But I did.
A brand new school teacher tackles the racially integrated high school in Long Beach, California, but what she finds is more than an academically challenged group of teenagers. She finds hearts broken and bitter by racial tensions and hardened by the lives they have had to lead already at the ages of 14 and 15.
Each student brings a different story: the fear of simply stepping outside one's door, the insecurity of physical abuse, the pride of extending forgiveness, the helplessness of gang obligations, the question of whether or not they will live to the age of 18... Things we forget about in quaint suburbia but that are realities real kids endure on a day to day basis.
I cried for the kids who live such broken lives, who don't see any ray of hope in their dark lives. I cried because people forget about them, trap them in boxes called "stereotype" and "prejudice", saying, "If they only knew better..."
How is someone supposed to know better if he is not taught?
As a student studying to become a teacher, this movie was extremely inspiring and motivating. School isn't just a motion, a system we rush kids through just to put a stamp on their transcripts. It's an opportunity to have children learn what life is about and to find their places in it. Let's take that seriously.
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