One of my favorite movies of all time is “Only the Strong” it is about a former graduate of the Lincoln High School who comes back from the marines to try and give back what he has learned, as far as discipline and respect. He chooses to help the 12 worst students at his old high school with the help from a few teachers and the disdain from the administration. He teaches them that there is more to life than gangs and drugs. In the end all the students gain the respect from each other and to my surprise the administration comes around and sees the good in what this teacher has done for those students who they have deemed to be unreachable by “standard teaching” methods.
As you can see just from the above trailer alone it depicts the students at the school as trash talking, weapon slinging students who don’t want to learn and who could not care a bit about the teachers trying to teach them. It depicts the students all in gangs and drugs. I know that the media, especially movies such as: Only the Strong, Dangerous Minds, Sunset Park and all of the Substitute movies have definitely had a major impact on my assumptions of what not only the urban school and the classroom itself but of students as well. After taking this class, I feel, to assume that every kid in an urban school is in a gang or on drugs is not fair or true.
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