Continuing yesterday’s post on why we body-slam kids in school, I wanted to reiterate the role of the United States’ overall culture—you and I included—in creating school environments where cops body-slamming kids is inevitable.

Three movies illustrate our culture’s views on violence and kids.

American Sniper

First, watch the closing scenes of American Sniper, which show real-life footage of the main character’s funeral. You don’t need to have seen the movie to get that he’s a military man. He was conflicted, but served his country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-nbnCFeq3A

His popular support was incredible. Large numbers of people came out to support him. Municipalities shut down public roads and spent a lot of money showing more support. Look at all those American flags.

Now here’s my question: Could you imagine support like that for a teacher?

A couple other questions: How much can a teacher help a community? Do teachers sacrifice to serve their communities?

I don’t know if we can compare teachers’ jobs to soldiers’ but we can compare their effects on their communities as well as public support for them.

Music of the Heart

The movie Music of the Heart featured Meryl Streep playing Roberta Guaspari:

A mother of two young sons emerges from a failed marriage and finds her calling teaching violin at a New York City public school in East Harlem. When budget cuts threaten to close her program, she fights City Hall and wins.

[…]

But Guaspari-Tzavaras rebounded. With her sons – and violins – in tow, she moved to New York City in 1980, subletting an East Harlem apartment from a couple whose children attended Central Park East schools, a city-run alternative program. That led to an introduction to the school’s music-loving principal, Deborah Meier, and a part-time job. Three years later, when she was hired full-time, Guaspari-Tzavaras had fallen in love again – this time with her gritty new neighborhood, where she lovingly restored the townhouse she lives in with Sophia, a 5-year-old from El Salvador, whom she adopted in 1991. “My mother really needs to come home and be a mother,” says Alexi. “She is just as passionate about mothering as she is about teaching.”

And there are those who are passionate about her. In 1993, world-class violinists, including Itzhak Perlman and Arnold Steinhardt, helped organize a Carnegie Hall benefit concert that raised nearly $300,000 for her program. “This woman has an incredible, demonic amount of energy,” says violin virtuoso Isaac Stern. “She draws things out of the kids. And from her they gain a sense of self.” That’s certainly true for Guaspari-Tzavaras alum Melia Crumbley, 15. When kids who hang out on the street mock her for spending so much time practicing, says Melia, “I just look them right back in the eye and say, ‘What are you doing with your life?” A documentary film about Roberta called Small Wonders was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996. Further developments inspired by this teacher include a feature film, released in October 1999. Music of the Heart starred Meryl Streep as real-life violin teacher Roberta Guaspari-Tzavaras. [source]

The trailer describes the movie pretty well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pnqbx8iTTM

Have you heard of Guaspari? Can you imagine a parade for her, or the city shutting down roads for her?

But isn’t working hard to develop a program to help children the educational system neglects what we say we value? Do we behave accordingly? If not, how surprised should we be to see military behavior in schools?

She hasn’t died yet, but we know the nation won’t remember her like it remembers the soldiers. She makes the nation safer by reducing inequity and making the nation a place others less want to attack. Can we say that about soldiers?

Stand and Deliver

The movie Stand and Deliver portrays the story of the teacher Jaime Escalante, who transforms an East Los Angeles high school program from a neglected wasteland to turning out well-educated, college-ready students, overcoming an uncaring, gang-ridden culture.

A couple scenes describe the man and his challenge:

and

Have you heard of Escalante? Can you imagine a parade for him, or the city shutting down roads for him?

But isn’t working hard to develop a program to help children the educational system neglects what we say we value? Do we behave accordingly? If not, how surprised should we be to see military behavior in schools?

He hasn’t died yet, but we know the nation won’t remember him like it remembers the soldiers. He makes the nation safer by reducing inequity and making the nation a place others less want to attack. Can we say that about soldiers?

My questions for you

If you don’t like cops body-slamming kids in school, what are you doing to support education? How does that support compare with your support for forceful authority, even in just what influence you try to use regarding how your representatives spend your taxes?

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