s perspective to a long shot of Saroo looking over the crown from the post he is holding onto. This allows us the viewers to grasp the anxiety that Saroo is feeling in seeing the infinite crowd and the unlikeliness of Saroo’s possibility of finding his older brother Guddu. The camera focuses on this scene for a few moments so that the viewer can bask in the depth of the moment. The remainder of the film unfolds from Saroo’s childhood onto his adulthood mostly from his perspective, but occasionally shifting to other perspectives. 

The first part of the film focuses on a young Saroo, yet he hardly ever speaks. The fact that the director can convey so much emotion without the use of words is powerful. The angles and perspective used are well thought and used to make up for the lack of words. The most memorable moments throughout the film are when the director uses the environment and camera to express the emotions Saroo is feeling or to get a response out of the viewer.

This specific scene is enough to distill fear and protectiveness for children in general. The director intended to have the viewer relate to not only Saroo, but also to Saroo’s biological mother. In another scene later in the movie, Saroo’s mother is seen walking along the shore of a sea yelling for Saroo, searching for him among other young children around his age and height. The kids playing and swimming in the water tune her out and as the camera captures the scene from a distant. In the same time but in a different country, an adult Saroo is also walking along the shore of a different sea. The connectivity between this scene is meant to bring mother and son together and bring out the viewer’s “paternal instinct”.  

This is one of my all time favorite movies because it had many emotionally raw moments. This was the second time I have seen this film, I had never noticed the way the director portrayed a scene, and the intended effect of it. 

In Class Assignment, CHUCKY by Aly Hernandez

When I was no more than seven years old my mother allowed me to watch Chucky with the rest of the family. I recall very little details about the movie, but I understood that it was a horror movie and that the doll was alive and it killed people. Not only did I watch the movie, but for weeks I was constantly haunted by the doll that murdered children, people, family members. I stopped playing with dolls and picked up reading and video games. The little doll with creepy eyes and bloody scars haunted my dreams and my reality. In my dreams it murdered my family and then at last me. Sometimes my dreams were about other regular Barbie dolls that moved on their own and attacked us.

Pediophobia is the fear of dolls.  Although I am no longer afraid of dolls, Occasionally I still get a creepy feeling around them.

My fear is irrational and unnatural. It stems from watching Chucky at such a young age. I have not seen a chucky or Anabelle movie since I was 7 years old. My dream means that I am afraid of the unnatural and artificial that could have human qualities.