THE
CLASS
The movie is related to drama. It is a French movie
directed by Laurent Cantet in 2008. It is based on the novel written by
François Bégaudeau in 2006. Movie is actually a autobiographical story of
Bégaudeau's experiences. He is a French language teacher in a middle school in
Paris. This film demonstrate us his struggles with problem children, especially
Esmerelda , Khoumba , and Souleymane.
When
the character of people in class is considered, François is calm, humorous and
his approach is really warm. Souleymane is very aggressive. Also, he sometimes
seem to be careless Esmeralda talks much more. Excellent movie and as much as i
see value in the French educational system, this teacher failed the students. He
did not value what they brought into the classroom. Heartbreaking the way he
argued with Esmeralda without ever conceding that she made good points; and did
not respect to Suleymane which was what he wanted above all. His code was not
the talk of the French dialectic but silence if you had nothing of value to
say. His parents had come to the wrong country! How beautiful he was how
beautiful his mother was and how little respect they received. I disagree with
whoever said, under his mother's thumb. And this is another cultural
misunderstanding, but that he respected and obeyed his mother. One thing that
was very frustrating for me. It was that the teacher never admitted he spoke in
anger or apologized to the two young women. I think that Suleymane was standing
up for the young women. He thought more of protecting himself than of being
honest which might have vastly improved his teaching. His dishonesty with the
students probably sent some of those children to uncertain futures.
In
the class, there are ethnical groups. It is really hard to manage the class
because of this multi-cultural atmosphere. According to Piaget’s theory, there
are several stages of cognitive development. These students are in the stage of
formal operational thinking. In this stage, students start to learn scientific
method and hypothetical thinking but as I understand these students’
educational perspectives are completely different. During the class students
argue the name in an example , particularly
“Bill” and “Rachid”. This situation shows that these students belong to
different nations and cultures but it should not be a problem for a lecture
because this is not important point to object the name given in the examples.
These are the discursive elements which prevent to pay attention to the lecture
for other students. There are also an interaction between individual and
environment. Students avoid to make a good dialogue with the teacher. Students
lack of self-confidence.
