The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1

"It's the things we love most that destroy us."

I has been three years in the making and we only have one more year left before the Hunger Games movies end and Katniss Everden's story has finally and completely been told. Like most of the franchises today that are based on a book series; The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is the first of the two part series that took the final novel and split it into two. While I do understand that from a corporation point... this was purely a money making scheme; I love that they did this because this allowed the screen writers and the producers to take the novel and really tell the story well.

It has been about a year since I have read this novel, but from what I remember, this movie followed the book almost to the word. There were many things that they took from the books word for word which is always a good thing. Mockingjay was never my favorite book in the series. I always found it to be confusing and boring. That being said, thinking about this chapter in Katniss's story, I may have to rethink my position on this book. 

Mockingjay picks up right where Catching Fire left off. Katniss and the rest of District 12 have taken refuge in the secret underground District 13. Katniss is trying to heal mentally and District 13 is trying to make her the face of a revolution. They want to use her to inspire all of Panam to rally behind them and turn against the capital. Katniss becomes angry when she learns that Peeta and the other tributes where taken by the capital and there is not much known about their fate at the time. 

Katniss has become another pawn. This time rather then being used by the capital to keep peace. She is being used by District 13 to inspire an uprising. I thought that the juxtaposition between this movie and the first one was done in a wonderful manner.Once again, Katniss enters this game in an effort to save someone near and dear to her heart. This time she is trying to save Peeta and the other tributes. She entered the 74th hunger games in an effort to protect the life of her sister. She intended to decline the role of the Mockingjay, until she realized that she could use the position in a away that would allow her to keep the people she loved most safe. That was all that Katniss ever wanted, those around her to be safe. I found that the entire story could be summed put beautifully when President Snow says, "It's the things we love most that destroy us." It is the things that Katniss love that causes her the most pain. The reason she entered the games, the reason that she never wanted to truly hurt Gale, the reason that she could not see Peeta suffer, the sole reason she began the Mockingjay-all of these things steam from love. It is also love that causes a major change in Peeta and what causes him to turn on her. It is important to remember that love and hate can be so closely related that many times they cannot be separated. 

One of the most powerful scenes is when the President of District 13, Julianne Moore, is addressing the people of District 13. She is talking about the Mockingjay and of Katniss. The President calls her out to be shown in front of the people and raises her hand in the air as the people cheer. This is exactly what happens to Katniss at the reaping when before she heads to the capital to take part in the games. I thought that this was a very telling moment and showed the audience that Katniss is STILL in the games and the stakes are even higher now. 

I thought that this part of the story really focused on Katniss trying to find herself. She was still trying to find her voice. I believe that it is in these pages (moments in the movie) that she begins to realize that she has a voice and she can make a difference. One of my favorite quotes, "The only necessary thing for the triumph of evil is that the good people do nothing," popped into my head about halfway through the movie. Katniss has never thought very highly of herself. She has been acting on the sole purpose of protecting the people that she loves. She has not realized that she has a great power to unit a nation and the change the things that are wrong with the world. There had been many moments through the earlier novels in which she really thought about leaving and hiding and just staying low and out of the way of the capital. It is here that she begins to see the power that she has to change the world. As scary as it is, she needs to find her voice. She struggles in the beginning when she is being told what to say in the promos. Katniss shines when she can just be herself. 

Mockingjay: Part 1 did a wonderful job of setting up the final chapters in the story. The next movie will be a wonderful and heart wrenching journey into the center of the capital, but it will be with a stronger and more sure of herself Katniss. It will be with a Katniss who sees who she is, what power she holds, and one who begins to understand that sometimes there are things that are bigger than yourself that you are a part of. 

If you are a fan of the books, you will be very happy with what they have done with this movies. It was a great adaption. I recommend taking a trip down to District 13 and become part of the revolution!

Interstellar

 

 

"We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible."

 

 



Christopher Nolan has done it again. He has restored my faith in the movie industry. He has reminded me what it is that I love about the movies is not at all dead, but alive and well. It is because of this that I saw it fitting to dust off my keyboard and get back to one of the things that I love most- talking about movies. This was a great film to start again with. (I have only watch the movie once.... I will be watching it again....and then probably changing some things only because there was sooooo much to this movie. I am sure that I missed something)
Like every Nolan film, this movie was nothing more then another trip into the human psyche. This time he gives us a glimpse into one the most common and instinctual human needs- survival. That was the heart of this movie. At it's very basic, the story centers around a small group of astronauts attempting to save the human race from extinction.
It is set in the future, I would say maybe 60-100 years based on a conversation between John Lithglow's character and Matthew McConaughey's character. The world has reached a point in which we are being ravaged by these terrible dust storms. These storms have caused many deaths because of all the people breathing in the dust. Earth has begun to turn on us. Our plants keep on dying. Every year a new crop fails to grow. You get a sense that the population has decreased drastically. Nolan does a great job showing us this without telling us.
McConaughey's  character, Cooper, is a former pilot who works on a corn farm with his two children and their grandfather. The movie opens with him having a nightmare because of crashing his plane. We are given a sense that Cooper is much more then a farmer when he takes his children on a case of a drone plane to gather parts. During a meeting with his daughters school teachers, we learn that there is no need in this world for the technology that we use and take for granted everyday. Not one person in this movie had a cell phone.... NOT ONE. There were no computers, no video games, no medical equipment..... NOTHING! Our job as humans is to try and grow food so that we can survive. The need for all of those things that we say are "necessary" is not there. It was an interesting thing to have to think about. At a government level, their answer to helping the human race to survive was to make sure that there are enough farms and farmers to keep to population well fed. A major shift in what we see today.
The opening sequence of the film, like all of Nolan's, was significant. A shot of books on the bookshelf and his daughter, Murph, waking Cooper up about the ghost in her room. I won't talk about what I think about that right now, I'll wait until I know more people have seen the movie. However, the books play an important part in the message that Christopher was trying to get across through the movie. Food is not the only necessary part in our survival as a human race. Knowledge is just as important. There was so much physics in this movie, I wish that I was able to comment on all of the science stuff, but I am not a very science person so I cannot tell you that I even have an understanding of everything yet. I have to watch it again.
Cooper happens to find NASA's hidden underground work station and learns about a mission that they are ready to take. We learn that there have been 12 astronauts sent out into space, another galaxy, to find a new planet that we can survive on. Each astronaut had settled on a new planet, and this new group of explorers was to go out and collect them and their data. Cooper and Amelia, Anne Hathaway, end up with two other men on this mission into the new galaxy while Amelia's father, Micheal Cane, stays behind to try and solve an equation that would get the human population off of earth. If that fails, the people on the ship are instructed to start a new colony using fertilized eggs to ensure the survival of the human race as a whole.
Cooper makes a promise to his daughter Murph before he leaves that he will come back for her. He does not tell her when he will come back, but he promises her that he will return. One of the most interesting parts of this movie was the idea of time and gravity. For those up in space, time is moving at a much slower rate then on earth. Years are passing on earth and it seems like hours and days up in space. Murph has trouble dealing with her father being away. She never even told him goodbye, all she wanted was for him to stay.
This promise to his daughter is what drives Cooper's survival instinct out in the great unknown. He wants nothing more then to get back home to his daughter. Amelia talks to Cooper about the other astronauts  that are waiting on the other planets to be picked back up. She tells him that they all had no families and no attachments. Her father believed that this would be important and allow them to focus on the mission at hand rather then about surviving and getting home to their families.
The group arrive on one of the planets to find one of the scientists, Mann, that had been sent into space years before. He wakes up in tears at the sight of another human being (something that he thought he would never see again). He tells the group that the planet is livable down near the surface. They begin to set things up to start the colony and return home when Mann turns on Cooper while they are out exploring. Mann has lied about all of the data in order to get someone to just come and rescue him. He gives a speech about survival and how we will always fight for it. Even without human attachment, Mann wants nothing more to make it out of this alive, but at what cost. He has no human attachments back on earth, therefore he has nothing to fight for except his own survival. The one thing that Professor Brand thought to be the most essential part for his explorers, turned out to be the most damaging.
While Cooper is influenced by his love and desire to return home to his children, all of his decisions are based on their survival-Not his own. He went on this mission so that they would have a new place to live. It is with this that Cooper is able to make the sound decisions that he does rather then the rash ones in a simple fight for flight manner. He has known his entire life that his actions have consequences for the people around him. Mann only ever had to care about himself. How can a person who has only cared about themselves, ever truly be able to make the decisions necessary to save the entire human population?
I also loved that Nolan did not put aliens into this movie.....I have said before, and I stand by this even now, Aliens are just a copout way to explain the things that are occurring in a movie. Nolan uses the science of black holes and our basic understanding of how they are to work in order to explain what happens throughout the movie. There are no aliens or "they" as Ameila refers to them throughout the movie. It is us and always has been us. This is explain by that folded in half explanation of a black hole and how time is folded against itself....or at least that is the best why I can explain it.
Christopher Nolan does what he does best, and that is bring the movie full circle. There is nothing in this film that was there by accident, and that is what I love so much about watching his movies. I highly recommend taking the 3 hours out of your day and sitting down to watch this. It was brilliantly acted and well shot. The silence when they where in space at times made my skin crawl. You could almost touch the silence it was so thick. It really gave you a sense of what it would be like if you where to end up in space one day.
I will be watching the movie again and then editing this jumble to thoughts, but these where my initial feelings on the story and movie. I loved it. Get lost in space today. It's well worth the journey.
Surviving is built into us as a natural human instinct. This movie touched on the different types of survival instincts. It looked at a person who saw beyond what was in front of them. A person who thought about the survival of the human race as a whole, an sacrificed and lied to all of the people around him because he could see the bigger picture.

Why Should We Continue to Talk About 9/11/01?

Today I talked to my Language Arts students a little bit about why I discuss September 11, 2001 every year with all of my classes. I am not a history teacher by any means (although I get to play one this year! lol), but the significance of this day is not lost on me or anyone else in America. As the years go by and the younger generations become older....it is more and more apparent to me that we need to continue to discuss this in our classrooms and with our children. Today I told my students that I like to discuss it with them because the world on September 10, 2001 and the world on September 11, 2001 at 8:46 am..... is a completely different world. One of my students then proceeded to ask me, "It is?" That caused me to stop for a few moments....with those two simple words I feel that the importance of continuing to talk about what happened on that day 12 years ago is apparent.
We always talk about learning history because if you don't know history we are doomed to repeat it. I think there is something more to it than that. I think that the importance of learning history is to understand and appreciate the world that you are a part of today. The things that happened just yesterday are shaping the world we will wake up in tomorrow. This event effects so much and has shaped the country with live in more than I can wrap my own head around. I truly believe that it is so important to the younger generations to understand and to learn.
There is not  a better way to learn about history then from the people that lived it, and we ALL lived that day. Each and everyone of us has our own story and how it effected us. They can learn from US. There are not many historical events that can be taught by so many primary sources. Not only can we all share our stories, but there are so many videos, so many new stories, so many things that our children has access too to learn about and to help them to understand. I cannot think of any other historical event that has been more documented then the attacks on September 11, 2001. It is so easy to go and watch the breaking news reports from that day.
This is not to say that I think that this is more important than say WWII, Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, Korea, but this was the first and only time that we were attacked on our own soil while we were not engaged in a war. Military was not the target here...it was US it was the civilians. We were the targets and we were the tools. All of the other major historical events that we discuss in history are wrapped around war and our military. This does not fall into that category. This was different. This opened our eyes to the idea that we are all vulnerable and we are not necessarily all safe. That was an ignorant thing to believe.
We need to continue to remember, now because it is time to teach the younger generations.... to show them what hatred can do, to show them what a truly united nation looked like, to show them what kindness is, to show them what strength is, to show them what self sacrifice looks like, to show them fear, to show them that no matter what.....there is always recovery and there is always a way to overcome.
There is so much to be learned from the events that occurred on that Tuesday 12 years ago. I it is something that I will always teach in my classroom and as the generations get younger and younger.... I will make sure that my lessons evolve to support them. I will always light my candle...and one day when I have children of my own...we will talk about it and light the candle together....because We Won't Forget.

Man of Steel

"You just have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be, Clark. Whoever that man is, he's going to change the world. "

 

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's.......One of the most anticipated movies of the summer......Man of Steel. I can't lie. I was one of those people who was definitely excited to see this film. The trailers looked amazing and when I heard that Christopher Nolan had a hand in the making of the movie, I was sold. I mean...everything Nolan touches is gold. After sitting through the almost three hour reboot of the Superman franchise, I have to say that I was less then entertained. Don't get me wrong. The movie was OK, but the WOW factor that DC comics appeared to be looking for was just not there. Something, somewhere in the movie fell flat.
The film starts us out on Clark's home planet, we get a glimpse of the collapse of his people and what created the villain. There is this idea of hope that Clark's parents continue to speak out, and just like with every Nolan film there is that underlying human ideal that he likes to focus on. I felt that for this particular film it was that idea of hope. That idea and the representation of the idea didn't quite come across the way that I think it was initially intended too. I think it was supposed to have to do with hope in the human race, and that they would in the end choose the right thing, but there was not much a of a development of this idea. It was just thrown at you randomly through the movie and you just where expected to go along with it.

I also would have liked to have seen a bit more of Clark growing up and dealing with the changes that he was experiencing. It was these experiences and the teachings of his parents that shaped him into the man that he had become and I think that it would have been a much more interesting film if we would have been able to have been given a more in depth glimpse at his childhood and teen years. I went into the movie with the idea that I was going to be watching Superman become Superman, and he does in a way, but it was very much thrown together.
I thought that he found the hidden spaceship pretty quickly and easily. I thought that he just accepted what the alien ship had to tell him easily and without any real questions. I thought that he wasn't superman one minute and then all of a sudden he was. It was such a quick progression that I would have liked to see more a development with rather than the random flashbacks. I did appreciate that when he was fighting he really didn't know what he was doing yet, and didn't dominate every fight because he still was learning what to do, but I felt that it was just to rushed. For a film that was supposed to be about the origin of Superman, it skipped over that part pretty quickly.
The acting was ok at best as well. Henry Cavill did a decent job as Clark Kent. He maintained to poise that Superman always held very well, and I thought defiantly did a pretty good job with the calm and patient manner in which he addressed everyone. I did really enjoy Amy Adams as Lois Lane. I thought she brought the character to life a little when the rest of the movie seemed to be falling a bit. Michael Shannon did a great job as the villain Zod. I thought he had the most life in the entire movie. Laurence Fishburne will just never be anything of than Morphious to me. lol
You can tell that this is a Zack Snyder movie from a mile away. The fight scenes are epic. Nothing is spared. There is much you can do and create in a fight scene when the two people fighting are almost invincible. He seemed to be pretty excited about the idea of the movie being in 3D. You could tell that many of the fight scenes seemed to be geared toward the 3D gimmick. Which we all know I cannot stand.
All in all I would say that the movie was ok. Nothing that I would be telling you to run to theaters tomorrow about. If you happen to miss this one, there is no great loss in watching it on DVD. If you must see it in theatres, I don't think I would spend the extra money on the 3D. If anything, at least he was nice to look at for 3 hours.

Oz the Great and Powerful

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."

Everyone in their lifetime as seen The Wizard of Oz if they are any sort fan of cinema. It was such a groundbreaking movie for it's time and was the building block for much of our film landscape today. I truly wish that I could have been one of those movie goers sitting in the theatre for the first time when Dorothy opens the door and color filled the screen. That had to have been a breathtaking moment for anyone who got to experience it. That being said...I understand that nothing can compare to the original...and I understand that nothing should try to be compared to the original....that is not what I am trying to do.
Oz the Great and Powerful was a huge disappointment. There where so many great elements going into the film; Sam Rami directing, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weiss, and Michelle Williams staring just seemed to be a recipe for a fantastic time in front of the silver screen. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Right away the movie starts off in black and white. While I do appreciate the homage that it was trying to play to the original Wizard of Oz, there really is no need. Maybe if the storyline grabbed me from the beginning I wouldn't have cared so much, but I felt like it was trying to be like the original movie, and that just wasn't going to work.
I found that visually the movie was less than impressive as well. Everything now a days in CGI. CGI has allowed us to explore many different areas of film that we might now have been able to experience otherwise, but I feel that we have become to dependent on it for our movies. It was was to over the top for me, and WAY to computer looking. Even the way the characters moved around was just to artificial. Many movies have been visually stunning without CGI.
I also really hated the 3D...so unnecessary. Nothing was enhanced for me with the 3D at all. I really hate this whole 3D gimmick and I hope that it goes away soon. It takes away from the real point of a movie---to tell a good story.

The story itself really was not that interesting either. Someone said to me that it was because I already knew how the story ends. This is not true. I love stories that take place as prequels so to speak. There are so many possibilities open to HOW you got to the beginning of that movie in the first place. It is no different then making a sequel. BUT how you tell that story is important. This one lack any sort of excitement. I really didn't care about any of the characters, and to be honest with you, I don't know if it was because I was bored from the beginning of the movie, or if the movie lacked the character development necessary for you to really develop a taste for who the characters are. The actors where way to over the top and it was not an endearing over the top that was part of the movie or the characters themselves. You almost felt like you where watching a bad cartoon. I don't know if that was what Rami was trying to go for, but that was really not the way to go. Oz is supposed to be almost like a real place. The people are supposed to feel real, but there are those supernatural elements that are thrown in there to make it Oz.
I thought that they tried to remake the original by following that blue print-complete with meeting some friends along the way and giving them special gifts at the end. Now I have never read the novels, and someone told me that this was close to the novel, but I cannot say one way or the other. Either way, the screenwriting was not very good at all. THAT is what makes or breaks a story. You can have the greatest novel of all times, but if all the elements are not there to help it.... you won't have anything at all to go on.
 
 
 
I guess you could say that I really didn't like this movie. hahaha If this was something that I was watching at home on TV I would have changed the channel about 15 mins. into it. I would really suggest waiting until this one comes out on DVD to see it, but if you really feel the need to go to the theatre DO NOT GO SEE THE 3D. Not really the somewhere over the rainbow I was hoping for.

The Lord of the Rings

"Even the smallest person can change the course of a future."

 

 

Being that this is my favorite movie of all time (yes I count all three of these films as one because lets be honest, they are one movie) some might wonder why I haven't written about them before this moment. (well, maybe nobody but I like to humor myself) The reality is that I just have so much to say about these movies, and it is a daunting task for me because...I mean where do you start with the amazingness that is The Lord of the Rings.
I guess the first part is the world that J.R.R. Tolkien created. He didn't just write a simple story....he created an entirly new universe with a history that dates back to the creation of it all. There is not one thing in this world that you could not find an orgin for or that you could not find a connection to. He left nothing a mystery. Each race has it's own language complete with different lettering AND gramatical rules. There are maps and wars and ages. Tolkien left nothing out of this world. I think that is one of the reasons that this is such an amazing thing.
 
 
The Similirian is where one would find the hisotry of Middle Earth. All the way back to the moment that each elf was created and why. I found this book to be very dense and hard to get through because it was like reading one of our history text books, but I also found it to be even more rewarding than I thought because there was so much from the Lord of the Rings that I began to understand and even apprecaite even more. There are even more stories of the people of Middle Earth than just what one would find in the Similrian, The Hobbit, and even in The Lord of the Rings. This is amazing to me....
The second part is really directly related to the characters that J.R.R Tolkien created in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The fellowship is something that really resignated with me. I love the idea that this group of people, many of whom did not want anything to do with each other, where able to band togehter in the end and to become to loyal to each other. Someone asked me a few months ago who my favorite character in the story was, and I had to really stop for a minute to think about it because I love each character for different reasons.
I think that I would have to say that my favorite character is Samwise Gamgee. He is probably my favorite because I identify with Samwise more than any of the other characters in the story. Samwise is one of the most loyal characters throughout the entire story. He stand by Frodo through the entire journey. No matter how scared he is or how unsure he may be...he stays with Frodo and is willing to protect him not matter what. Even at the end of the story...as Frodo struggles to make it to the top of Mordor with the ring....Sam carries Frodo. He stays with him to the very end, even when he knows that he will not be able to return home. Even when he thought he friend had tossed him away...Sam stays... he never leaves Frodo, and I love that.

The character that I have to say that I wish I was would be Frodo. Frodo was willing to take on a task that nobody in the entire Middle Earth was able to do. He was strong enough to resist the ring and was strong enough to carry it though. Frodo was able to walk away from the fellowship because he knew that the ring would destory his friends and he could not let that happen. He knew that if he did not do what he was supposed to do, nobody would. I love that he struggled through the journey. He was not perfect and there where many times that he began to falter and that he didn't always make the right choice, but Frodo pushed and he went forward. He knew that this was his battle to fight and one that he never atticipated to take. I love that idea that things fall into our lives that we may not expect, and we can let then over take us and ignore them, or we can take up those challenges and push throught them. Frodo pushed through even through there where moments that he didn't want to.

The characters are not the only thing that make this story so amazing. There are so many messages that one can take out of them. I love the idea that everything happens for a reason. Gandalf talks to Frodo at one point about Bilbo meaning to find the ring and that means that Frodo himself was meant to find the ring. Each moment through the course of Middle Earth had lead to that moment. Had Frodo never gotten the ring, maybe Aragorn would not have risen up and taken back his thrown. Had Boramir not died, Faramir would not have been able to rise up and do what he needed to do. Each chain of events needed to happen in order for Frodo to be able to destroy the ring. No matter how awful those chain of events may have seemed at the time.
I also love that notion of holding onto hope and understanding that all bad things must come to an end. Nothing in this world can last forever, and no matter how horrible it may seem now. It will pass and a better time will come. Always hold onto that hope because it is that hope (no matter how small) that will grow and defeat that evil or that hopelessness. Each person in this world holds a purpose....
Peter Jackson did such a wonderful job of adapting this story from novel to film. It is such a detailed piece of writing and taking the story and keeping it's intergity is one of the most difficult things to do when adapting a novel for the screen. He took such care in taking what was important and leaving out the things that where not needed for the heart of the story. The fact that these movies are so long is a testiment to the idea that he tried so hard NOT to leave anything out. I feel that the things he did omit, where nothing that horribly changed the story.
I honestly cannot say enough about these stories. I have said it before, if all you are telling me is that they are long....all they are doing is walking...why don't the eagles just save the day....then you are hoenestly missing the point of this story. There is so much there. Maybe next time you have the chance, stop and open up or heart a little rather than your mind...because there are some things in this world that should be felt rather than thought about....and Lord of the Rings is one of them.

Waiting for Superman

"One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman did not exist.... I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us."

 

I am 27 years old and I am a special education Language Arts teacher in a middle school. I have been teaching for almost 5 years. I love what I do, but it does not come without it's share of daily challenges. There is not a moment that goes by that I am not thinking in some way about how I can help my students. There is not one hour that passes in which there is not that nagging worry in the back of my mind that constantly asks if I am doing what is best for my kids. Am I doing what is needed for them to succeed.
I am not naive to think that what I do doesn't matter. I know it does, and I take that responsibility to heart. I know that what I say and do can affect a child for the rest of their lives. I wish that it didn't, but I would be a fool to not understand that and to know that this is the truth. I can make or break a child. How they do in life can depend on me. I could be their crossroads. Whether they decide to go left rather than right. This scares the living day lights out of me, and yes...it is one of the many things that I lose sleep over on a daily basis.
The documentary, Waiting for Superman,  focused on the public education system and how it is failing our students. Being a teacher this is an issue that I am directly involved in. This is something that I battle with everyday. It is so frustrating to see all of these young children struggling. It kills me everytime I hear a public official say that this is "All about the kids." The reality is...no it isn't about the kids. If it was about the kids, so many of our students would not be going through the public education system 2 and 3 grade levels behind in reading and math. The reality is that if you are behind in reading and math, you are going to struggle in other areas as well. How are these students making it through? How are they graduating? Who is failing these students?
There are so many factors that go into a student being successful. This film touched on the ones that involved effective teachers, and administrations doing what is necessary for the students rather than focusing on what the adults need and want. Being on the other end of this, the teaching aspect,  I would be a fool to say that these are some of the problems for sure, but these are not the only ones that are failing our students.
The parents are a huge factor in the lives of the students that pass through the education system. It has been a proven fact that parents with involvement their their students school work will have more productive students. Also, I have seen in just my 5 years of teaching a a decline in the responsibility factor of the students and children in general of today. Many of the student want to see the work done for them, they do not want to take responsibility for their actions and many parents make excuses for their children. These excuses are not helping them. Children have this sense of entitlement, a sense that they deserve to get the good grades and do so well just because they have shown up. They don't have to work for it. This is a problem and one that many people don't seem to want to talk about or to address.
So many people are looking for the person to blame. The people to point the finger at. The reality of this, is that there is not just one person to blame. Everyone has had a hand in the decline in the public education; administration, teachers, parents, and students alike. I do not that any real change will be able to occur until everyone stops pointing their fingers and begins to look at themselves and start to accept the responsibility.
This is not just any job. When you enter the world of education, you have to realize that you are entering a career that your choices are not entirely your own anymore. What you do matters, what you do affects every single one of those students that crosses your path during the course of a day. It is not a choice that anyone should enter lightly or one that should be entered into for the wrong reasons. As much as we don't like it, sometimes you classroom has to come first, your kids come first, because No it isn't JUST a job.  School is the first step for the rest of these child's lives. This is where you will lay their building blocks. This is where they will prepare for a world outside of their homes.
Yes, the education system needs to be reformed. There are problems, but not one person or group is responsible. Change will only come when all parties can come together and understand that it IS ALL ABOUT THE KIDS.
I would defiantly recommend this documentary if you enjoy watching things like this. As an educator this made me sad because I want so badly to be that superman all of these kids are waiting for....maybe one day...