I have always opined that grades get you a job and your attitude gets you a meaningful life. Why so philosophical? Why am I talking about grades and attitude? You guessed it right! The theme for our blog-posts for this month is ‘Teachers’. Today I would like to tell you about two teachers, their students, their methods from two movies but not the results. Because it’s for you to watch these movies and get to know the results yourselves. Well, we all know and agree that learning, either from classrooms or from the school of hard knocks, has been the crux of life, and teachers, masters, guides, gurus act as the bridge to connect you with your destiny. This takes place off-screen and on-screen as well. So, what if an off-screen teaching-learning experience is brought on-screen and proves to be a motivating factor for many? This has happened, it happens and it’s going to happen all the time, but all we need to do is bank on the right kind of motivation. Mr. Thomas Carter is one of those people, whose real-life account was brought into a motion picture. The movie ‘Coach Carter’ is a biopic on Mr. Thomas Carter who takes up a basketball coaching job at Richmond High School.
The movie revolves around the theme of imparting discipline to a bunch of teenage basketball players at Richmond High School. These players are low at their game, lower at the team spirit and the lowest when it comes to their grades. So, Coach Carter now has tasks of getting these players on the base line together, as a team and in the classrooms as well. But, will these teenagers comply and get in sync with the coach or will they revolt? Will they share their deepest fears with their coach? Will the teachers help Mr. Carter achieve his goals? There so many questions, aren’t there? It’s for you to find out the answers to these questions by watching the movie ‘Coach Carter’ if you haven’t already. You then must be wondering, what am I going to write here? Don’t scratch your head too much and just read this blog-post till the end!
Let me tell you something about Thomas Carter, a basketball coach who grappled with controversies because of his strict discipline-imparting methods. He is dedicated and determined to emancipate these teenage players from the clutches of poverty and crime by instilling hope in them through education and sport (Yes! You got me right. “Education & Sport”) Can a coach put education before sports? It’s intriguing, isn’t it? There comes a time when his team simply fails to do better as a team on the academic front. So, as their coach, he takes some undaunted measures which definitely help these kids do better in their lives. You would definitely agree with me on this after you finish watching ‘Coach Carter’. Samuel L Jackson has donned the role of Mr. Thomas Carter with absolute perfection. The storyline and the direction by Mr. Thomas Carter himself will keep you glued to your seats till the end.
Now after talking about a biopic and persuasive characters, let’s look at two fictional characters: a student, who in this movie proved to be the best student of his master and the master who offered a path to this student to bring out the best in him. Now this movie doesn’t deal with classroom teaching as such! It deals with the issues of identity, conquering fears, and setting and following principles and ideals for life. Any guesses on the movie title? Are you finding it difficult guessing this movie? No worries! The movie is ‘Batman Begins’, one of my all-time favorites and the master and the student I am talking about are, Ra’s al Ghul and Bruce Wayne.
When Bruce Wayne disappears from Gotham to explore the criminal fraternity, he finds himself lost and astray from his true intentions. This is when he encounters Ra’s. The line, “If you become more than just a man and if you devote yourself to an ideal and if they can’t stop you, you become something else entirely.” by Ra’s, impacts Bruce Wayne on a different tangent and provides him hope to discover his true self. But, in order to do that, Bruce must first face his fears, his anger, and his guilt. Ra’s brutal training tactics, wedded with discipline and motivation, help Bruce discover himself and his lost true intentions by overcoming these obstacles. But Ra’s’ sense of delivering justice is different than that of Bruce’s. So, will this clash of ideas bring the master and his student on a warpath? Will this student go against his master by following his own path? Will Bruce, as the Batman, be able to dispense justice with absolute certainty? Again, the questions are many, but the answer’s just one: watching ‘Batman Begins’, starring Christian Bale & Liam Neeson, directed by the one and only Christopher Nolan.
So here I am, nearing the end of this write-up by dedicating it to the teachers like Thomas Carter, who inject the dose of unity, discipline and leadership among students; and to the students like Bruce Wayne, who set and lead by their own examples.
Hence my dear fellow movie-buffs, wait no more and watch ‘Coach Carter’ and ‘Batman Begins’ for raw shots of motivation and let there be a hangover of optimism.
-Punit Nitin Kawathekar
Faculty, ELTIS