How True are 'True Story' Movies in diverse classrooms?

[jj_hil]

I'm working on a research paper for a 'Race & Ethnicity' course, general topic is 'Minorities in Movies'. My detail topic is, "With all the films about teachers getting their diverse classes to get along and work together, why haven't we overcome racial animosity?".

The films highlight teachers (or principals) who tough it out against all odds and, with the exception of one or two, end with glorious success. About half of them are based on true stories of real people. Other than a bit of leeway for artistic license and the necessary compression of the medium, how realistic are these stories and how much progress have we made since 'To Sir With Love' 40 years ago? Are the obnoxious classes more of a rarity or a norm? What's the success rate of turning them around in 1-4 years? Is the racial animosity as strong as it appears in films? How viable are the hopes that this generation will overcome it?

Some examples...

Take the Lead
Stand and Deliver
The Ron Clark Story (also presented as Triumph)
Hard Lessons
Dangerous Minds
Freedom Writers
Lean on Me
Music of the Heart
Knights of the South Bronx

One Eight Seven
Sister Act II
To Sir With Love
Blackboard Jungle
Dead Poets Society
Class of 1984
The Principal
Class of 1999
The Substitute

[David]

I'm a bit sceptical of "true' movies because if you put too much of the truth in a movie you get sued. People don't mind their story being told as long as the unflattering bits are left out.

[Boxcar]

I agree. "Based on a true story." is different than a movie that tells only the fact. It is like how every time you tell a story, it grows. Tall tails and all of that...

[Brit]

I don't buy into those kinds of movies -- they're made for entertainment. Of course, I like them for entertainment value, but theyère telling stories, not documenting history.

[jj_hil]

Thank you each for your input, I do appreciate it. I should be more clear, I guess, before the thread goes off track... What do today's classrooms really look like, and how do they compare to the films? Have we made any progress in overcoming racial animosity?

[AtoZ]

Here's my 2 cents:

As an answer to your specific research question, I'd say we haven't overcome it because those movies are only partially representative of real-life situations and Hollywood does not like real endings.

I'm not saying that some of the real events that the movie tried to capture didn't have happy moments--I don't want to undermine the work of teachers who've been successful. One movie that's not on your list comes to mind..I'm mentioning this one because I read the book first so I was able to see a more complete picture of this one teacher's situation. The book/movie is Freedom Writers. Yes, in real life the teacher succeeded, but the movie cannot possibly capture the difficulties she went through to succeed. And how many succeed in such extreme situations? In the case of Take the Lead, I kept wondering how a school would allow someone just to walk in and to be allowed to monitor students in detention.

Are the situations portrayed the norm or exceptions? I'd say that the open racial tensions are far more pronounced in urban centers (in my relatively short career I've had the privilege of working in both big cities and smaller places...both racially/socioeconomically diverse and sterile places). I'm not sure if the number of schools in big cities outweighs the number of schools in smaller areas though.

As to racial animosity....that's a tough question because of the definition of racial animosity. As I said, in big cities, you're more likely to see open tensions, but in smaller places, especially racially sterile places, you'll see a lot of "passive racism" and perpetuation of stereotypes.

Here's a couple of examples from a racially sterile (close to 99% white), primarily upper-middle class school..I was a student teacher there:
- I started a Language Arts unit discussing racism, poverty, homelessness, etc. The biggest project of the unit was a research paper on an approved topic. As we discussed possible topics, the discussion took a strange turn: white students being "sick and tired" of non-whites getting "preferential treatment" just because they are not white; white students being bothered that if they use the word "nigger" they are the bad guys, while black people use it all the time; etc. etc. The master teacher JOINED IN, thus fueling this general point of view.
- The same master teacher told the class before spring break "have fun, I look forward to seeing you when you come back, looking good with your tans." Then, the teacher turned to the ONLY black student in the class and said "except for you, of course"
- An extremely offensive black joke was told between two friends. The teacher decided to do nothing.

I have a notebook full of these anecdotes (my own research is similar). What does this mean? Is this quiet racism any less harmful than the loud version of it we see in movies? My answer is no...it may be even worse, because when someone is openly racist, at least you know where you stand and you can attempt to tackle it. However, with quiet racism, the offenders will probably claim that they're not racist.

Oh, I could go on about this...

I urge you to read the book Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan Johnson if you haven't already. It's a very short but extremely powerful book. If you would just like to see what it's about, read the chapter entitled The Isms (a whole chapter in three pages!)....I think that you could use that as Johnson's answer to your question. I gotta warn you though: he does strike a nerve with many... I taught this chapter to college level students and caused a riot.

Good luck with your paper :)

[AtoZ]

I'm going to have to add something, despite the very long post above:

This is in response to your last post...

We have made progress. Definitely. But it's not enough. Hiding racism behind political correctness doesn't erase it.

Let's say I'm your employer... and for years and years and years and YEARS I don't pay you. Then I start paying you half your wage and tell you that you should be happy that I've made some progress at least. Would you be happy? Or would you demand your rightful pay? NOW!?
(yes, yes, you'd quit...but for the sake of the analogy...)

[Boxcar]

I think that we need to start laying the foundations of cultural competance and diversity acceptance at a very young age. It isn't right to wait until the children reach a certain age because the topic can be emotionally charged and weighty. Unfortunately, I see it falling to the wayside in many centers or not being part of the curriculm at all. This needs to change. Recently, I've observed some things that need to be addressed. We do the a dis-service to the children when we overlook things because they are "little".

[lynn bambusch]

I was substitute teaching in a 1st grade class, years ago. A little Caucasian boy, Bobby came into the room and waited by the door for his best friend. Finally, an African American young man, Jo-Jo came in. They were joyful to see each other and put their arms around each other. They stayed next to each other through the morning, laughing at their little boy jokes and enjoying each other's company. At lunch they went out to play. A few mintues later Bobby came running in, his face flushed and he said "Jo-Jo fell down and cut his knee. He's bleeding and his pants are ripped!" I went to see if he was alright and came back to assure Bobby that his friend was just fine. Imagine my shock when Bobby said, "But his knee is black too!" He thought only his face and hands were black.
We've made progress but much more needs to happen. My children are adopted from Korea and they have run into racial prejudice also. My daughter was dating a guy (she was in college at the time) and was asked by his mother "But what genes would you be bringing into our family?" I was prouod that she answered "Levi Strauss"
Confront racism when you encounter it, and hope for the best. Change is painful, even good change.

[Boxcar]

I think that we need to allow for frank conversation about race, ethnicity, and culture. I think that comments like those made by the students made by AtoZ need to be aired and discussed. Only through dialouge can those students grow and see where they are wrong. Obviously, the teacher didn't do that. The students needed to be guided through the process of reaching that point of overcoming prejudices. We need to learn about one another and recognize our biases. Only then can we truly overcome them.