Finding Forrester

A film blog project for APU's Education and Society class

[finding-forrester-blog]

Finding Forrester: opening and end

In the last post I analyzed the opening of Finding Forrester but I didn't mention the very first scene, mainly because I didn't quite get why the director wanted to show the clapperboard there. It seems that the director wanted to make clear in the beginning that it's a movie. But perhaps it was also to say that this is where it begins, the journey to find Forrester. That brings us to the question, what essentially is the meaning of Finding Forrester? We all know that Jamal did not intentionally embark on a journey to find the famous novelist, his chance encounter with the mysterious "The Window" (what his friends called Forrester in the beginning of the movie) due to a silly dare accidentally led him to Forrester. Yes, Jamal did find Forrester, but more importantly, he found hope, bravery and himself through writing, something that he loved yet had to hide to live up to his own prejudice toward his peers and of others about a black kid from The Bronx. Overcoming one's prejudice is perhaps one of the big themes of "Finding Forrester". Prejudice here doesn't just include racial prejudice, in a broader sense, it contains the prejudice toward people unlike us. The us versus them conflict is probably what drove the story forward, and in the end it was resolved by a reconciliation between both worlds. 

Jamal was not the only one who discovered something through the process of "finding Forrester" though. While Jamal was fighting his way into Forrester's life, onto Mailor basketball team, into Crawford's acceptance, and into the culture of Manhattan, Forrester had to fight his way out of his apartment that kept him away from the world for years, the only "adventure" he took was his occasional trip to his apartment window to watch Jamal and his friends playing basketball or filming stray bird from the park. Both "journey" demanded Jamal and Forrester to venture out of their comfort zone to the "unknown", be it a different school, a different culture, a different system. Even though it took time and a lot of efforts to do that, in the end, those "journeys" changed their life forever, and definitely for the better. Changing here does not necessarily mean assimilation. At first Jamal listened to his friends and did not confront Crawford but chose to play by the rules at Mailor Callow. However, toward the end, Jamal decided to play by his rules by confronting Crawford and refused to conform to what others expected him to be. In the end, he proved that he could still be the black kid playing basketball from The Bronx while being the genius kid attending Manhattan prestigious school that wrote beautiful literature at the same time. As for Forrester, at first he showed a lot of hostility toward Jamal, but later not only did he agree to be Jamal's mentor, but he also trusted Jamal to lead him to the outside world after many years voluntarily locking himself up in his flat due to the lingering trauma of the death of his brothers and parents. Both acts demanded tremendous bravery, and more importantly, the willingness to change yet not assimilate. This reminds me of both the movie Accepted and the iskay yachay movement established by PRATEC that emphasize on the coexistence of two contrast systems. Essentially, by coming to accept and understand the unknown can we learn and grow wholly as a human. 

The last meeting between Forrester and Jamal was portrayed with the scene of Forrester rode his way into the crowded street full of cars with much enthusiasm and hope for the future, and Jamal watching as his figure grew smaller and smaller. This is a reverse of what happened in the beginning when Forrester locked in his room watching over Jamal and his friends from the window. It also reminds me of the position of a teacher, normally it's the teachers that always stay back and it's the students that graduate and leave the physical school to enter the school of life. However here obviously Jamal was the one that stayed and Forrester was the one that left for the greater adventure of life. Perhaps here the roles of teacher and student is no longer fixed, the student can be the teacher and vice versa. Once again, it suggests the possibility of a flexible education system where both can learn and teach each other. 

The very last scene closed the chapter on the journey of "finding Forrester", or more correctly, finding hope and bravery and oneself. At the end of the film, three years later Jamal learned that Forrester died of cancer in Scotland and left him the apartment where most of their "lessons" were conducted. In his letter to Jamal, Forrester said that had it not been for their friendship, Forrester's dream of returning to Scotland would have not been fulfilled. The camera then draw on the window in Forrester's flat, then slowly moved closer to zoom in the cover of Forrester's last novel, and moved to the window as if it was following the gaze of someone watching Jamal and his friends playing basketball, just like Forrester's presence was still there. It's a peaceful end to a long, harsh yet a well worth journey. The movie opened with the sound of a clapperboard and ended with the song Over the Rainbow, that certainly seems a bit odd, and yet, it just seems so natural as well. Perhaps it's the same with education and life, it does not have to end the same way it begins. Learning as well as living is a continuing process, and along the way we may never know what will happen unless we open our door to opportunities. 

________________________

Reference:

D.Williams, S. (2007, April 9). The Moral Premise Blog: Story Structure Craft: FINDING FORRESTER (2000). The Moral Premise Blog: Story Structure Craft. Retrieved July 17, 2013, from http://moralpremise.blogspot.jp/2007/04/finding-forrester-2000.html

Ishiwaza, J., & Rengifo, G. (2011). Chapter 9: Academic Imperialism and Community Knowledge: The Way Back to Respect. Confronting academic knowledge (pp. 194-216). Tehran: Iran University Press.

[finding-forrester-blog]

In discussion of Students' authority

As discussed in previous post of mine, the title “teacher” is ambiguously placed on certain people without thoroughly considering their academic background as well as instructing skills in school nowadays. Finding Forrester (2000) clearly depicts how Professor Crawford chooses teaching as a final resolution for his career’s failure while Mr.Forrester is still regarded as an inspiring teacher to the protagonist Jamal Wallace, though never officially taking the job. To properly explain why Jamal only regards Mr.Forrester as his teacher, I think it is fair to take into account the idea that what determines a teacher depends much on how he ''satisfies'' the students’ needs in terms of skills, knowledge, information, even inspiration and motivation. Hence, the students should have more rights in deciding what they should be learning in school rather than digesting what others have them to.

  This post of mine will refer much to the previous post of Norah, in which she emphasizes the fusion of orthodox and ''liberating'' teaching methods as the new, possible approach to reach highest purpose of education. Mr.Crawford represents ''conventional'' methods of teaching where he has ultimate authority in the class and students passively complete all the tasks assigned by him in order to digest as much knowledge as possible. On the other hand, Mr.Forrester, in the surface, represents a new, liberated instruction in helping Jamal advance his writing skill. However, he somehow still embraces in his method the 'tradition' of assigning students certain tasks that he thinks would be helpful to them without doubting the feasibility. Fortunately, Jamal can still be able to adjust himself with Mr.Forrester's instruction method and appreciates him as a true ''Teacher''. At this point, more than an adequate teaching method, how much a teacher can facilitate students, how greatly he can inspire them in develop their capacity by themselves is a more difficult and complicated process. Writing, to Jamal, would have been a mere hobby that he would never have chance to advance if it had not been for the presence of Mr.Forrester. Whatever the possible title that can be granted to Mr.Forrester: Teacher, Teacher-student, mentor, etc, he is still an important source of inspiration, for Jamal in not only academical field but also his personal life.

  Aside from instruction methods or passion in learning, students should also have authority on whichever the subjects that  they would learn. As we can spot in the movie, from the first unusual encounter where Mr.Forrester commented on Jamal's notebook, Jamal has insisted on asking the reclusive author to check his writing pieces and help him to develop his skill. Starting from a normal hobby to eventually seriously into the subject, the young talent has showed how much he wanted to learn, how much he wanted to master his skill, and how personal interest can stimulate the desire to learn.

  The theme of Students having authority in deciding curriculum and class content is also vividly mentioned in the movie Accepted (2006) that I had a chance to discuss in Education and Society class. The theory is that to further expand students creativity and passion in learning, they should have the right to decide, or even make up their own subjects and content that correspond to their liking and career pursue. Yet, the irony is, when we are granted such authority, we might end up lost in the pool full of the favorites, of what we like but are those what we need? The problem gets more serious when students are not certain about the class, they may rely on class’ description to have their decisions made which would eventually results in the vicious circle of “liberated curricular-fixed curricular”. In Finding Forrester, we do not know for sure what would happen to Jamal regarding his writing after he proves himself innocence; or in the movie Accepted, we are all not sure if all the students of South Harmon Institute of Technology (SHIT) would continue to pursue what they have chosen after graduation. I myself also have similar experience during my highschool time when the school conducted a special survey for students in order to established new classes that would be beneficial to our career after graduation. Though we are allowed to build up our own classes based on our liking, without any description or instruction, we failed to draw even an outline of a feasible class in which we can learn, discuss, gather different ideas, that is helpful to our learning. We are all lost in our own preferences when designing our class. We also have problems of finding a person who can guide everyone in class, how to conduct each session when the number of students in our school is too many, especially the seniors. Unfortunately, the project was turned down and everybody finally has to stick to the fixed curriculum determined by the Department of education and training which is out-dated and strict and over-loaded.  

    Though the idea of granting students authority in designing the curriculum in school, in reality, personally I think it still has to follow certain  guidelines or requirements. Passion and enthusiasm are crucial and important in education, so in order to attain such essential elements, teachers alone can’t make it happen. Students opinions and their performances should be taken into account more seriously so that learning is a process of joy not of compulsion.

Reference:

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group.

Accepted (2006) - IMDb. IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities. Retrieved July 16, 2013, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384793/

Finding Forrester (2000) - IMDb. (n.d.).IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities. Retrieved July 16, 2013, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181536/

Illustration from Marie Nimrichterova

[finding-forrester-blog]

Orthodox versus "liberating" teaching method...or a fusion of both?

In my previous post "From Bronx to Manhattan", I mentioned about how schools with constructed privileges can create borders and maintain discrimination even when some (e.g Jamal) manage to cross those borders in society. This time I want to talk more on the different teaching methods, which play a role in either constraining or empowering the students to go further, as depicted in the movie.

The two characters playing the role of the teacher in Finding Forrester seem to be the representatives of two contrast approaches to teaching. Professor Robert Crawford of Mailor leads classes where keeping your mouth shut is wise; a very conventional classroom of students listening meekly while the teacher speaking. Crawford's teaching method mirrors the concept of banking education coined by the Brazillian teacher Paulo Freire, who defines teacher as the "subject" and students as the passive "objects" (p. 52). On the other side, William Forrester, so to speak, has a one-student class with Jamal where apart from the "lessons", confrontational arguments and expressions are also present. Such quarrels sometimes make me confused whether Forrester was really being depicted as a teacher or a friend, as his student seems to have no distinction between the two, like a student should towards someone with supposedly more experiences and superior wisdom. 

Of the two teachers, Forrester back in the Bronx seems to have the ideal teaching approach that produced results closest to the ultimate purpose of education, that is creative human beings with critical thinking and "capacity to act", as Freire in Pedagogy of the oppressed (1970, p.59) and IDAC in Danger: School! (1996, p. 92) have put forward. Jamal's original writing impresses not only the faculty at Mailor but is acknowlegded by Forrester himself.  Also, Jamal's determination in the dilemma (of keeping his promise to Forrester and the trouble with plagiarism) to hold on to his own decision not to win the national tournament (as a deal with the school for plagiarism case clearance) did force Forrester to look back on his choice of his current life. Such integrity not many of us can actually have.. 

At first glance, one may say that Forrester does not actually teach but rather mentoring and encouraging; the rest depends on Jamal's will and ability. The character of Forrester mostly fits an imaginary teacher I had on my mind when reading about Freire's "liberating education" having a teacher teaching and being "taught in dialogues with the students" (p.61). Freire pedagogy proponents have been promoting freedom in education, as an alternative to the oppressive mainstream education that constructs both the problems and the way how to solve it for the students. In "liberating education", the teacher can be the student and the student can be the teacher anytime, hence the role of the teacher would be deemed equal to the students and sometimes invisible or almost none.

  Yet does that mean that a similar environment where the teacher doesn't actually teach and the student is "liberated" as that Jamal received from Forrester can guarantee better education with more creative individuals than the orthodox approach of teachers transferring knowledge down to students? I'm not so sure. As a matter of fact, Forrester has his own teaching as well, which quite resembles that of a conventional teacher. Instead of giving Jamal all the time he needs to figure out the way to write for himself, Forrester, upon keeping the promise to help Jamal with his writing, saves Jamal time by making him start writing in Forrester's way: typing Forrester's old work on an old typewriter. 

"Punch the keys, for God sake!" The teacher can't always be only a mentor and facilitator on a horizontal peer position with the student, but instructions and coercion at times prove necessary.

Had it been for Forrester's sample piece of writing, it would have taken Jamal longer to learn how to express his ideas in a more structural way than random notes cluttered in a small notebook.

Yesterday I came across a book on the library shelves that caught my attention, enough to read more than its contents page and the last page. The book is titled The End of Education, which to me suggests an argument for a complete escape from the current education system, a motivation also shared by Freire in his revolutionary "liberating education". In fact, the author has helped me to see how in reality, at least by experiment, a teacher can play her role for an education with more freedom, critical thinking and creativity, how she can involve in the on-going dialogues of teaching and being taught at the same time, One of his ideas is to put the teachers in students' shoes by making them teaching the subjects unfamiliar to them. For instance, a Physics teacher would teach an Anthropology class, to see how students from different backgrounds may struggle in a subject not of their strength and maybe to view physics issues in anthropological light. Why not? The author, Neil Postman, as he said of his initiatives, were actually regarded as a joke by a majority of readers when he presented them in the past. 

There was a time when educators became famous for providing reasons for learning; now they become famous for inventing a method. (Postman, 1995, p.26)

To conclude, in the face of increasing call for educational reforms, even as far as a full liberation, I believe some traditional roles of the teacher such as lecturer, instructor and one to give knowledge to the students are still valid in certain ways. Freedom of students does not have to be complete elimination of the conventional role of teachers. Old teachers are often depicted on the screen as boring and conservative, still it is true for me that he certainly has more past experiences than us students. Yet, it is not whether we should listen to those experiences, but rather what we can learn from them. It doesn't necessarily have to be memorising or using the teachers' life experiences for granted, but better, to see them as fallible records of previous founded knowledge and cast doubt on them, as suggested by Postman in The End of Education.

Reference

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group.

IDAC. (1996). Danger: School!. Penang: Other India Press, Earthcare Books.

Postman, N. (1995). The end of education: Redefining the value of school. New York: Vintage Books.

by Norah H

[finding-forrester-blog]

It's more than just teacher hood

Throughout the film, the relationship has evolved from strangers into teacherhood and, at some point, friendship between two people, who seem different yet so similar. At first, Jamal Wallace came to Forrester’s house due to friends’ challenge just to find out a place like-no-other-place covered by all types of books. The first impression is that its owner must be a baseball and book lover, which connects to Jamal’s deep down interest. 

Jamal is a ‘wunderkind’ who is confused at making decisions in life. He seems to get caught between sport and academic realms which he excels both but remains humble due to peer’s pressure. William helps Jamal to find himself in writing as well as gives him invaluable lessons about life from the perspective of an older and wiser person. 

We can see in the movie that William has shown the young prodigy Jamal how to Punch the keys as to transfer all passion into sentences. "You write your first draft with you heart. You never write with your head. The first key to writing is to write, not to think". Jamal learnt to write from inside regardless of outside external distractions, and as the focus now is clear, his writing now has evolved into a new stage of impression. 

What seems to be surprised is the older may have learnt from the younger a lot more than he thought. Jamal brings the old ‘Forrester’ out to the world, asking him to come out to the world and experience real moments by human senses instead of machines. The past which William has been hiding has slowly been revealed by Jamal (accidentally) and by William himself. “My brother was getting cold in the next room and all she (the nurse) could talk about was a book". At this point, we realize that William has opened up to Jamal, and the friendship between them is mutual and genuine. “On the level of Perennial philosophy, there is occuring a merger of the individual self and mysterious, non-individual, creative genius. The two are folding into one another." (Dance, 2011) William Forrester chose to live a life inside his own box and felt safer by not letting anyone come close to him as well as him being emotionally attached to anyone. The world outside his apartment looks so dangerous and untrustworthy to him. There is a saying that wisdom does not come from other sources but inner realisation or we can say "the Inner Artist must stay in its own realm in order to truly be creatively original" (Dance, 2011). It was the passion to his writing and his work which ultimately drove him to bury his own publishing and keep all writings in his own comfort zone. 

At some point, the relationship between two characters is becoming deeper, and they feel comfortable with each other in their own personal space. In one scene, they take turn looking at each other typing and when one person types, the other rests. It should be unusual for both of them to feel relaxed listening to the other's typing sound. However, they seem to be at ease and reach the mutual level of a relationship which already built up for a long time. 

Throughout the movie, William appears to have a father figure and behaves like a protector and facilitator towards Jamal. As we already know, since Jamal's father left his family, Jamal has always desired for a father's affection. William gives him advices for important events as a father, and in turn Jamal takes care of him like a real son. He buys food, puts on blanket for William, takes him out for relaxing and comforts him when William got lost in the stadium. In the end, William has proved to be a good friend, a good supporter for Jamal's writing career to clear out the accusation of plagiarism. When William passed away, he gave all his inheritance to Jamal as the last person in this life who he can entrust the fortune.  

References:

Dance, R. (2011, June 18). Chapter 12: Finding forrester. Retrieved from http://herojourneyfilm.blogspot.jp/2011/06/chapter-12-finding-forrester.html

[finding-forrester-blog]

Finding Forrester: a quick analysis on film narrative and mise en scène

1. The Opening: three-act-structure and montage

Mike Rich finished Finding Forrester script in 1998, which not only was his first film script but also earned him an award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The story was based on Mike Rich's English teacher Mrs.Forster back in his high school days. It is relatively fascinating to see how the script grew from a high school inspiration to a story of overcoming inequality and criticizing the rigid and disparaging education system. The story follows strictly the classic three-act-structure of narrative. The three-act-structure refers to a modern storytelling technique that divides fictional narrative into three parts: the Setup, the Confrontation, and the Resolution. The Setup (Act 1) introduces the characters and their basic situation. (Lacey, 1998) In the case of Finding Forrester, the film opened with a montage of people, buildings and streets in The Bronx accompanied with a teenager's bit of rap, no particular name was dropped but audiences who are familiar with New York can easily recognize the place. The opening used a variety of extreme long shot for landscape and long shot for group of people, depth of field (the distance between the nearest and furthest area from the camera that is in focus) is constantly altered to prevent the appearance of hard edges in the image, giving a romantic look to the scene. 

As to why those techniques were employed, we have to understand that The Bronx is where most of the story was carried out since it's where Jamal and Forrester live, and also where Jamal came from. Further analysis on The Bronx and how significant it is to the development of the characters was already discussed in this post. I, however, wanted to note how The Bronx was portrayed in the opening scene as a vibrant neighborhood rich of stereotyped black culture (the rapping, the hip hop vibe with all black people on the street) Stereotype here refers to a short cut to meaning, and is not necessarily misleading or offensive. It was purposefully made to give audiences certain ideas about the backgrounds of Jamal. At the same time, the portrayal also rebels against stereotypical portrayal of The Bronx from media, since most often it is depicted as somewhere poor and dangerous. I would say that the intent is to give audiences an usual yet familiar glimpse of The Bronx, also hinting the contrast between who people (both audiences in the beginning and characters like Crawford) expect to Jamal to be and who he really is. It resonates with the way audiences presume how The Bronx is before seeing the movie, and yet Finding Forrester's portrayal of The Bronx did not exactly take them by surprise either because certain other familiar features of the area were shown.

The rap voice in the background and the romantic shots, although seemed to contradicted each other, actually blended seamlessly. The message of the movie is loud and clear: the contrast was highlighted not to drive a wedge but to signify a reconciliation between the two poles of contradictions. This theme of contradictions follows us much to the later part of the story, and made apparent through the two characters Forrester and Jamal: Forrester was white and old, Jamal was black and young. Forrester won a Pulitzer prize for writing, Jamal had to hide his writing. Forrester was a hermit keeping himself away from the world, Jamal was sociable and has a group of close friends, and yet at the heart of the movie their reconciliation was nurtured by the shared love for literature and writing. 

There seems to be no significant problem brought forward at Act 1, but to certain extent viewers can sense that there is something else to Jamal than just a black kid who played basketball from The Bronx, and the incident with Forrester confirms this suspicion to be true. And yet, the story was still stable and no dramatic change happened. The only possible climax that moves the story to its second stage is when Jamal was offered the scholarship to Mailor-Callow, Forrester finally opened his door to Jamal, teaching him the first lesson on '"the soup question", and challenging Jamal to speak what he had in mind. Nonetheless, Act 1, especially the opening, not only introduces the characters but also gives some hints regarding the story development and the overall theme of the movie. 

2. Mise en scène 

Mise en scène means literally 'put on stage' and is used in Film Studies to demonstrate the film director's control of everything that appears in the film frame. When analysing mise en scène we must assume that everything in the picture has been put there for a reason; it is a series of codes waiting to be interpreted. 

There are three main components of mise en scène analysis: the subject, the lighting, and the setting of image. (Lacey, 1998)

A clear demonstration of mise en scène in Finding Forrester is the comparison between the apartment of Forrester and the room of Crawford, both are places where Jamal was asked by his two "teachers" to write under their watching.

The majority of Forrester's scenes take place in his apartment, the place holds significance in the development of the story. According to Jane Musky the production designer of the movie: 

We wanted the apartment to look like a kind of Never Never Land to Jamal, who comes from a normal street environment and lives in cramped quarters. Because it had to carry so many scenes, we decided to make the apartment oversize, almost palatial, so that the camera could move around in it freely. Also, Sean Connery is a big man, so everything there - the chairs, the table, the bed, they’re all oversize too.

We had to achieve 40 years of layering so that the apartment had the proper authentic texture. It wasn’t supposed to be a fire hazard, you know, strewn with papers and all sorts of junk. On the other hand, it had to be crowded and filled with.., well, stuff. The problem was to fill it with the right stuff.

The apartment, although filled with books and stuff, was filmed in the warm yellow light, offering a cozy niche for wisdom and conversations to grow. While Jamal was doing his typing, Forrester left to drink in the other room. The shots of separate rooms divided by the wall in the middle of the frame suggests that Forrester's apartment is now Jamal's home, their activities and feelings were transposed. The physical wall, in my interpretation, actually breaks the invisible wall between teacher and student, here Forrester and Jamal were completely at ease with each other, the physical wall did not matter because they were linked to each other on a much deeper level - a mentorship built on common interest. 

In contrast, the Crawford's room shot offers another perspective of teacher - student relationship

Here the color of the scene is blue, Crawford was seen through his door window like he was trapped in his environment. Forrester managed to step out of his apartment toward the end of the movie, but we never see Crawford outside of Mailor-Callow. It seems that he was stuck with his limited role in his limited world. The full shot of the inside of Crawford' room indicates how tense the teacher-student relationship is, even though here they were not separated by any physical wall like in Forrester's apartment.

After his remark "Interesting what happens when our resources aren't close at hand" the scene shows both through the door's windows, but now Jamal is viewed through the left door's window. They face each other as two opposites, yet this time Jamal was trapped in this environment due to Crawford's order. Reflecting this back to Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" criticizing the teacher who "presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence" This rings true with Crawford's teaching method, which emphasizes on him being the narrating subject in his class by actively doing all the talking, and students as the passive, patient, listening objects by staying silent and accepting whatever thrown at them. It's also a total contrast to Forrester's method of "teaching" which provokes and challenges his student (Jamal) to express his ideas. 

__________________________________

References:

Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed (New rev. 20th-Anniversary ed.). New York: Continuum.

Harris, C. (2001, December 23). Finding Forrester Study Guide. Film Education. Retrieved June 23, 2013, from http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/film/finding%20forrester.pdf

Lacey, N. (1998). Image and representation: key concepts in media studies. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Lesson Three - the film as medium. (n.d.). RVS Resource Server. Retrieved July 14, 2013, from http://resource.rockyview.ab.ca/rvlc/ela202/zold/ZENG23/film/3_film_as_medium/3_film_as%20medium.html

[finding-forrester-blog]

Analyzing School Environments in Finding Forrester

In Finding Forrester, Jamal attends both a public school, Franklin High School with a majority of a black student population and a supposedly “top” private school, Maillor- Callow consists of a majority high-class white student population. By comparing these two school environments, most viewers would probably agree that Maillor Callow was just a “brand name” and did not really live up to its name.

   One factor is the racist and uniform environment of the school. Throughout the whole movie the other students at Maillor do not necessarily show that they despite Jamal showing no extreme racism. On the other hand Jamal is never seen hanging out with the other students at Maillor-Callow (besides for Claire) which shows that the students automatically distances themselves from other races and people that are different from their group. This is probably why Jamal has extra pressure compared to the rest of the white population at Mailor- Callow to “prove his worth” and fit into the group. There was also a stereo-typical mindset coming from the teachers, namely Mr. Crawford thinking he plagiarized the things he wrote.

 Apart from the racial discrimination, Mailor-Callow does not even seem to be better in terms of their ways of teaching and curriculum. Even from the start, Jamal walks into this silent and “cold” environment of the teacher lecturing and students only listening.  Mailor – Callow does not allow for the student to question or criticize as heard by one of the students when Claire when she was showing Jamal around the school. One of her first comments was “don`t worry about answering any questions or anything..besides, the teachers here, aren`t all that into student participation. They`re too busy listening to themselves talk”. Towards the end of the story, when Jamal actually stood up against Mr. Crawford and corrected his English, he was infuriated and kicked Jamal out of his school. Teachers have possibilities to err and should not be outraged when a student points something out that they think is wrong from their teachings. 

  Just by watching the movie, viewers can get an impression that the student population that come from a rich privileged background. Students don`t seem to be academically excelling however can attend this school because their parents could afford to send them so which is why it is ironic when the principle of Franklin High School comments “Mailor is not only the best private schools of the city but also the finest prep schools of the city – only the best go there”. It made me question if students of private schools are truly better off than in public schools. Of course there are no cut clear answers for which environment is the best for social learning. However academically, is the curriculum truly better for students to gain knowledge and develop interactive/ crucial thinking skills? Or is it just the branding that makes them seem so better? According to the Week, a report found that private school students scored no better on achievement tests, no more likely to attend college and enjoyed no more job satisfaction than those who attended public high schools. The study found only two exceptions: Kids who attended private schools received higher SAT scores(an aptitude test) showing higher IQs which in turn, got private school students an advantage when getting into elite colleges (Jyoti, 2013)

  Seeing this comparison, there is not a lot of difference between the actual educational benefits. As one of the speakers in the video Business of Education quoted, “the brand provides reassurance and a degree of security in what you are buying”. Furthermore another speaker quotes “brands are absolutely phenomenal. You`ve even seen situations where students haven`t necessarily got the education that they really wanted but they are prepared to accept that because the brand on the certificate is essential to take out into the global jobs market.” It’s really the name or “brand” that makes private schools seem like a higher form of education than public.

  References: 

Films Media Group. (Producer) (2010). The business of education [Web]. 

Jyoti, C. (2013, 5 15). Is private school worth it?. The Week, Retrieved from http://theweek.com/article/index/244142/is-private-school-worth-it

- By Haelee Han

[finding-forrester-blog]

Peer Pressure: good or bad?

  In the beginning of the story, peer pressure prevents the main character, Jamal Wallace, from fully growing his writing skills. Just as the teacher had stated in the conference, “basketball is where he gets his acceptance. The kids here don`t care about what he can write.” Jamal Wallace conceals his talents in writing and instead spends time practicing basketball for a majority of the time. He even asks his family members not to tell anyone about his scores because he does not want to stand out. He hides his knowledge because he does not want to present a superior image to his friends. Had it not been for Forrester who pushes Jamal to go to Mailor, his talent would not have been fully discovered.

 He faces even more pressures when he is recruited by Mailor, a prep school who said they recruited Jamal because of his “exceptional test scores”. Since Jamal is brought up from an urban background and is a “black kid from the Bronx” he has to pressure to prove his worth, especially after the accusation of Mr. Crawford. In the case of this school, Jamal needs to live up to both expectations of excelling academically and in basketball. Although his time he could write freely without hiding his skills from his surroundings, basketball became a competition and a way of proving himself instead a form of enjoyment. 

 Fortunately, he overcomes the peer pressure shown in the last basketball game, where he has two foul shots but deliberately misses both. Even though he knows that winning for the team will allow him to drop the plagiarism charges and he is fully capable of getting in those free throws, he is upset at being used as a pawn for the school`s basketball dreams. Although this is hard for him (especially after glancing at Claire and Mr. Crawford, who he probably wanted to prove wrong, he was able to reign free from the peer pressures/ expectations of the school and matures himself. 

Just as Jamal faces many types of pressures, and competition in the movie, students probably have the same kinds of pressures applied to them- pressures to keep their GPA high and also participate (and excel in) in some extracurricular activities for their resume. Some conclude that pressures felt by students pull them in a good direction, feeling pressure to do both well in school and to also excel athletically. In other words, pressure and competition helps the students stay on track and makes it hard for them to “fall off the wagon”. It can also give them motivation to give it their best.

 On the other hand, sometimes this pressure from parents to get good grades, do well in extracurricular activities as well as compete with students for the top positions can burnouts, depression and nervous breakdowns as shown in one of illustrations in Danger School. As in the way Forrester loses his genuine interest in basketball and merely does to prove himself, some students may be forcing themselves to do extracurricular activities or take classes that are beyond their levels (or they do not genuinely have interest in) to ultimately get into a good college. However unlike the outcome of Jamal in this movie, students don`t overcome and are still conscious of these pressures of fitting into the system because role selection is done through streaming out those who are unwilling or unable to fit into the system and selecting those who are able. As IDAC states, “in the long run, the system becomes exhausted and reacts less and less well to emotional demands, internal lessons and adaptive illnesses may occur, preventing the pupil from reacting flexibility to new situations”  (IDAC, 1996) .Therefore, pressures on the student can both be positive and negative depending on the particular student and context.

  Reference

Babette, H. (1996). IDAC Team (Ed.), Danger! School. Geneva, Switzerland

by Haelee Han

[finding-forrester-blog]

Why William Forrester

               “Just keep in mind that a bitterly disappointed teacher can be either very effective or very dangerous” – William Forrester

Finding Forrester, gently and softly depicts story of a hidden-talent Jamal Wallace, yet, sensationally portraits  how averages to talents are being treated in a social institution called “School” nowadays.

Jamal is probably the first image appears in audiences’ minds when mentioning about mistreated talents at school. How about “Teacher” – the one who directly teaches and interact with students everyday?

Professor Robert Crawford is Jamal’s literary professor in his new school in Manhattan - Mailor-Callow. Certainly, by teaching in such prestigious institution, he should be proficient and qualified for keeping such position. However, in reality, he is suspicious of Jamal’s writing skill, arrogant, discriminating, and according to Mr. Forrester, all of the publishers rejected Mr. Crawford’s book while he is still have a job of teaching others how to write.

William Forrester, on the other hand, is a brilliant writer who wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning classic novel “Avalon Landing”. Surprisingly, he stopped publish any book ever since and chose to live a reclusive life yet surrounded by people constantly praising his talent. Starting from an unusual encounter with Jamal, he agreed to help the boy with his writing as long as their relationship being kept as secret.

What make it different between Prof. Crawford and Mr. Forrester to Jamal is perhaps the title “Teacher”. The word means, as defined in dictionary, a person who teaches, especially in school. Mr. Crawford certainly fits in this definition but what exactly did he teach Jamal besides showing suspicion and discriminated attitude? Jamal openly opposes to the professor during class for his rigid principles and inadequate instruction. In contrast, when asked by his brother who Mr. Forrester was, he replied simply without doubt: “He is my teacher”. This answer triggers certain thought of the image of teacher in school – “a world of silence, of immobility” – where “the pupils are kept quiet, listens, obeyed and judged” while “teacher talks, knows, gives orders, decides, judges, notes and punishes” (Harper B. & Claudius C. , 1970). Mr. Forrester, certainly, doesn’t fit in this image.

                More than an issue of strictly assigning a certain role and task to do at school for teachers and students, more than an issue of unfair treatment among hidden-talented students, school raises another issue of mistreating among qualified talents eligible to be a “Teacher”; what make a “Teacher” qualified enough and what is the criteria, are those changing over time? Given in a situation where the dominant means of why going to school is to get a job easier, such “social mobility” demands more of a specific qualifications for teachers to be able to help student “get a job”, while, teaching is a job itself, which means everyone who meet all criteria can be a “Teacher” (?) Also note here that Mr. Forrester was asked to teach at Mailor-Callow at the end of the movie – why did the school make such offer? Surely the school recognized Mr. Forrester brilliant talent but how do they know that he can actually “Teach” and makes him different from Prof. Crawford?

Though school is supposed to be a “institution for transmitting knowledge from generation to generation” (Carnoy M. 1974), “knowledge” is an intangible word and it can be generated from any source, anyone, not strictly from school. School is school because it has “teacher”. Finding Forrester is, to me, more of the journey of Jamal, to find himself a person, a true one that he can regard as “teacher” besides all the professors at school who don’t believe in his ability. 

  Reference

Carnoy, M. (1974). Education as cultural imperialism. New York: David McKay Co.

Harper, B., Fonvieille, R., & Claudius, C. C. (1970). Danger: school!. Geneva: Institute of Cultural Action.

Pictures are from Online Movie Database - IMDb www.imdb.com

[finding-forrester-blog]

From Bronx to Manhattan

"William: Do you know what people are most afraid of?

Jamal: What?

William: What they don't understand.

Jamal: When we don't understand, we turn to our assumptions.

William: Crawford cannot understand how a black kid from the Bronx can write the way you do. So he assumes you can't."

  One of the themes reflected in Finding Forrester is concerned with how to face off with our fear to step beyond our comfort zone to the others' world of which we have little or no knowledge. We have watched the characters in the movie deal with their fear of the unknown in different ways. One retreats from the fear of the "others" by denying their values while another can just accept the "others" as they are.

For example, the mysterious protagonist William Forrester gives up to his fear of the chaotic outside world by confining himself inside a studio full of books and an always clean window for bird and Bronx watching. The autocratic teacher Crawford, as observed by Forrester in the above conversation, justifies his fear of the talent of Jamal, for which he failed to explain using his presumably large background knowledge associated with his professor status, by assuming that it is a mere miracle. Jamal, our "hero", appears as the only one to just go for it, be it first the much-rumored room of the "window" - dubbed Forrester by Jamal's mates, or not long afterwards the world of private-schoolers in Manhattan. Those ventures later in the movie turn out to be life-changing points for the "black kid from Bronx".

Apart from the fated encounter between the young writing enthusiast with an old writing genius (also the dramatic factor of the movie) that directs Jamal closer to his dreams, Jamal's "extraordinary" score in the national examination and acceptance to the prestigious Mailor serve as a practical turning point for Jamal. This conversion from one group to the other as well as the account of education in Jamal's story has been depicted in the movie through the contrast between the ghetto school in Bronx and the rich prep school in Manhattan. In Mailor we can easily see a number of privileges saved to distinguish it from Jamal's previous school in ways that are not so far from reality about school systems around the world. 

The most immediate example of assigned privilege may be the change from casual street wear to the designer uniforms. The uniform can be a symbol of unity and equality where all dress the same regardless of backgrounds just as well as a means of exclusivity. It fosters in us a sense of belonging but at the same time provides a faster way to detect the others outside of the group. In elementary, secondary and some high schools in Vietnam, those students who refuse to wear the same as their peers in neat uniforms are often thought of as future "rebels". My brother once got furious when my mom could not wash and dry his only piece of uniform (the school only sells one for each) on time for the next school day. Furthermore, uniforms with the school logo printed on very much resemble a brand or a label to be stamped on the students of one school. They can only wear this label if they got accepted by the school, a process that "usually begins by not making school available to everyone", as Carnoy (1974) succinctly put it in his classic Education as Cultural Imperialism. Another example of juxtaposition is the detail of using lockers differently in each school. In Bronx, Jamal locked his belongings at school with a serious combination lock. It was why he was amazed when Claire helped crack open his locker at Mailor with just a bang. It just could not be that easy! The same object, but functions differently with different schools. Knowing how to learn in class in your old village school won't guarantee that you can learn that well in the new town school; and talking about universal education for everyone! As a matter of fact, Bronx is only 11 km "far" from Manhattan.

It's also interesting how the colors and location of the lockers (from the viewer's perspective left hand in Bronx school and right hand in Mailor) are contrasted. 

Jamal has overcome the 11 km of not only physical distance but also of fitting in the unknown methods and the new "identity", hoping to find the answer to his life that his old school cannot help him, as Forrester said. Even after all that, discrimination is retained when Jamal discovers that the school board actually wanted him only for his basketball skills, which were expected to bring victory to ordain the school name in the upcoming national game. The schedule is then designed for the "black kid" that ought to be good at basketball and only basketball with heavy training hence little time left for academic study. When the idea of a poor black kid originated from the uneducated, crime-filled Bronx can actually write, a talent often saved for well-educated children in rich family who have time and resources to concentrate on study, appears unfamiliar with the administrators at Mailor, "basketball" is used to justify the inclusion of Jamal to the school. Such prejudice was actually once deemed to help keep the education quality. In 1976, Reagan, just before his presidency, blamed a decline in education quality since the 1950s on then the new school mission "to create citizens free of prejudice" and implied an emphasis on "literacy as a White property" (Prendergast, 2003, p.102-3). 

Overall, the "privileged" transfer of Jamal from Bronx to Manhattan in Finding Forrester to me is an interesting illustration for the thesis that Carnoy (1974) made about education, while generally thought as a promise to social mobility, historically and still in fact is merely meant to transform one to attain certain "permitted" (by the economic political system) level of awareness that to be deliberately maintained afterwards.

"It's funny though... They always let you get but so far before they take everything away from you."                                                                                  

                                                                                  Reference

Carnoy, M. (1974). Education as cultural imperialism. New York: David McKay Co.

Prendergast, C. (2003). Literacy and racial justice: The politics of learning after Brown v. Board of Education. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press

by Norah H

[finding-forrester-blog]

Finding Forrester: a brief introduction from the internet

This post is a collection of very basic information I found on the internet about "Finding Forrester" so everyone has some ideas about the movie, whether you have watched it or not.

Trailer:

Synopsis: 

He was a vibrant personality who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning classic novel four decades ago. And that is the last word heard of William Forrester (Sean Connery). That is until Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown), a brash sixteen-year-old with writing aspirations of his own, cracks the veneer of Forrester’s sheltered existence and re-ignites the dreams of this literary legend in the winter of his life.

Known as the neighbourhood recluse, silver-haired Forrester is a man whose mystery and eccentricity border on the mythical. When he discovers that Jamal - a talented African-American scholar-athlete who is recruited by an elite Manhattan school for his brilliance on and off the basketball court - has sneaked into his apartment and left his backpack full of writings behind, they both get something unexpected in return.

Forced to look past skin colour and suppositions, Jamal encounters not only his first fan, but a mentor who will challenge and change him forever, and Forrester has his first reason in years to emerge from his self-imposed solitude.

Production:

The movie was directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Mike Rich. Harries Savides was in charge of cinematography, and the soundtrack was produced by Bill Brown. The film's producers are Laurence Mark and Sean Connery who also played one of the main roles. It was released in December 2000 and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

The cast included Sean Connery,  Rob Brown, Anna Paquin, F. Murray Abraham, Michael Pitt, April Grace, Naturi Naughton and Busta Rhymes.

The movie was mostly filmed in New York (Manhattan, The Bronx, and Brooklyn) Part of it was also filmed in Ontario, Canada.

Reception:

Budget number was not released, but the film went on to gross total of $80,049,764 worldwide.

Critical response: 

The reviews were mainly positive. It is rated 7.2/10 on IMDb (Internet Movies Database) and got two thumbs up from prominent film critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper who also considered it one of 10 best films of the year. 

The film got 4 wins and 11 nominations including nomination for Golden Berlin Bear award at Berlin International Film Festival.

_____________________________________________________

Sources:

Finding Forrester (2000) - Box Office Mojo. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 23, 2013, from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=findingforrester.htm

Finding Forrester (2000) - IMDb. IMDb - Movies, TV and Celebrities. Retrieved June 23, 2013, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181536/?ref_=sr_1

Finding Forrester - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved June 23, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finding_Forrest

Harris, C. (2001, December 23). Finding Forrester Study Guide. Film Education. Retrieved June 23, 2013, from http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/film/finding%20forrester.pdf

[finding-forrester-blog]

Finding Forrester's Theatrical Poster