Wow. This was an amazing movie about some amazing kids and one amazing teacher.
Very powerful.
But the one person in the house that was most profoundly affected by this movie? Katya.
At the end of the movie she just got mad as could be at the babies for making noise during the climax. It was then that I realized that she had tears streaming down her face. She was so moved by their stories and what that teacher did to bring about real change in those kids.
Then we watched some of the "extra" stuff that was on the DVD and saw the picture of the real teacher and her real students. These kids were 14 when they started telling their stories of hurt, broken homes, homelessness, having to choose sides, risking their lives every day just to do everyday things. And this was in Long Beach, CA not some New York slum that we never saw and that you can sweep out of your mind. My paternal Grandparents lived in Long Beach and we have been there many times.
This became real for her.
She is all revved up to go and find a copy of that book to read and I would like to read it after her. If you have a teen, I highly recommend it. It is an amazingly powerful true story. There is profanity and some violence, but it is in context with their lives so it is not overboard.
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4 comments:
It is such a good book!
I certainly watch this movie at my spare time :-) I also would encourage anyone to see this true story, "Not one less" a foreign movie. I would love to tell you, but I wouldn't want to spoil the story.
Anyway, I remember living in Long Beach when I was a young girl. There were several Downtown of Long Beach areas were ghettos, violent and homeless before they cleaned all of the mess up in this area. The schools were also in a very bad shapes at that time, too. It would make senses that the teacher changed these 14 students' lives. Good for this teacher!
P.S. I also remembered witnesses on several cases: the police shooting with the drug dealers in a building, enraged husband burning the wife's kitchen and few more. So it was pretty much commons for the kids to experience at this kind of life in Downtown Long Beach. Sad, huh?
Wow, your daughter's experience with the story sounds really profound. Very cool. It's that kind of affectation that evokes real change in the world.
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