Part 2 –Individual Analysis Paper (Examines the same videos used for Part 1 of the
assignment – this is an individual paper, not a group paper. This paper is worth 100
points.) IF THIS SECTION OF THE PAPER IS NOT COMPLETED 50 POINTS WILL
BE DEDUCTED FROM THE ENTIRE RESEARCH PAPER GRADE. EDUC 202
FALL 2015, G. Homana 16 This part of the paper requires you to go deeper and provide
a critical analysis of a theme that is portrayed in the movies. Using the same two movies
that you viewed in Parts 1 and 2 pick a central theme in one or both movies. An example
of a central theme may include poverty, race, gender, discrimination or the depiction of
the teacher as the “hero.” You may use one of these themes or select a more relevant
theme from your movie(s). Make sure you select a theme that directly links to issues
concerning urban education to analyze (the theme must be approved by the instructor).
Your paper must be at least 6 to 8 pages long, double spaced, in APA format and
should analyze the components listed below. Support your arguments (in-text citations
of references) using at least three annotated references (at least one reference must be
new, i.e. not used in your group paper – no Wikipedia is allowed). You must also include
the moives you are analyzing in your annotated bibliography (these movies do not count
as part of the three references). All references must be in APA and on a separate
reference page at the end of the paper:
1. Identify the theme portrayed in the movie(s). Support it with detail from the movie(s).
2. Do you believe the theme is portrayed truthfully or through myths? Why do you hold
that belief? Be specific
3. Now take the opposite side to your response to question number 2 above. Answer the
same question.
4. Why is an understanding of this theme important for urban education and society?
Support your arguments with detail.
5. How can an analysis and a deeper understanding of this theme lead to changes in urban
education? How? Support your arguments with details.
6. Should this theme be a component of the movie? Justify your response. Does this
movie(s) send a biased message to the viewer? How? What is the result?
7. How would the person you selected for your biography project view this film and this
central theme? Why?
8. Summary (make sure that your summary makes clear and well-developed connection
to the material learned in this course)
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
Dangerous Minds / Boys of Baraka
EDUC 202.007
November 9, 2015
Abstract
1
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
The movies Dangerous Minds and Boys of Baraka are two movies that show the
hardships of growing up within an urban community and its impact on the schools in that
community. In Dangerous Minds, a teacher (Michelle Pfeiffer) new to urban schooling is
surprised to find that the students that she is teaching are disrespectful and do not care for
the teacher or the school. She then proceeds to try and better the school using her own
unorthodox ways. Boys of Baraka is a documentary centered around junior high boys that
live in a Baltimore ghetto. The community that they live in is very poverty-stricken as
well as dangerous, with gang violence and drug dealing. The boys are then sent to a
boarding school in Kenya by their parents, believing that the children stand a better
chance of a stable future in Africa rather than roaming the streets of Baltimore. This
paper will take a look at the movies and how urban education and urban life are depicted
in a Hollywood interpretation as opposed to a real-life documentary.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
Chapter 1: Dangerous Minds / Boys of Baraka…………………………………………...4
Introduction………………………………………………………………………..4
Problems or Issues………………………………………………………………...4
Depiction of Students, Schools and Communities…………………………...……5
Representation of Race, Social Class, and Gender………………………………..7
Messages about Urban Schools………………………………………….………..8
Power…………………………………………………………………..………….9
Summary/Group Reaction……………………………………….………………10
Annotated Bibliography……………………………………………………….…………13
Chapter 1: Dangerous Minds/ Boys of Baraka
3
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
Introduction
Dangerous Minds directed by John N. Smith (1995) is a movie about an exMarine turned teacher, Louanne Johnson, who has a difficult time trying to relate and
meld with a class of rowdy and disrespectful high school students. These underachieving
teens want no part of dealing with Ms. Johnson and rebel just like any rowdy high school
students would. Being a former Marine, Ms. Johnson decides she will not just roll over
and accept the way her students treat her. She instead uses unorthodox methods in order
to get through to the class and help them through succeed in high school. This is not an
easy task, however, as the community around the students and their lives outside of
school seem to strip away any progress they make.
In Boys of Baraka, a documentary by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (2005),
boys attending junior high school are filmed and followed. The boys live in the Baltimore
ghetto where gang violence and drug dealing is happening all around them. Because the
boys live in such a poverty-stricken community, their options and likeliness for
succeeding are very slim. The parents of the boys understand this and choose to send
their children to a boarding school in Kenya. There, the boys can attend a school without
the fear of gang violence and drug dealing right around the corner from their schools and
homes. In the Baraka School program, the boys can just focus on their studies and
ultimately focus on being boys in a happier environment and not a poverty-stricken one.
Problems or Issues
In Dangerous Minds, the problems tend to change as the movie goes its course. In
the beginning, the main problem in the movie was that Ms. Johnson could not get through
to her students. After finally connecting with the students through her will and
4
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
determination, she then faced the school itself. The other faculty in the school and the
principal all saw what she was doing and thought that it did not matter. They believed
that she was nothing special compared to the other teachers, and that her teaching
methods went against school policy even though they produced positive results. Another
factor that was against Ms. Johnson was the student’s own lives outside of the classroom.
Outside of the classroom, the students dealt with violent individuals and some even their
own parents not believing in them. No matter how well Ms. Johnson’s students did in the
classroom, she was still limited to helping them outside of it.
In Boys of Baraka, the main problem was that the Baltimore boys had a very slim
chance of succeeding and making it in the community that they were in. The realities of
their lives were filled with streets ruled by drug dealers, families with addiction
problems, prison, and a public school system that did not seem to care about them. One
student, Richard Keyser Jr., has a home surrounded by drug dealers as well as a father
who is in prison. Montrey, another student, is extremely mischievous and continuously
fights with other boys in school resulting in multiple suspensions. Because this is a
documentary of people and their real lives, these problems seemed a lot more relevant to
the audience, as opposed to actors in a movie.
Depictions of Students, Schools, and Communities
The students in Dangerous Minds are depicted as rebellious high school students.
They have to act tough all the time and be very cautious of each other because that’s all
they know and that’s how they were raised. Because of this, you assume that the students
are a product of their own community. They are raised to believe that finishing high
school won’t mean anything outside of the classroom, so they treat everything like a joke.
5
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
The school and faculty of the school are depicted as being jaded. John N. Smith (1996)
portrays a teacher laughing as he grades his students’ work, being so wrong that it amuses
him. The community in Dangerous Minds is depicted to be very much against the
students. From random violent individuals that want to hurt the individuals, to the older
generation of people in the community not believing in them (in this case, two of the
students’ own mother), it appears in the film that the community does not want them to
succeed. Peggy Grant (2002) explains in her article Using Popular Films to Challenge
Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching in Urban Schools that movies such as this
“usually portray parents of inner-city children as almost subhuman, less interested in the
well-being of their children then are the teachers with whom they spend just a few hours
a week” (Grant, 2002, p. 87).
In Boys of Baraka, it is almost the complete opposite of how everything is
depicted when compared to Dangerous Minds. Other than the lack of funding that the
school and community have, along with the street violence, there is an overall positive
and supportive tone coming from the students, the school, and the community. Richard,
one of the Baraka boys, explains that he is very smart and that the streets of Baltimore are
no place for him (Ewing & Grady, 2005). He believes that if he puts his mind to it he can
get out of there and have a better life for him and his brother. The public school that the
boys attend are trying their best to send the students somewhere they know will help
them succeed. The Baltimore community is shown to be extremely proud of the boys
going to the Baraka school, hosting parades and giving uplifting speeches for them. The
Baraka boys pull from the strength of the black community, the church, and their family.
The enthusiastic support of their community and family are extremely important when
6
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
the boys are given this rare opportunity to better themselves and their circumstances of
living.
Representation of Race, Social Class, and Gender
Dangerous Minds depicted the lower class students as a very mixed race. There
were rather equal portions of Latin Americans, African Americans, and Asians. The Boys
of Baraka documentary has only black junior high students. Although Boys of Baraka
was more realistic in terms of how the community and the students were depicted, the
diversity in Dangerous Minds was good to see, as it gives the audience insight that an
urban school setting is not just a black student problem. It easily affects all students of
color that grow up in an urban community and environment.
In both movies, the male gender is seen as the more violent and rebellious. In
Dangerous Minds, the girls are seen as less refined and just rough around the edges. The
boys are the ones always fighting. In Boys of Baraka, you only ever see males out on the
streets, and the movie is centered specifically on boys. However, the movie does show
one of the boys mom as a recovering drug addict, which takes a lot of the negative
pressure off of the males.
Social class is highlighted well in Boys of Baraka. The Baraka program
specifically targeted boys in poverty-stricken, low class areas that were in need of help.
The documentary focused on lower class communities and education and what was being
done in order to help it. This gives the audience an awareness of lower class communities
such as Baltimore ghettos. However, in Dangerous Minds, class is represented well in
two ways. The students attending the schools are depicted as lower class and the Ms.
Johnson, the teacher who comes in an saves them, is depicted as middle class. This can
7
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
give the audience the sense that in order for lower class students to be saved, they cannot
do it by themselves. They need someone of in a higher class to help them.
Messages about Urban Schools
Robert C. Bulman’s Teachers in the ‘Hood: Hollywood’s Middle-Class Fantasy
(2002) takes an in-depth look at the urban-high-school genre of film. He states that “these
urban high school films are a celebration of the middle-class values of rational
calculation and individual achievement.” (Bulman, 2002, p. 273). This is rather true when
discussing Dangerous Minds. A character such as Ms. Johnson very much resembles that
of middle class American individualism. She goes in and helps everyone, and has the
audience feel good and optimistic about the potential of improvement in urban public
schools. This may not always be a good thing, because it over simplifies all the problems
that the urban public schools go through, such as “rebellious students.” That is only a part
of the problem. With other movies such as Freedom Writers and Never Give Up, another
message that could get portrayed is that the hero of lower class students struggling in an
inner-city school is almost always a middle-class white woman.
In Boys of Baraka, the urban schools are failing the students. So much so that they
are leaving their homes and going to Kenya just get the proper education they need in a
environment that will support their learning. The message about urban schools in this
documentary is that the schools need help in becoming what the Baraka school is: a safe
environment with positive reinforcement. The positive reinforcement is actually already
there, being given by the community. That is a good step in the right direction in order to
help the urban school system.
Power
8
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
Power is the ability to direct or influence the behavior of others. In Avi’s World
as talked about by Bill Ayer’s Chapter Three of Teaching the Taboo (2011), Avi uses his
power as a teacher to try and get a group of black teens to settle down, but then it
backfires on him (Ayers, 2011, p. 54). In this sense, Avi did not have the power of the
classroom, as he made assumptions prior to trying to settle down the teens. He then
realizes that instead of trying to seize power and control over the students, he needs to
first be on their side.
In Dangerous Minds, Ms. Johnson applies the same concept of power to her
students. At first, she tries to take control of the class forcefully, but then she realizes that
in order for her to have power, she needs to first work with the class to come to a mutual
understanding. Someone who may have power over Ms. Johnson is the school principal,
but instead of earning it, he simply takes it. It does not seem to work well for him,
because if it did, his school would not be the way it is. Also, when compared to the
students, the principal has all the power. He calls the shots about what happens in the
school, and the students have none. This may very well be a factor that plays into why the
students act up.
In Boys of Baraka, the power is in the hands of the instructors and also the
students. There is a mutual understanding in the Baraka school of “help us help you.” The
instructors spend a lot of time with the students, and try to give them power in the sense
that students have more control over their actions than they realize, whereas back in
Baltimore, power was always taken by the teachers that did not try to help them as much
as they should have.
Summary/ Personal Group Reaction
9
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
Haley: I enjoyed both movies; Dangerous Minds impacted my thinking more
however. I think personally I like a Hollywood approach to a film rather than the way
Boys of Baraka was made. Dangerous Minds pulled more emotion from me, When the
student was shot I was crying and found that I actually cared about the well-being of the
students. I learned about how broken schools are all over the country. I thought I knew
what a poor school was, but I had no idea until I watched these films. It opened my eyes
to how awful schools are not only in other places but in places as close as Baltimore. I am
still shocked at how severely each school has suffered. These films made me incredibly
grateful for the schools that I attended. I did not live in a wealthy town by any stretch of
the imagination, however I was still able to get a good education in a school with great
resources. It showed me how naïve I was to the poverty struggle occurring all over the
country. I have always wanted to teach but this showed me how important teachers are in
the world. Schools need good teachers if there is any hope for change in the system. The
movies have helped me realize that problems in schooling have and will continue to be an
issue for a long time at the rate of change today.
Jensen: My personal reactions to Dangerous Minds was one of surprise at how
unrealistically they portrayed the solution to the problem of the movie which was the kids
being stuck becoming victims of their environment. I thought Boys of Baraka was cool
and the tactic was obviously more realistic since it was real life but it was only a
temporary solution. My perspectives changed by watching the movies because I now
understand the common misconceptions surrounding how the problems of urban
education can be solved. One teacher cannot drastically change the lives of kids in one
year, at least not through the methods the teacher in Dangerous Minds did. I now know
10
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
there is a program that sends kids to Kenya to try to take them out of their environment
but more importantly I understand how taking kids in bad situations out of their
environment can actually help them long term.
Shalan: The behaviors of these students towards their teachers due shocked me,
mainly lack of respect and cooperativeness in the class. I learned that even where there is
a high level of moral decay, students can still be molded to become better people through
reasoning with them. Therefore, my perspective has changed about a lack of respect and
moral decay as something that can be amended through a proper monitoring and making
the students be focused in life.
Ahmed: The similarities in the movies are in the actuality that both movies feature
societies and systems that do not foster attitudes of success in their students. They
students in both films come from minority communities with broken homes, areas
invested with substance abuse and high crime rates. The differences in these movies is
that in Boys of Baraka, the boys are young and in their formative years. It is, therefore,
easy to change their perspective about life. As such, there are no tragic endings to their
individual stories. In Dangerous Minds, however, the students are young adults whose
perspectives about life have already been shaped. They are, therefore more resigned to
fate and resistant to change which accounts for the more tragic endings like the death of
Emilio Ramirez. However, the dominating motif of both movies is that the power of
becoming successful in this societies lies within the student’s power. However, they have
to achieve this through the help of good structural and social systems.
Ricarte: After watching both films, I definitely have a different perspective on
how I view urban education films, especially the Hollywood versions as compared to
11
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
documentaries. Dangerous Minds is an ok movie overall, but when compared to Boys of
Baraka, I feel it failed in comparison. Dangerous Minds is your typical Hollywood
depiction of a middle-class teacher coming in to save the lives of rebellious high-school
students who have grown up in poor conditions. The Boys of Baraka is more insightful
about its take on urban education. The film goes and actually pin points a problem and
gives a solution that is thought out. The film also depicts the Baltimore ghetto’s
community as supportive and uplifting, not negative and stubborn like the community
depicted in Dangerous Minds. I was actually happily surprised to see how much the
community in Baltimore supports their own when it comes to bettering themselves and
everyone around them.
Annotated References
Ayers, R., & Ayers, W. (2011). Into the Woods. In Teaching the taboo: Courage and
12
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
imagination in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.
This particular chapter took a look at Avi and the way he interact with his
students. It is a particular give and take with the students, which leads to Avi
encouraging the student to think provocatively and to embrace the discomfort that
comes with being enlightened in learning. It showcases the many ways Avi has
interacted with his students that have become learning experiences for not only
the student, but him as well. This was a good reading to use for the Power section.
Bulman, R. C. (2002). Teacher’s in the ‘hood: Hollywood’s middle-class fantasy. The
Urban Review, (34) 3, 251-276.
This particular article takes a look at the how the urban-high-school-genre
films portray certain people and the regular formula it follows. It takes a look at
how misrepresented the urban public school system is and how it affects the
audience. This was a good reading to use in order to analyze Dangerous Minds.
Ewing, H., & Grady, R. (Directors). (2006). The boys of Baraka [Motion picture].
ThinkFilm.
The Boys of Baraka is a documentary that shows the effects of moving
junior high boys from a poverty stricken Baltimore public school system to a
boarding school in Kenta. The school in Kenya provides the boys with an
environment that is not only safe but also a positive environment for learning. It
shows how effective a change in environment can have on a student growing up
in an urban community.
Grant, P. A. (2002). Using popular films to challenge preservice teachers’ beliefs about
teaching in urban schools. Urban Education, (37) 1, 77-95.
13
Running Head: Dangerous Minds
This particular reading is about how popular films reflect the ideas that
teachers have about teaching in urban schools. These movies not only enforce
naïve beliefs about learning and teaching but also over simplify what it means to
help an urban public school. This was a particularly good reading to use when
analyzing Dangerous Minds.
Smith, J. (Director). (1995). Dangerous Minds [Motion picture]. Hollywood Pictures
Home Video.
Dangerous Minds is a Hollywood depiction of when a middle class
teacher comes into an urban education setting. The teacher, Ms. Johnson, helps
the students learn and grow through different methods of teaching, such as
rewarding the students with trips to amusement parks when their work is
exceptional. This movie follows your usual urban-high-school-genre film
formula.
14
Running Head: PUT TITLE OF PAPER HERE
Title of Paper
Name
Towson University
EDUC 202.00????
Gary A. Homana, Ph.D.
Date
1
Running Head: PUT TITLE OF PAPER HERE
Abstract
2
Running Head: PUT TITLE OF PAPER HERE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 2: Movie Theme Analysis……..……………..…………..……………………….
Identification and Theme Portrayal …………..….…..….………….…….….…….
Truthfulness or Myth of Theme.…....…………….…………………………………
Truthfulness or Myth Counter Argument………...…………………………………
Importance of Theme for Urban Education…………………………………………
Theme and Urban Education Change……………………………………………….
Theme Component as Part of the Movie and Message Sent to Viewer..…………..
How Your Biography Person Would View Each Film…………………..…………
Summary………………...…………..………………………………………...……
Annotated Bibliography………………………………………………………………….…
3
Running Head: PUT TITLE OF PAPER HERE
CHAPTER 2: MOVIE THEME ANALYSIS
Identification and Portrayal of Theme
The…
Truthfulness or Myth of Theme
The…
Truthfulness or Myth Counter Argument
The…..
Importance of Theme for Urban Education
The….
Theme and Urban Education Change
The….
Theme Component as Part of the Movie and Message Sent to Viewer
The….
How Biography Person Would View the Movies
The....
Summary
The....
4
Running Head: PUT TITLE OF PAPER HERE
Annotated Bibliography
5
Purchase answer to see full
attachment